"Get Outa Town!": A Hap-chance Halloween(ie) Weekend... Part Two

Hello again!

(Just FYI, I though it better to split up the mini-novella so as not to put whoever is reading this to tears and/or sleep.)

Friday Night

After a 45 minute flight, we arrived in Daegu and made our way to a place called Camp Walker where we were supposed to find a motel.

After a 10,000 won cab ride ($10, which is expensive for Korea), we arrived at grand ol' Camp Walker.

And by grand, I mean sketch-ville. As we found out, Camp Walker is actually a U.S. military base where "army-looking dudes" were scattered all about.

I was so unpleasantly reminded of why I infact dislike the military type so much when a "soldier" in a car told me to get my ass out of the way... Wow.

Anyway, through a grapevine of people who knew who knew people, we managed to cab it out of Sketch-ville and into civilization... Downtown!!

We got to the downtown area of Daegu and waited for some people who were kind enough to wait for us while they waited for someone they actually. And while we waited, I took it upon myself to do a little of my favorite kind of sightseeing: SHOPPING!

The first shop I saw and went it was not actually a shop at all: it was a old bus converted into a shop on the side of a very busy, wide street.

And it was awesome! But, as I didn't have too much time to browse, especially since Kyle was bugging me to hurry so we wouldn't miss the people we were looking for, so I settled on a deep teal colored hoodie that was definitely made for a Korean woman, i.e. a literal bean pole.

We finally found the people who were waiting for us and joined other friends and started our search for a place to stay.

None of us had a damn clue.

So, throwing caution to the wind, I went up to random western stranger, who seemed to be rather prevalent, for any help.

Two girls from I can't remeber actually walked us about 15 minutes to a motel called Mellow Yellow, which we later learned were actually two separate motels; Mellow Motel and Yellow Motel.

No room at the inn. Either of them.

So, we treked on and actually came across a motel called ZOOOO4... But this was no ordinary motel... It was a love motel.

Now, love motels are VERY popular in Korea. I don't know if it's the cultural concept that people should pretend sex never happens that makes these rent-by-the-hour motels so popular or the inifinite number of mirrors and porn channels.

Either or... they are hilarious.

I still cannot figure out how it relates, but ZOOOO4 Motel's rooms were named after such precious gems as the Diamond room (which had a whirlpool and a sauna), the Jade room (which had a traditional Japanese wood bath--not sure why), the Ruby room, and the Sapphire room (which had a lofted bed, Korean style= no mattress).

Out of all the amusing thing available in our precious love motel, the most amusing was a couple of Korean businessmen who shouted "Not gay!" to us as they left.

Hey, whatever floats your boat.

Later Friday Night
After getting settled at ZOOOO4, we went to look for something to fill our bellies. After deciding that Outback Steakhouse was too far away to find in our dire state of hunger, we settled on a traditional kaelbi restaurant.

After a mix of samgyeopsal, so kaelbi (beef), veggie, kimchi, beer, and soju we made our way to the first bar of the evening: Commun, A Lonely Heart.

[No joke. Daegu had some of the strangest bar names I have ever seen: The Beatles, Thunderbirds, Festival, and Commun were among the few I can remember.]

Under the steps of Commun, A Lonely Heart, we were surprised to find a bulging and intimidating foreign community. If all the foreigners that were in that bar taught in Daegu, I would've thought that English would be flowing on the streets as readily as soju!

Anyway, after a couple of drinks and watching adrunken limbo game, we headed off to Thunderbirds. Even more so than Commun, I felt immediately like I was back home at this place... Well, maybe not home, but maybe somewhere like New York City or something.

Two foreign guys manned the bar, serving the cheapest and strongest drinks I have ever had in Korea, while a guy (most likely Korean-Canadian/American) covered popular western tunes. I was utterly tickled pink when he covered some Arcade Fire tunes... Very rad.

(Btw, yes, I just said rad... I'm on a mission to bring it back! Ha!)

After most liquid fun, we stumbled back to ZOOOO4, but not before the 7 of us decided it would be a good idea to stop at the nearest Family Mart (Korean equivalent of gas station convenience stores) for some Pringles and the infamous claw-grab game. You know... the game with the metal claw that tries to grab at inane items like stuffed animals and stuff like that.

Well, this claw-grab game was better than I had ever thought possible, and I wasn't even playing! If you have never been involved in or watched a group of Scottish, Irish, Canadian, and American people play/watch this game, you have never LIVED!

The last thing I remember from Friday night?

Mirrors.