Seoul Man

Yesterday was my first outing to Seoul. The city is only about an hour away by express bus, which costs only $3.50 or so to get a ticket. Very cheap. On the way to Seoul, we passed a Walmart. Our new goal is to try to get to that Walmart, the land of cheap goods from China.

Now, it may sound stupid, but we (Victoria and I) did very little in Seoul. Now, the express bus terminal in Seoul is a 3 story building, huge, which is like a mall. We spent a great deal of time in the bookstore there. I did manage to find a book for learning Korean, a pretty good one too I think. I almost got the "Korean for Russians" book, but didn't want to really confuse myself. I'd hate to have to think of the Russian word to get the Korean.

After that we had lunch. We were going to go to an Outback Steakhouse. Because of the Americanness of the restaurant and the beefiness. Beef is a scarcity here. The line was insane so we went for McDonald's. You can't beat a big mac, fries, and a coke to combat homesickness.

Next we found the subway and made our way over to COEX. Now, COEX is a convention center, aquarium, movie theatre, and giant mall. We went to see a wax museum. Now, the museum items seemed to be bought at a second hand store for wax figures, as most of the figures looked nothing like the celebrities they were supposed to be. A few were good, and looked like they would come to life immediately. But it was sort of a bust. I didn't mind. It was my first wax museum and any time you can get out of Anseong and see something new is time well spent in my book.

In the mall of COEX, I did come across lots of interresting stores. The Hello Kitty store. I love it. Hello Kitty is the embodiment of the ideal Japanese woman. She has no mouth. How quaint and sexist. "I'm pretty to look at, see the bow, but I have no thoughts worth hearing." There was also a store called "there's." What was there... I have no idea. Lots of generic mall stores, clothing, fashionable sunglasses, cell phones, etc.

After the museum, we sat outside (we finally found our way outside) and had a nice cold drink, enjoying the breeze. There was a giant cell phone in the courtyard. I guess we know where the cell phone ranks in Korea, higher than fine culture. I have a picture of the phone, but it didn't come out too great, but you can get the idea.

We walked around a bit more, but by then we were getting quite tired. There's a lot of walking to be done, and very little sitting. We caught a taxi and went back to the bus terminal. Got on a 5 o'clock bus and came back to Anseong. On this pedestrian street they have, I saw two women painting portraits on canvas with watercolors. They painted from pictures or from people posing for them. It was amazing. I'm sure the paintings were cheap to get done, and they were very quick about them. I've included a pic of these paintings too.

All in all, it was a good day in Seoul. Not too much was seen, but I have a years worth of weekends. Next trip I'm gonna go with someone who is familiar with Seoul, someone who can really show me around.