What an excellent weekend. First off it was a whole THREE DAY weekend! We typically have a one day weekend so this was huge. We got off work around 6:00pm on Thursday, New Year’s Eve, and met up with Bryan and Selina around 8:30pm to take the express bus to Seoul. We did some pre-partying on the bus and 30 minutes later were dropped off in the district of Gangnam in Seoul and jumped onto the subway for two stops to get to our destination.
We were off to a huge party at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, but first we stopped by Selina’s brother Khalil’s apartment which was a couple blocks away. We played a couple quick drinking games and then were back into the cold, and man was it cold, to go to the party.
Khalil and his friend Danny had already gotten us wristbands earlier that night so we were able to jump the line and go straight in to the coat check. The place was already looking crazy with two stages for DJ performances, four VIP areas with bottle service and two bars.
We got ourselves some drinks and headed out onto the dance floor in anticipation of the upcoming countdown in 15 minutes. The place was packed when midnight hit and the celebration was insane. There was SO much confetti that came out at the beginning of 2010 and the volume on the beats got knocked up to 11.
The rest of the night was spent going back and forth between the two stages and listening to acts like Steve Aoki and Pete Rock. Somehow I managed to get us in the VIP backstage area at the main stage and there we had a blast.
One of the things that stood out most that night was the fact that, while there were many westerners there, there were a great deal of Koreans there but it seemed to be a 100% English speaking party. Almost everyone we spoke with had amazingly good English even if born and raised in Korea. It was quite nice.
Another amazing thing was that Bryan met some guy who was from the same small Canadian town of 100 people as him. They were about five years apart in age, so didn’t know each other, but what are the odds?
After much partying, drinking and rocking we decided to call it a night, get our coats and see if we couldn’t try to make it back to Dongtan. We found ourselves a cab as the bus was not running and the subway didn’t start back up for another two hours and negotiated a deal to get us all back for 50,000 won.
The driver didn’t really know where he was going so it was a bit tricky, especially when everyone else passed out and I was left trying to navigate him back, not knowing where the heck we were, but we made it!
We ended up giving the cabbie an extra 5,000 won for Bryan puking in the back seat and whatnot, but well worth it to be back in our own beds, where we stayed for the good portion of New Years Day, only getting up for a pizza run.
On Saturday we headed back to Seoul with Bryan and Selina on the bus to go see the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Seoul Museum of Art. We had a general idea of where we were going, but were not 100%, which turned out to be kind of a good thing.
We saw Christmas carolers, street break dancers, a Korean rock band, a cool ice skating rink in the middle of the street, a musical play performance, an ancient temple, ate some great food at The Place and all this while wandering around trying to find the Seoul Museum of Art.
As it turns out the subway map showing the museum completely mislead us and had us walking for over an hour in the wrong direction. We finally figured out where we were going and another hour later we were there, a little worse for wear.
The Warhol exhibit was fantastic, with all his best work as well as many artifacts from his personal life such as family photos, personal letters and many other items from many of his “time capsules.”
After a couple hours at the exhibit it was about dinner time and we headed over to Outback Steakhouse which was nearby and quickly walked back out after seeing the prices. We wanted steak, but not a $40 ribeye.
So we got back on the train and headed to the bus stop where Bryan said he knew of a Mexican restaurant. And if you know Chelsea and I you know we love nothing more than Mexican food, so it was a done deal.
The restaurant turned out to be On The Border and the food was amazing. We’ve already decided that the restaurant will be the venue for Chelsea’s 25th birthday party on the 23rd.
We then headed home to rest our tired bodies and digest our food. Sunday was a pretty lazy day at our house with some cleaning and many movies watched. Bryan and Selina invited us over for dinner that night though, and we were out the door again to meet up with them.
Bryan cooked us some excellent stir fry and then we swapped some movies and TV shows with each other and we introduced them to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Now were starting our super long schedule of 8am to 6pm six days a week…January is going to be a long month…
