S. Korea p.9 Samsung, Ilsan (Finale)

For lunch Justin and I meet Jason (remember from the first night?) and go to some more traditional Korean restuarant. When Justin tells Jason this, his response is, "Didn't they kick you out of there?" But Justin assures him that they won't remember. After all, all white people look alike.

We order this huge thing of pork spine stew. Lots of pepper and spices and fun stuff. Very weird pulling meat off of a spinal column. Definitely an experience though.

First film photo ;).

Justin has to go back to work. Jason has a few more hours so he says he'll take me to a souvenir place that is like 8 stories.

Ride the bus over there and we're pretty close to the ferris wheel on top of one of the department stores. I don't find much in the store that he actually took me too. Props for trying though. I ride the elevator to the ferris wheel and he dips out.

"Wow Jamie, you did so much cool stuff. This is sort of underwhelming."

I try to get a ferris wheel booth that doesn't have shitty tinting but they weren't having it. Looking at the photos now I don't think it made too much of a difference.

 As for the last caption, I did it for these sweet fogged up pix.

Ulsan is in my heart.

Nothing lasts. Not even Ferris wheel rides. So I walk around. Get a North Face fanny pack, walk through Hyundai Department Store, and see some park before I go back.

 Snowing blossomz. 

After this I go back to Justin's and chill out before we go out one last time.

I really didn't expect much this night so maybe that's why it got so retarded. We eat more Korean food for dinner. A dank BBQ named Hiru. Definitely the best/nicest/cuddiest of the trip. Have smoked duck, sausage, the works. After we get some fireworks. Decide we need to drink more before lightning them and go to a western bar called Big Boss.

 Kamsamnida!

 Dragon lady w/ dragon dog.

Maybe you saw this on Instagram. Then again, maybe you didn't.

We drink a bunch and actually end up meeting the big boss of Big Boss. Justin tells him I'm leaving the next day and he gets us a ton of food and more beer. Shit be cray.

 Big boss himself.

We head to the beach and Justin and I light fireworks off at each other. I still have a nice burn on two of my fingers.

Right before the duel.

I got burned.

Stop at batting Cages.

 End my life plz.

On the way back we get a massage. I keep asking Justin how to say "destroy me" or "please break me" in Korean.

 The day I got here I wondered who goes to a 24 hour massage. Now I know.

Finally we go to sleep and I have two hours before I need to wake up. I remember my last thought was "I should set my alarm earlier than that" and then I passed out.

I'm going to just do the travel section here because it didn't feel like I slept.

Woke up (not rly) and threw all my shit in my bag. Left a role of film and my pills (surprise) and mob down the four flights of stairs. No time to take a bus so I end up taking a cab to the express bus. Get to the airport like 40 minutes before my flight and am very stressed.

Shit works out though and my flight hasn't even boarded. Get to Narita with free time and I sleep on the chairs. I think shoes on chairs is disrespectful but dgaf. Board the next flight and I watch The Exorcist, Curse of the Golden Flower, and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. I want to say there is one more but I can't remember.

 Upside down smiley face.

 <3True Love<3

Customs at LAX is the fastest I've ever seen it. My mom greets me with open arms. Happy to be home but I'll miss you fuckers. 

S. Korea p.8 Shopping, Seoul Tower, and Seoul Station

Wake up with just enough time to jam to a playlist of the Smiths, Lil B, and ASAP Rocky. Homeboy at the desk bangs on our door again and we have about ten minutes to pack our shit. Great sleepover.

I thought this was funny when I woke up but now it just looks creepy.

I can't remember how we picked the area to walk around, but it ended up pretty cool. I get some new nose ring swag. Justin and and I get maximum swag sweaters. Think Brittany and Maddie got stuff too.

Mine.

Justin's. 

Eat Mexican that barely passes as Mexican food. Still tasty though.

RUE getting out here near the food place.

We part ways and Justin and I go to Seoul Tower.

Shit caption for this because still upset by the salami guy.

Walk up a massive hill and work wonders on my knee. Think I won't complain after this.

On the bus ride to a subway station, this fucking guy won't stop touching me and trying to speak broken English to me. He smells so terrible. "Like salami and garbage. Salami in the garbage," Justin said. Very drunk. Think he hangs out with the guy who tried taking my phone.

Wander around to find the subway but we make it. Take subway to Seoul station for our KTX back to Ulsan. We have an hour to kill and eat in the food court.

They were playing "Hotel California"

First time I see what Dokdo looks like. Long Live Dokdo.

Ride back is pretty uneventful. I get a good dose of South Korea television.

We get ice cream and we watch more Tim and Eric.

S. Korea p.7 Gyeongbok Palace, Gongnam, and Hongdae Revisited

Wake up to door being whaled opon. Extend our stay another night for three times as much. Saturday nights all the sales advertised go away but it's still super cheap. In the day light we also notice an interesting stain on the wall. Try to be better at familiarizing ourselves with the surround area (a.k.a. dropping a point on Google Maps). Grab some water and burritos around the corner.

My side of the bed.

First place we visit is a shopping area with people overload. Not the best environment for a hangover but I still enjoy it. Every store is blasting their own music or has a loudspeaker. Get sick of this and head to the palace I've read/heard so much about. This thing is huge. My leg is busted. I manage.

