This weekend was our anniversary weekend. Katherine and I got together on a plane to Vegas this time last year. Oh how our lives have gone rapidly downhill. In 2010 we're on our way to the best city on Earth for the best holiday imaginable and now we live in a rural Hellhole pretending to be teachers and slowly dying from malnutrition and whatever else Korea throws at us. We hate Korea!
Anyway, this weekend we went to Seoul to "celebrate" our anniversary.
Our trauma started on Friday night when we visited the newly-opened Johnny Rockets diner in Gangnam. Despite the signs saying the diner was open until 10pm, the bastard at the door turned us away at 9pm so we had to go to our old friend McDonalds instead (again).
We thought it'd be a good idea to visit Seoul Land, a dilapidated amusement park on the outskirts of Seoul. Mistake number 1. The place was packed out with staring, shoving Koreans. We paid 31,000 won to get in and managed to get on 1 ride - a poor imitation of a wild mouse roller coaster cobbled together with leftover bits of another ride. We queued for over 75 minutes for this piece of crap (and Kathy got stared, jabbed and felt up by Korean children the whole time). It was freezing (so much for this 'Korea has 4 seasons' crap - it doesn't. It has 2: freezing and boiling) and after queueing for all that time we couldn't stomach any more We battled our way through the horrendous sea of Koreans and left the park. We boarded an elephant bus to take us to the zoo, thinking it'd be quieter (mistake number 2) but, surprise, surprise, these Koreans had thwarted us yet again because the elephant bus didn't go to the zoo. Kathy had a mini breakdown and defeated, we gave up and left Seoul Grand Park forever.
 |
| Katherine, pissed off and freezing, surrounded by Korean animal children! |
Our next stop was Namsan Tower. The "short" walk from the subway to the tower was actually an arduous climb up a steep hill on streets with little or no pavements and lots of traffic (typical for Korea) and when we got to the tower there was another massive queue. Eventually we made it to the top, via a cable car which we were crammed into with a million other people, and took in the view from the bottom of the tower (it's built on top of a mountain). We decided not to go up to the top of the tower because the view from the bottom is much the same as you'd get from higher up. Instead we decided to have a celebratory cocktail on the terrace (mistake number 3). We walked into a bar where we were ignored by the staff. We eventually managed to grab a drinks menu only to discover that the cocktails were disgusting and overpriced. We left via the gift shop and picked up a padlock and pen. There's a custom on Namsan Tower to 'lock' your love by writing soppy messages on padlocks and chaining them to the fence around the edge of the tower. Sheep that we are, we decided to do so. It was probably the only thing that actually went well on Saturday.
 |
| Greg and the Love Locks |
 |
| Me and the Love Locks |
 |
| Our Love Locks |
After locking Kathy to me forever we went back to our overpriced, poor-value-for-money hotel at the top of a massive flight of stairs in Itaewon. We went out for a meal and Kathy got a 'stomach upset'. Then we tried to go for cocktails but there were no seats available in the bar and the hostess, complete with leather mini-skirt', literally pushed us out of the door. Great customer service.
And so ended our Saturday from Hell in the worst country in the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment