Home at last

Hello again! Weekend in Seoul was absolutely amazing. We finished work at 10 o'clock on Friday evening, and were in a taxi by 5 past. Over to Dong Daegu station to get the KTX bullet train from Daegu up to the big bad city. Even though it wasn't that late, alot of people seemed to be sleeping, and although I personally feel we did a credit to both ourselves and the soju we were drinking with how quiet we were, we did still get shushed several times. Arrived in Seoul and waited in line for ages for a taxi. We had the address of the hostel on a mobile phone, and we showed it to the taxi driver, who delivered us safe and sound to a darkened back alley off a brightly lit strip. Fortunately, we were actually just around the corner from the hostel, and met up with the rest of our party for galbi (indoor barbecue- yuumy!). After some food, we found a cute little basement bar where we danced the night away. Despite some altercations with a snaggletoothed harridan and a scarred psychopath, we emerged unscathed into the inebriated night air of Seoul. When I say inebriated, I mean it was ridiculous. The first impression I got of the second geographically biggest city in the world was- yes, everybody here is insanely drunk. People passed out in every concievable position- in doorways, on busy freeways, standing against lampposts- ridiculous! People shuffling and wobbling home, old men being lifted by their old ladies- everybody was soused. The poor unfortunates we found outside The Vault were no better- three college students asleep, surrounded by pools of vomit. Ask Aiden O'Donoghue, he might show you the photos. Or maybe not, he was very busy being beaten up by a girl at the time.
The next day we headed for Gyeongbukgung, a 14th century royal palace, where we wandered around and looked at amazing old buildings. It was tremendously peaceful, and had a beautiful gardens attached, so we had a lovely walk.

There was also a folk museum there, but because the guys I was with wanted to go get some food, I didn't really get to spend as much time there as I liked. But I shall be back, never fear! We went for some delicious bulgogi, a beef dish, and drank dongdongju, an actually potable rice beer/wine thing. I don't know if it was the effects of the wine but walking down the street, carrying my balloon, wearing the new hat I had just bought and eating a delicius maple syrup cake thingy, I reached a plateau of happiness. Everything was magnificent. I was seriously as happy as I've ever been.

And then a parade came past.

All the lanterns were made from paper, and some of them were absolutely enormous- huge lit up sculptures painted in beautiful colours. We headed back to the hostel to regroup, before going for some excellent galbi- this time delicious beef. Yum. A few drinking games later, we tore up the floor in a nightclub, and then asked a select group of newfound friends (basically everyone we'd met) to join us for some noraebang. Which they did.
The next day was a little rough alright, and we didn't really get to make paper lanterns as we'd been planning, but the stalls in the street were unreal, with loads of Buddhists from different countries represented. We went to a large temple festooned with lanterns, and I bought the monks some rice.

The parade was starting soon, so after some Indian food, and encountering a few more Irish people, we settled in to watch. If I had thought the floats the day before were amazing, this melted my mind. I'd say there were easily fifty thousand people marching, and who knows how many more watching.

We snuck up to the front for the after parade show, which consisted of drummers, dancers and singers, pop and traditional alike, fireworks and huge jets of flame from the stage. Then everyone was standing up, I assumed to go home. But no, I was grabbed at either hand by two middle aged Korean women, and flung around in a circle, singing and dancing. What followed was the most energetic, surreal helter skelter of a conga line I have ever been part of. If Jack Kerouac had ever played ring a ring a rosies, he would have played it like this. I gave and recieved more high fives in that half hour than ever before in my life. And all the while there was a group of dancers on the stage, telling us what to do. We didn't understand, but we could sure as hell copy their actions. So, withall the cameras in Seoul watching us, and with all the noise and confetti of a Flaming Lips gig, we danced and laughed and danced and laughed. It was amazing. These Buddhists sure know how to thow a party. And clean up afterwards, for that matter. A little over an hour later, there was no sign of there having been a parade at all- everybody was gone, streets were cleared, floats being packed away. It was surreal. If it were Ireland, the guards would still have been carrying people off the street and the place would have been a mess of beer cans and puke. And you can drink on the street here!
Coming back by bullet train this morning was pretty rough, but I managed to study a little Korean- I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of the alphabet... I'm so exhausted now, but the spicy pork spine soup I had after work gave me just enough energy to come and write this. But I'm sure as hell going to sleep tonight- I've been wrecked all day, and coughing, from the yellow dust I'm sure. But more on that another time...