Let's get the bad news out of the way first: there was no trip to the DMZ today. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was because of this:
That's right, North Korea was closed due to bad weather. It's difficult to be angry, though, as we did get to chat with the lovely Japanese (yes, Japanese) staff at the travel office, and meet our tour guide for tomorrow, when we shall try again. I'm pretty confident this time.
So, today started with breakfast at Starbucks, Pourtoi bakery and Doughnut Plant in that order. The latter was a particularly good find, with doughnuts the size of your head and muffins like great volcanoes on sale. I had a cream cheese... thing, which was exceptionally nice.
Good stuff. Next we moved on to the tourist information booth we visited last time, eager to find something to do with our vast expanse of free time that preferably took place outside of Seoul for a change. The result was a trip to the Traditional Korean Village, Asia's Black Country Museum. The way underfoot was sludgy and slippery, and there weren't many people there at all, but that's their loss as the place looked simply stunning.
The place was much bigger than I'd thought, almost an amusement park in fact, with its own restaurants (about 5 of them) and souvenir shops alongside the preserved 19th Century houses. The actual exhibition (I guess you can call it that) was actually really good, and you could go right into any of the buildings and take a snoop around. There were also funny animals, which always wins me over. The souvenir shop was also a hit, surprisingly, with almost over-eager staff members ready to sell you pretty much anything. Picked up a Western rifle that shoots rubber bands and a present for a certain someone to celebrate a certain milestone. Naturally, the rifle was a present to myself. There's also one ace picture of Steph and I in traditional clothing (Mark's yellow belly got in the way of a full Team Korea photo) which shall be viewable the moment one of us finds a scanner.
Next we set off to Meong-dong once again so I could buy shoes. You should have seen my poor Shoe Zoners, sodden the whole way through; it was a sad sight indeed. But I can't much complain: I now have my very first pair of Converse, which makes me cool! Right? I'll tell you what is cool, though, and that's that they cost a mere £20. Aw yeah.
In the end we spent upwards of two and a half hours on the subway, having gone the wrong direction a number of times and in the end resolving that it was simply less hassle to just go the full loop round. It is now 1.30am, and we've not been back that long. But the fact that the trains were still running at that hour is praiseworthy, as is our new Korean friend who wanted to ask us about why we came to Korea. You wouldn't get many Japanese people doing that, I don't think; I'd certainly have real difficulty mustering up the courage.
Tomorrow is the DMZ, honest so another early start. Expect lots of pictures of stuff that isn't North Korea. Other plans include the evening service at the world's largest church. After that, though, it's back home to Kyoto on Friday, and one early flight.
Thanks for reading. This time it may really be my last.
*****
秋のアニメシーゾンはもうすぐ終わります。残念ですよね？確かに、面白いと思うシリーズが三つぐらいだけあるけれども、バントラーの終わりを楽しむつもりです。そして、「こばと」もおもしろかったから、最後のエピソードを見たいです。
ピート、がんばります！！
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