26 November 2022
What protest?
Saturday night in Seoul
Either there was no protest or by the time I went out at 6pm they had packed up and gone home. There were thousands of police with coloured waving wands, and riot shields, but no protesters. I heard patriotic music and people yelling the same word in groups of 3 before I went out but it all seemed to have come to a sudden halt.
Maybe Korea is playing in the world cup again.
So instead of charging through a protest I just wandered around the local area, and got turned away from many restaurants, because they were closing! Closing time for a lot of places seemed to be 8pm. I normally eat before then, but due to train rides taking a long time today my whole schedule was off.
Of course, all the bars and beer halls and plastic chair yabby eating establishments do not even open until 10pm, so it is not like there is nowhere to eat, there is just a cutover from first dinner to drunk dinner.
At first my goal was to avoid the protest, so I went underground and came up by the department stores. The other night I showed the Shinsagae xmas lights, tonight Lotte. Shinsagae is the easy winner.
In third place, this backpacker hostel.
The catholic cathedral gets into the act by not only having lights, but also a choir.
Here are the plastic chair outdoor yabby eating places. I think thats what they eat anyway, some kind of shellfish. Whatever they eat, it seems to be a late night only activity.
I found myself at the famous stream, and decided to head along at stream level towards the protest area, where I confirmed it was all over.
This is a church. The building serves no purpose other than to show all the other churches that this church has more money than they do.
And for my after 8pm dinner that was not fried chicken or Korean bbq, Yukgaejang. Basically a spicy beef based soup, but I got the extra variety of mushrooms version. Apparently, a cuisine from the royal court. So now I am royal.
No hiking tomorrow, no plan, yeah.