In order to ensure I’d have enough time to meet up with the Seoul-based friends who convinced to return to the capital, I needed more than a weekend. However, given the budget-busting Airbnbs, I made accommodations to return to the ole’ Hongdae stomping ground where I could attempt to live cheaply for a few days. After a three week absence, I must say I was also curious to check-in on the drama.
I took my time packing up my belongings in the Airbnb Monday morning, and hopped on a bus to get to Yeonnam-dong. When I entered the hostel, I was surprised not to be greeted by any familiar faces. Being too early for check-in, I dropped my bags and went to an Indian restaurant about three doors down from the hostel. I had always meant to try its lunch special. It wasn’t worth the return.
I swung back through the hostel to grab my backpack and spent a couple hours in the wonderfully fragrant bakery/cafe. At 3 pm, I returned to the hostel to check in and change for a run. The living was fuller at the time, and with many recognizable faces. One person asked in a somewhat accusatory tone “Why did you come back?” I suppose I could have retorted: “Why haven’t you left?” but I was otherwise welcomed like I had never left. Nevertheless, I hold that it is better to leave a place and return then to always stay there. You need the perspective of seeing other places for comparison, and there is a frisson to returning to a familiar location.
I took a longish run, stopping at 9.5 km to buy groceries, and carefully jogging the 3.5 km return trip to avoid overly tossing the 500 won marked down salad packs. After a quick shower and change, I wolfed down a salad before taking out the bottle of makkoli and packet of prawn crackers I also bought as a supplement. I spent the evening in the living room hanging out with guests and volunteers.
One of the volunteers needed to go to Hong Kong on a visa run, and had been having trouble booking a plane ticket, so I did that for him through my Chinese bank in exchange for cash, which means I might have just enough to squeak through.
Apparently in the interim, someone had punched in an Netflix account to the set-top box, so my harddrives are superfluous. On the other hand, the account isn’t age verified, so a lot of content is blocked. Even shows like “The Good Place” which is as wholesome as cheese. What the forks? Looking for entertainment options, I recommended we watch “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and we ended up finishing the first season that night.
A group of partiers went out drinking and I wasn’t even tempted to join them, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t drink too much. By the time I finished my bottle of makkoli, a Norwegen girl came in with a 1.7L bottle of beer. When she went on the second beer run, I handed her some cash. Despite the best intentions to not drink too much, too late, I personally accompanied her on the third beer run. (And I suddenly recall that I don’t know exactly how much that last bottle of beer cost).
I went upstairs to use the bathroom once and came down with a box of fried chicken and tater tots.
It was past one when the partiers returned and within minutes there were noise complaints. After getting chewed out, I took the initiative as a party pooper, finished my glass, hit the lights, and went to bed.
Drama Update: Other than a new volunteer, there wasn’t a major shift in the composition of the hostel workforce. One long term resident had to be kicked out including with the involvement of the police for fighting. Finally, I received confirmation that I wasn’t insane with the insomnia of my final few nights in the hostel, as I overheard one volunteer try to talk reason with the perpetual violator. Chatting with her later, she asked if I noticed anything missing. The guitars are gone.
I was a bit hungover in the morning, which was spent studying Korean and drinking coffee with peace and quiet. I had an early lunch of salad and green curry (with free rice), and tried to take a nap. Mid-nap, I got caught up in a conversation in social media and wasn’t able to get out the door to a coffee shop until nearly 3 pm. Where does all the time go?
Under recommendation, I went to a Vietnamese coffee shop for an authentic ca phe sua. It was a cool little cafe, but not really suitable for working, so after a halfhearted attempt to be productive, I gave up and headed back to the hostel. I hung around the entrance for about half an hour shooting the shit with a couple of the guests. There are quite a few interesting and friendly people, but it is magical the affect this hostel has on people, sucking them into its gravitational field, resulting in very little tourism.
At six, I hopped on the subway to go to Gangnam to meet someone for dinner. We had fried chicken and beer at a Craft Hans which was nothing like the establishment of the same name I had patronized in Itaewon. One order of chicken was more than enough for the two of us and I even left food uneaten. She paid, which was only fair, as she had blown me off on previous attempts to get together. Despite a few extra weeks of studying Korean, the conversation was rather strained Konglish with reliance on Papago for translation. That was disappointing. She offered to drive me home, but I declined the offer.
| Indian Lunch Special | 9000 |
| Coffee and Choco Croissant | 5600 |
| Home Plus groceries | 9350 |
| Beer | 5600 (?) |
| Hostel (4 nights) | 203 RMB |
| Vietnamese Coffee | 5500 |
| Total: | 381 RMB (USD 57) |
Running Total:
13102 RMB
(USD 1957)
Daily Average:
256.9 RMB
(USD 38.37)