Where's My Head Gone?

Ahhh Sunday, the day I look forward to going exploring in the massive city I decided to call home for the time being. Truth be told I spend alot of time here alone. Ms D is out doing her thing and I could sit at home doing nothing or go exploring. Today I really wanted to go and it's raining :(
ohh by the way I wore shorts out and about yesterday...pretty good for November 28th

Anyhow in other news I joined the gym in the basement of our building, the first time in my life I actually owned a gym membership. It's been good so far, it has all the work out stuff you can imagine, a sauna with a 짐실봉 (a bunch of whirl pools with different stuff in em) The best part is nobody is ever in the gym and all I have to do is hop in the elevator and I'm there!
Fell off the no-beer wagon this weekend but at least I rained it in a little It's a bumpy road in a country that loves to over indulge in alcoholic beverages!
Been trying to learn some stuff on the guitar it's not going that well Internet guitar lessons can only take you so far I guess.... I'm plunkin away at er and I might try to find a place in our area to take some lessons offered in English of course>> this should be interesting.

I also learned and I'm not sure how true it is but Korean kids have a slang term for budding into a line they call it "hit the bird" I kind of like it and have now adopted the saying as my own after all it was a guy named Sean that told me about it!

Styrofoam Coffee Cups

This is the path that goes all the way to Seoul. I'm guessing just under 40km from end to end. Went for a few good hikes down here but not all the way but I bet you coulda guessed that!

Alleyways always look better to the naked eye than on film??

Taken in Dongdaemun

I asked him for a ride but my Korean is the shits Guess who's still walking

North Korea demonstration in Insadong. Koreans love to protest. This one is about the fact that people are starving and people are being executed publicly just 40 km north of Seoul.

A good protest I say!

I know what the pho!
If you really wanna know

You have to go.....

Sean - 션

Random sightings in my daily travels;

I particularly like the Flu gun, a booth you walk through
and get sprayed with chemicals to prevent the flu!

Lets just say, I walked around it and am prepared to take my chances!

Giraffes in the river

Back ally in Seoul

Chemicals anyone??

After a long day of exploring I like to go to the Kinema! Close to here is the fire chicken restaurant I once told you about.....

I think I'm ready for another round of SUPER spicy tasty chicken!

I don't even know what these pizza girls are about but the picture looked good at the time!

Big Old Jet Airliner

Well I had another birthday this past Friday
Was a good time had by all

Teri Stewart bought me a guitar, so it's official I

own two guitars and can't play a single chord

I'm learning slowly thank god for Internet guitar lessons...

Speaking of lessons, I am having alot of trouble finding Korean lessons

that are close to home and also free, I found some but there far away

79 minutes one way to be exact, still lookin but so far no luck!

I'm getting older, and not wiser despite many attempts.

Feels Like Time Ain't Time At All

I have a new phobia
Bridges...yup with cars on em
Not crossing them, but going underneath on the walking path
6 lanes of traffic are above maybe a subway car?
Out for a walk today and this new phobia hit, had visions of the bridge crumbling
or collapsing as I walked under
I started thinkin, as I walked a little faster
Korea is a country with not alot of space and a shit load of people
so they build things up as there is not enough room to build flat
30 story apartment buildings are common and to give a better example
We live in a building that has 12 floors of apartments above ground
It also has 7 floors below street level
A parking garage, Sauna, and who knows what else is down there.
Some subway stations are about 8 stories underground
you know when your there because to catch your train or transfer to a different train
requires alot of stairs to go down
Complete shopping malls that go for blocks and blocks all underground
My point is sometimes you don't know if your actually on "ground level"
Take an escalator up and walk out there's cars ya look down off a bridge that you just came up to and there's cars
Maybe I should stop walking and thinkin but this is my alternative
Subway ride anyone?

Florida Without The Ocean

Had a little time on my hands and decided to venture up to a "tourist attraction" in Northwest Seoul called Seodaemun Prison A place where the Japanese tortured and killed many Korean people in the early 1900's.
The pictures I took don't really justify the erie feeling you get when on the tour. I must admit in a weird way it was a little funny because they're wax mannequins screaming from the cells. One kinda not so funny moment I had and saw in there, was the scratch marks on the floors and concrete walls of the cells counting days, (I'm guessing) something that resembled a checker board, and people's names. There was one area on the tour where you can't take pictures, it was a old wooden building surrounded by 15ft concrete walls. A trap door on the floor inside the building, where people were hung and then carted out a secret tunnel to be disposed of.......Two trees grow outside of the building, one on each side of the concrete wall....the one on the outside is a fully grown tree,the one on the inside has barely grown at all, a sign says it's because of the martyrs and what happened in those four walls. More info on the link above but for now here's some pictures....

Memorial plaque

Japanese courtroom in the prison

Water torture

A cell inside and an inmate getting brought to the torture area

On a lighter note, I bought this mask in China and hung it by our bed;

Teri does not like that idea very much!

Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

Decided to go for a hike up Bukhansan Mountain it seemed like a fun afternoon, however
it was one tough go! For an outta shape guy like me, it was slow goin but I made it to the top!
I brought a 2 litre bottle of water with me because from previous hikes
(up much smaller mountains) I always ran outta water.
The Koreans (and many of them) thought it was the funniest thing in the world...not sure why but I guess it was a combo of a fat white guy hiking up a mountain and 2 litres of water??
My legs are stiff today, here's some random pics of my adventure....It was overcast but the view was still awesome!

Wild dogs we saw along the way, maybe they escaped from the market and headed for the hills?

Getting tough so they put a wire to grab onto





The Top was very windy




I look like a dork but I just climbed a mountain what do you want?