Christmas (part 1) in Seoul

So the weekend before Christmas, my friend was having an album release party in Seoul, so I decided that would be the perfect time to visit my friend Rachel who lives in Seoul. So, I headed up to see her Friday night, and stayed the weekend. And here it is...


Friday night: HUNDAE!!!

We were supposed to go to my friend's band that was playing Christmas Carols at a bar all night - but I didn't get in till around 10pm, and he was so far out we wouldn't have been able to make the last train to see him perform. So we headed out to Hundae (I hope I'm spelling this right). We got dressed up in our "Christmas Best" and hit the town! The first bar we went to we found it stocked with Korean Santa's! So we had a few drinks, snapped some pix, and decided to head to round 2. Once at the next bar, we had a few drinks, ate the free food they fed us, and then headed back out. That's when we found the Irish Pub that Rachel had been looking for. Once there, we made friends with the bartender, and stayed until the wee hours of the morning. When we headed home, it was about 4am...


Saturday: CITY HALL

The ITALIAN Mall Santa!!

Head Guard, Head Apes

We got up around 11am, and headed to the mall for a fast food mexican place. I had a HUGE burrito, and was a happy broad. Then we did some shopping, stopped for a photo with Santa, and headed to the City Hall subway stop. Once we got off at city hall, we were surrounded by people in old Korean clothes. We had happened upon the Changing of the Guards!!!We were able to take pix, so I snagged one with the head Guard!

Read to master the ice!

Then we got down to business....ICE SKATING! City Hall had an ice-skating rink in front of it, for only 1,000\/hour ($1/hour)!! So we got our skates, and got to it! We spent our hour NOT falling! We went round and round and round, and didn't fall even once! We were both very proud of ourselves. It definitely helped put us in the Christmas Spirit - the cold air, and the big Christmas tree beside the rink itself. Afterwards, we hit up Dunkin Donuts for some minty hot chocolate, and then Korean BBQ for dinner :)

Saturday Night: Itaewon
My friend G-Mo was performing at his album release party in a bar called JR Pub. So we headed over, and got Jello shots as soon as we walked in. Then we were entered into a raffle, given some jager, and ordered a beer. We made it JUST in time to hear G-mo perform! He was GREAT! Here's a photo of us at the party...

I guess I'm not a hippie anymore...

I ended up winning some body wash at the raffle, so that was unexpected and fun! Then we headed to the afterparty, Club Flo with everyone from his release party. We spent the rest of the night drinking HUGE beers, doing shots of tequila, smoking hookah, and dancing the night away. We all ended up going to the military base (the girls from Jeonju had come with their military friends from Gunsan) so in the morning we pigged out on Subway, and bought goodies (I got some Eggnog!!!). Then we headed back to Rachel's so I could head to Jinan...

Stay tuned for part 2 (Christmas in Jinan!!)

Ghamsamnida,
Apes