Everyone needs a day out in the city every once and a while and boy did i have an awesome day in the city on saturday. Jeju-si isn't the biggest city about 300 000 i think, but compared to seogwipo it seems huge. Our day began with the good luck of a ride to jeju-si thanks to Chantale who was off to play ultimate with Caleb. So Graeme, Caitriona and i piled into her car and we set off over the volcano to experience the wonders of jeju-si. The ride over halla in a car is far superior to the bus as you can see everything much better and it was a clear day, so we could see all the details of the peak. It would have been a beautiful day to climb, as was obvious from the jam packed parking lot at the entrance of one of the paths.
When we finally reached jeju-si we ventured into tom n toms coffee to drink tea and eat delicious home made pretzels stuffed with delicious ingredients like apple cinnamon and ham, cheese and mustard. After waiting for Katiria for over an hour we decided to go outside and wait near the statue outside city hall where we met a most inebriated fellow with lips covered in crumbs and a bag full of empty makkoli (rice wine) bottles. He of course was immediately attracted to the opportunity to practice his english and harass the weiguks (foreigners). This consisted of saying hello, pointing at mine and caitriona's crouches (well maybe our stomaches but i doubt it) and attempting to grab onto graeme's hands. He returned three times until finally Katiria appeared and we hopped into a cab and went to the underground.
Now the underground is an endless maze of small little shops underneath the streets on jeju-si. It is a shoppers dream, though not that cheap. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of clothing, make-up, sport, toy and household stores. The fashions are amazing, Koreans are definitely a stylish bunch. Though they are very very tiny and only about a 1/4 of the stuff fits me. After almost four hours in the underground, with one short break for lunch above the surface, I made it out with two pairs of jeans (my first pairs of skinny legged jeans since i was a kid), two sweater dresses (one purple and one black), one pair of awesome white crocheted leg warmers, some fake eyelashes and glue and one pair of wicked white men's hightops (which i have since painted). All in all it was quite successful i think and not to ridiculously expensive, probably $150.
After our escapades underground Caitriona went to salsa class while graeme and i wondered the bar filled streets around city hall with a bottle of whiskey and some oj and coke. I must say i was completely enthralled with watching the young people go about there lives, as seogwipo is sadly lacking in people between the ages of 18-30 who are not married with children and careers. After our aimless drinking we went to catch the end of salsa class and i got to dance with two korean salsa dancer and do the coolest line dance i have ever been in. koreans make up great line dances.
When salsa started to get a little much we wondered into Led zepellin to have a drink and find out where the Dome was. Once we had directions we were off to experience one of the most ridiculous clubs i have ever entered. It is friggin huge and charges 50 000 won ($50) per table. Which was only like $13 per person for a fruit platter and beer. As we sat munching on fruit, listening to really bad korean pop music played by a dj at an elevating golden eagle dj booth. We were very happy when he finally disappeared into the ceiling. To our suprise the walls began to open and a full stage lowered from the ceiling to reveal a 7 or 8 piece korean band. As i stood in awe taking pictures i was swept on to the dance floor by a group of korean uni students who proceeded to teach me some of the most ridiculous dance moves i have ver seen a group of twenty something men perform. I had a great time dancing with them, especially when the hip hop group came out and actually started playing some decent music. The last group was a group of big bang wanna-be's (korean version of the backstreet boys) we decided it was time to go home and after an hour cab ride we found ourselves back in seogwipo at about 4am. Oh i love a day in the city.
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