SeoDajeon Station to Seoul

On Saturday we headed up to Seoul with the intent of checking out some bookstores in Itaewon. I tried to get on the Saemaul train (as noted yesterday) but we ended up on the KTX. Then it was a quick hop to our Yogwan, which was a little difficult to find. But as we stood outside the Jongno-3 subway station looking at the map, I noticed that one of the other bookstores (Kyoungpoong), one we hadn't planned on seeing on this trip, was actually just across the street. So that was rather a bonus...

We got to the Yogwan and checked in (as the art photo of OAF in the mirror demonstrates) and went out for a walk.

Out the backdoor, down the alley and ......aaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiyyyyyyyyyyyyyeeeeeeee! There it was! The evil soup-store that I had written about three years ago - the one that served hemmorhage soup! (NOTE: The pictures are gone from that post, for whatever reason). I snuck by Hae Jang Kook place, nearly retching as I did so. We wandered about just a bit more, down past the US Embassy which, as always, was surrounded by Korean troops. And then, in a bit more good luck, we ran across a second bookstore that we had not intended to visit - the Kyobo. So we ate some delicious broiled duck and I headed back to the Yogwan to watch history channel, while the OAF bookshopped.

She returned at about 7:30, but it was far too rainy to go any great distance, so we headed to a club across the street. I ordered a Cass, but then noticed there were some draft beers at the bottom of the page. Using my poor Korean and pointing to the menu, I asked if there were draft Cass. The waitress "anio'd" me and ran off to make the OAF's hot chocolate. She returned with the hot chocolate and a massive shot of Tequila! I'm not sure how the waitress got tequila from a menu page that only had beer, but in the interest of international amity, I gulped the thing down anyway. Of course that came back to haunt me later, but at the moment all was good.

Then, one more club, and back to the hotel to watch some TV and prepare for the big day in the bookstores in Itaewon.