Seoul: Round two-Friday

This past weekend Trampy Suze, Ali and I went to Seoul to see Cirque de Soliel. I feel like writing this entry in diary format, so here we go.

Friday
5:00pm
I called Ali, and she assured me she would be at the bus station by 5:30 to catch the express for Seoul (Suze calls Wando home, so she was going to meet us in Seoul. She also brought her friend Dan, but he only stayed with us Friday night, Saturday he met up with his other friends).

5:45pm
Ali gets to the bus station. I wasn't mad after she explained why she was late...same thing has happened to me! (kidnapped by well-meaning Koreans)

6:40pm
We get on the bus to Seoul.
We didn't really talk the entire time, because Korean people HATE people who talk on the bus! We got told off really badly when we went to Yeosu the previous weekend.

11:30pm
We get off the bus in Seoul. (Incidentally this is when we had promised to meet Suze at Jongno samga, a metro station. We were late, but Suze had my cell number so we were confident we would meet her).

11:31pm
We realized we were going to have to use the scary machines to buy our metro tickets.

11:32pm
I decided to stare over the shoulder of a nice looking man while HE used the machine, in hopes that he would help us.

11.33pm
It worked! Turns out he was only going a stop away from us, so we chatted with him for the half hour it took to walk to the platform and travel to our respective stops. He was in his senior year of university. He was in Seoul to complete the longest job interview process I've ever heard of. He was really nervous. He said that questions could be really difficult, for example; how many gas stations are there in Korea? I really hope he got the job! He said that he had previously 'failed' at the fourth interview stage so he was super tense. But so sweet. Oh, lately I've just wanted to hug everyone I see.

12:00am
Ali and I arrive at Jongno samga. We had decided to stop at this random metro station, and then meet Suze and Dan aboveground. We were aware that subways generally have more than one exit, so we were prepared to look across the street to try and find Suze and Dan. We were NOT prepared for this particular stupid random metro station to have SEVENTEEN exits, spanning three city blocks. Opps. Oh well. Suze had our number. So Ali and I exited the subway in search of accomodations for the night, and something to eat as we had skipped supper.

12:05am
Ali and I realize we are quite possibly in the most sketchy, dangerous area of Seoul that ever existed. We exited the subway in a dark circle, with small roads and alleys jetting out from every which direction. We stuck our thumbs up our noses and stared until we were approached by a tall drunk man in a business suit.
"May I help you?"
"What kind help you need?"
Ali and I told him we didn't need any help, and resolved to stop looking like stupid tourists. We set off purposly down the widest alley with the most neon.

12:10am
Realize our surroundings have gone from sketchy to supersketchy. With the exceptions of Ali and myself every single person on the street is a drunk Korean male wearing a black business suit. And when I say drunk..I mean staggering, puking, yelling
D R U N K.
oops.

12:15am
Ali and I quickly backtrack. We eventually find the main road, and somewhere to eat. We walk into the restaurant. The manager looks TERRIFIED. Obviously not a lot of tourists come to this area. I didn't think he was going to let us in at first. He says: "Ah....Table...Very VERy small". Well, ok. We'll take a small table...

12:20am
After looking over the menu (that was in Korean and English), and veto-ing options like: 'gizzard and vegetables', 'spicy chicken feet', and 'silk larvae'. We decided on a spicy seafood soup and blended strawberry soju. Thankfully, Suze and Dan called, so they were able to join our feast.

1:00am
We decide finding a hotel room is a good idea.

1:05am
After walking a short way into another neon alleyway, we check out the Sky motel. The Sky motel is a love motel, about the only kind of motel we can afford. Love motels are just what they sound like. We might call them HOtels, and it's very clear you can rent a room by the hour. However, they are perfectly safe, and relatively cheap, so that's what we did.

1:10am
We checked into our rooms. Thoughtfully the motel provided us with giant bottles of lotion, hair gel, a comb and brush (used, of course) and bathrobes. We went to sleep immediately, and roasted as our rooms were heated to a sexy 25C.