This weekend we had a holiday on the 17th, it was Constitution Day, so Amanda and I took off to Seoul. Man, I love the KTX bullet train. Comfy, fairly quiet, and cheap beer at 300kmh is very nice.

We stayed in a part of Seoul called Insadong. It reminded me of an Asian version of Gastown/Old Quebec. Beautiful, but a little touristy. Insadong is famous for antiques, brassware and ceramics. Found a quiet little inn just off the main drag for $30 a night! Small rooms, clean to a fault (they smelled like mothballs), a really nice little old lady who ran the place. It's called the Han Hung Jang Inn.

Amanda had been there before, so when we arrived in the evening on Saturday, she took me to a SUPER COOL restaurant that specializes in pajeon, a green-onion pancake type thing. I had potato pajeon and she had kimchi and cheese. Delicious. We didn't do much that first night besides wandering around the streets looking at all the cool (and some of them VERY EXPENSIVE) things to buy.

We spent Sunday going to as many indoor things as we could, which meant museums. (That night and the next day it was absolutely pissing rain. It's the rainy season now in Korea, so it's been raining reasonably hard for the past week or so.) Our first stop was Jogyesa, a lovely temple which has been running constantly (rebuilt a few times) for the past 500 years or so. I bought some lovely-smelling incense, a bookmark, and a modern Korean tea-music CD done with traditional instruments. Next, we went to the National Museum of Seoul, and after that we went over to the Seoul Museum of History.

We kind of had a problem with our next plan - we wanted to go to the Tea Museum, but it was CLOSED!!! Grrr!!! So, we wasted a bunch of time going all the way there and then all the way back. We ended up going to a terrific performance at Nanta Theatre. They have a sort of "standard" show there called "Cookin' Nanta!" which is not actually in Korean, it's more of a slapstick comedy-pantomime-magic-cooking-percussion with kitchen utensils performance. It was an absolute riot. We were in hysterics for more than an hour.

After that we went out for dinner at another lovely restaurant in Insadong, where we had samgyeopsal. Samgyeopsal is sort of like very thick uncured bacon. It's grilled in front of you at your table, you cut it up with scissors, and then wrap it in lettuce with kimchi and garlic and ssamjang (a spicy bean paste) or whatever else you would like.

Then we went to a really cool cafe/bar sort of place and drank tea and cherry soju for about three hours while having yet another very interesting spiritual discussion. Amanda is nominally a pagan, and I'm a humanist, but we're not interested in attacking, we just like to shoot the shit about each other's belief systems. That's one of the reasons I like her (and all my other friends like you guys) - we're not defensive or on edge about our personal spiritual stuff, can laugh at ourselves, and are open to hearing different explanations, if not necessarily agreeing with them.

The next day we spent mostly shopping in Insadong. I got a lighter that looks like a set of Go-Stop cards, a very loooong traditional Korean tobacco pipe (about 1 foot and a half long!) a lovely necklace, a cool shirt and 2 pairs of pants that FIT ME!! Woo! And an incense burner.

Then we took the Seoul City Tour bus and went on a drive all around the city. It's great, you get 1 ticket and you can ride on this bus all day if you want to, but there are so many sights on its route that you can't really see them all in one day! You can get off at any of its stops and get back on without having to buy another ticket. Anyways, we only went to Seoul Tower to take pix. Then it was time to head back to the train station to catch the KTX and go home.

A great weekend despite the RAAAAAIIIIN!!!

Tonight I am singing in honour of Canada Day (and note the Canadian spelling of "honour") at Joyce's Bar with Collwyn my friend and partner in Canadian singing crime. We're doing "Oh Canada" (of course!) then a little Tragically Hip (Ahead By A Century), Jan Arden (Good Mother), possibly some Barenaked Ladies (Brian Wilson) and finishing up with a rousing rendition of Bryan Adams (Summer of '69).

That is after I have named all of the provinces/territories and got my free shot. I assume this will be a shot of Canadian whiskey, I would prefer Sambuca but hey, it's free.

(btw, if you have Skype, I have it enabled now. All Skype users can call me on my PC for free! YEE HAW! But sadly the quality is not good for me ... so you may just want to give me your phone # and I'll call you.)

Saturday I got together with Kimchi Soju and we went up to Ulsan, about 2 hours north, for a pub crawl sponsored by the local foreigner newspaper, the Ulsan Pear. There were 3 bars involved and Kimchi Soju played at the second one, I was a guest vocalist for 4 songs. It was a lot of fun, but the last bar we ended up at was stinkin hot!! Also, they were skimpy on the booze in the mixed drinks. Mind you, I'm used to the heavy-handed pouring at Joyce's these days ... but still, I don't think there was a full ounce in any of those G&Ts.

But the first bar had great hamburgers, extra heart-attack-inducing delicious Texas cheese fries, and also the bar guys were bringing around plates of bruschetta and fresh ravioli and pasta salad bits ... YYYUUUUMMM!

Weirdest question ever: Drunk guy points to his friend and says to me "So, what baby African animal is he?"

Sadly, it was pouring today (Sunday) when we got up, so we didn't get to go up onto the HUGE ferris wheel on top of the Lotte department store. So we just came home.