Seoul - Day 9

Today I met Seungwook at Gwanghwamun. It's been rainy all day and skating was no option, but around Gwanghwamun plaza and Chongyecheon there's many good spots not only to skate, but also to eat. I like that whole area a lot, it has a nice modern city flavor to it. Last night the hyungs talked about renting a room to hang out and just be. I liked the thought, because it reminded me of a few years ago when Seok hyung had his birthday party in a rented two-storey apartment. The idea grew bigger over night and today we made it real.

The place we found was called the Soho, it's an art gallery slash restaurant with rooms to rent. It's located in Sajik-dong, close to the Seoul Museum of History, so we met up at the Kyobo bookstore and walked all the way there. It took us a while to find it, but I didn't mind the detour, because the neighborhood there looked so eighties that I thought it was another year. There's no cheap burger joint and no expensive coffee place. Instead you find little shops with old signs that lost their colors but not their charm a long time ago.

The young curator lady didn't like us and we sure didn't like the attitude she gave us. The way she talked down to us was unreasonable and while Seungwook was debating with her about what's right and what's wrong Kwang hyung, Seok hyung and 109 hyung arrived, too. At the end we could convince her to be not a bitch and got a pretty good room after all. After resting a little we slowly grew hungry and decided to go out and get some snacks and drinks. On our way we grabbed some Ddokbokgi and it was amazing.

In the evening we ordered pizza and everybody joined in on the many beers and bottles of wine that we bought. People came and people left, some of them I knew and some of them I didn't. But it was all good people and we had a golden time. We listened to the Tribe Called Quest a lot and some legendary Korean tunes, too. Late at night Doku hyung and Go hyung joined us. They brought in a new wave of stories and laughter and I remember that at some point I fell asleep thinking positive thoughts.