Just the courtyard.

Fashion forward Seoul.

 Favorite building of the complex. Not entirely sure what it's purpose was but look at the cute couple.

You can try these traditional Korean games. This is Tuho.

We leave the palace and walk up this really big Boulevard. I make an observation about the Green Party that Justin really likes. Big statues. We look for the river pathway that boasts "more couples than Central Park but never find it. Head back to room before we meet up with Brittany.

Pretty sure either this guy or the dude always holding a sword is the G. Washington of Korea.

RIDIC dinner at New York Fries. Basically hot dogs and cheez-e fries.

 Hadn't had a hot dog in about 5 years so this was great.

More jokes and bullshit while we ride the subway. It's the longest ride of the trip but still like not even bad.

There are all these masks in case of emergency in case of bio-hazard type scenarios?

Brittany's directions to Rainbow are very good and we walk down some stairs into this hookah place. A band is playing and it's awesome. Everyone is on the floor with hookahs and buckets of ice. The decor is 110% irie. Our group is on the platform asserting our hierarchy in the setting.

 Tight, right?

Justin being intellectual with new friend and sapping on bucket dranks.

I keep letting this guy have my cigs because I want to poison him. Very annoying. I would say he was drunk but the annoyance overshadows. Time to leave and my phone is missing. Destroy the cushions with no results. After 15 minutes of sweating this, I learn idiot took my phone. Most of the group leaves but at least the idiot is gone.

Brittany, Maddie, Justin and I go to this westerner bar and drink beer. They play Animal Collective. Tight.

Nirvana posters 'n' shit.

We take the best cab ever to Hongdae. Blowing reds and weaving. You'd think there were five people on a scooter. Fool tells us it isn't actually his cab and on his mp3 player I see we're listening to the Fast and Furious 5 soundtrack.

Not even the same cab ride but you get the idea.

Get out and Justin has the hook up at some bar so we go there. They have a DJ and this is good because we OD'd on K-pop earlier. Free shots. Few pitchers of Long Island iced tea. Dance a lot. I think we drank a lot.

 Do the D-A-N (kidding)

Dokdo is in our hearts. And Boston.

 Justin is A+ photog.

The homie with dranks.

Leave the bar and head to Norebang. I posted about this earlier, but this is like a karaoke room. I do Limp Bizkit again. Very hard trying to read the song titles at this point, let alone keep up with the songs.

Lol.

On the way back to the motel, we have the great idea for Mcdonald's breakfast in observance of Easter. Everyone thinks I'm weird for drinking coffee. I love every sip of it.

The sun is up at this point.

Get to the motel without getting lost. Pass out.

S. Korea p.6 Shinnae/Taedong River and Hongdae

No Internet for me in Seoul. I'm writing this after going through a whole lot of shit, but I'll try my best to remember.

Justin and I meet Nancy for lunch in Shinnae. We go to an Indian restaurant in the alley of an alley. It's very good. Nancy gets me a soda. She is nice.

They share a cab because they have to go back to work. It's sort of like a shopping mall and people watching experience so I decide to stick around. Right when we part ways I notice a "Cat Cafe." I did Nekobokuro in Tokyo, so this was a must try.

Viable business model in the U.S.?

This was better. For about $7 I get my coffee, a pancake with chocolate sauce and whip cream, and the company of cats. Pretty sure this is a girly thing to do here but fuck it.

All of the cats were friendly. These two liked me the most.

After I've had my cat fix, I keep walking around. See some interesting stores and buy some bootleg Supreme clothing.

When I'm done with this I cross the Taedong river and walk up and down this path. A bunch of kids are playing some game with a soccer ball and said what up to me.

2 many big buildings.

Homies.

Eventually my knee hurts and its cold. Can't find the bus I want and end up taking a cab.

Dgaf about the bus, I wonder if they found this fool.

Tell the cab to let me out at a pizza place between Ilsan and Justin's neighborhood. Get two pizzas to eat on the fly before the train to Seoul.

I guess they do this at all the pizza places but for a second I thought they thought I was dating Justin.

Justin and I barely make the train but at least we don't have to wait an hour. We watch Ip Man. Beast movie.

 There is a miniature plunger holding up the phone that Justin won from a 100% win guarantee crane game type machine (It's not 100%).

Justin's friend Austin meets us at the station. His girlfriend owns a bunch of bars so we head to Hongdae.

We find a cheap motel thing (called Hotel Plus+ or Full house depending on where you entered) and leave our bags.

First sign of true luxury.

Go to a bar called Blue Monkey and get some VIP treatment. Here you can straight up order a bottle of Jack. It's awesome. We split one between the three of us and play some pool.

 Had the flaming Blue Monkey shot with four types of alcohol. Not bad. Not good either.

One bottle of Jack, plz.

Austin said he went out the night before and decides to dip. It's like 3AM so we say bye and hit a Korean BBQ.

Here it gets really exciting. Cold as shit and we can't find our motel. Wander for an hour. Sun starting to come up. I see a refrigerator I noticed earlier that night and we find our way back. Relief.