BLARGHEDY BLOG

This one is coming to an end now folks. It's the end of an Era.

My body is kind of aching, but that's ok. We packed as much in to the last week as we could, so we can basically laze around and do diddly for the last few days. Today, I bought some stuff that I wanted, I finished up buying gifts for all you lovely boys and girls, and I had some of that awesome awesome delicious chicken broth/soup/whole chicken + ginseng + love & effort known as Samgyetang.

But if we whiz back to about a week ago, I had just gotten back from Pohang and I was ready for some Seoul flavoured fun! We finally got around to visiting Changdeokgung, a huge Korean palace which is maybe the most interesting because it doesn't follow alot of the rules of traditional Korean Feng Shui or Pungsoo, but was still extensively used as a main palace.

I've been on a real "Shit, I nearly forgot that I'm Korean" kick lately. This kind of stuff might sound boring and dry as hell for most people, but I've really enjoyed learning about all this history that I should probably know, and probably would have known if my parents weren't weirdos who went to NZ so I could learn to speak English fluently.

The palace is distinctive both because it's architecture was designed to meld with the natural surroundings around it, rather than imposing the more strict forms that are normally used for Palaces, and also because it was rebuilt later and has a weird european feel to some of the rooms. There's also a "secret" garden out the back, which is less a secret garden and more of a forest. It has a huge square lake with an awesome island in the middle, as well as gorgeous pavillions and a royal library with an area for intellectuals to study and debate at the top. If the palace was offered to me as a residence, I would take it. Because it rocks.

After that, we walked down past another palace to an area known as Samcheong-dong. A weirdly snooty area full of strange little shops with high prices and Art Galleries, as well as a few cafes that seemed interesting. We ate a huge, cheap, delicious Korean meal at a restaurant and weren't even really impressed. Korea is amazingly impressive at doing one type of cuisine: Korean. It's really really hard to get wow-ed after travelling the country for so long.

Then again, we were wowed moments later by the OWL ANTIQUE MUSEUM. So damned awesome. This crazy lady, who made us a hot chocolate and some tea incidentally, had been collecting owls and owl-esque paraphernalia since she was a little girl, and now she charges people to enter the Museum that's loosely organised to show the sheer density of Owls that she owns. Utterly crazy. There was stuff from all around the world there, and they were all awesome looking owls. Owls are fearsome, cute and grumpy creatures. I got a shirt.

After that, we bought gifts and such at Insadong and enjoyed just being there. Despite the fact that we've only been to some of these areas a few times, they've grown on me to the point that I feel sad to leave each one for the last time. Don't get me wrong, I would much rather live in Sydney, but I find Seoul to be a really rad city without having anything really rad in it. It's just so crazily active and alive. Sydney can feel a bit sleep-walking sometimes.

The next day was Lotte World, One of the three amusement parks in Korea and I think it's the oldest. It was closed for the last year because of some accidents and deaths that happened there, but we didn't die when we spent the entire day there so HOORAY for that. After my near-death experience being flung about on the claw, when I spotted a similar ride at Lotte World I couldn't bring myself to consider going on it. Luckily, because we got there so early, We had time to go on pretty much every ride but about 5, which was every ride I wanted to go on. Seriously, who wants to be dropped from a huge height? That seems like a DUMB THING TO WANT. Then again, maybe not.

I really freaking enjoyed the rollercoaster I went on, as well as the other rides in things that are carriages that aren't rollercoastery enough to count as such. I sat and was attacked by vaguely egyptian things, as well as things that Koreans must imagine are Sinbad-esque and I had a ball. Who knew? We ate terrible food and stayed there all day so we could watch the laser light show and have an awesome time for a whole day. We were so goddamn tired when we got home. Mia from all the fun she had, and me from all the fun and also all the fear. So much fear.

Despite being tired out of our little little brains, we needed to move all our luggage so we took about four hours doing that. We had to pack it all together, with all the increased baggage that comes with Aunts that give you unnecesary gifts meaning well and then get it all the way to the train station. Lucky that we didn't have to change lines to get to my uncles place where it's all being kept. It was enough of a bitch as it was.

I really wanted to go to the Korean National Museum I had heard so much about, and I was suprised to still be suprised at how unnecessarily big it was. It's just so... huge. and... there. Unbelievable. We zoomed through it, partly due to tiredness, partly due to boredom and partly due to time constraints. We were still wowed by a couple of pieces, some with intricate faultless gold and silver inlay. There was also a statue of buddha that made us stop and just look at it with wonder for a while. Gorgeous thing.

Then: The skiiing. Oh man. I am the most uncoordinated guy in the history of the earth, and I attempted to aim my sliding body down a mountain with out hurting anyone. We went with the study room kids that we love, and they shot down the mountain with ease. I am old, apparently. Also, completely uncoordinated. It probably didn't help that all the ski-instructors were hitting on Mia, but it was all in good fun. I think. I eventually figured out how to make an "A" and how to not die as I went down the slope and even managed to enjoy myself. Good times. The trip back from the Ski-field (Did I mention it was a six hour drive?) Was hellish. We got back to home at about 3 am, had one shot of Soju to celebrate and to sleep it was.

Now it wasn't hellish because we got back late. It was because Mia broke her ass. Seriously. Read her post. I'm sure she'll tell you all about it.

Still, it was sad today to leave the person that took us in wholeheartedly and was a mother to us for half the trip or more. She promised to come visit me in Australia, and I promised to head back to Korea some day. She's a complete saint and someone that I won't forget. I think that's a sign of a good trip. Meeting awesome people.

So this is the last blog post. I want to wrap things up neatly, but I have no idea how. We've done so much on this trip, and I feel like I've changed alot too. Korea seems to have that affect on me. I've learnt tonnes, seen a huge amount of people, done amazing things and done boring hard things. I've realised both how much I know about Korea and also how little I know. I've been treated well by some, and badly by others and I've talked politics, economics and culture with pretty much everyone I've come across with varying responses. I've thought about history, and I've thought about relationships, romantic or otherwise. I saw a way of life that is so familiar and yet so foreign, one that could have easily been my own.

And a whole bunch of other things. There's no way I can wrap this up. None at all. I'm going to have a million stories to tell you all, partly because so much has happened and partly because I'm a tireless windbag. It's going to be great to see you all. I look forward to sharing my Duty-free liquor and listening to all the fun amazing things that happened while I was gone.

love.