Over the past week I started to realise that I really need a phone in Korea. Even if just for safety. So today’s mission: getting a Korean phone.
We went to DongDaeMun again (the same place that we were at yesterday evening and also the place where Kiki bought her mobile). There they sell second hand mobile phones in mass, so we went and I picked out one that seemed ok and not too expensive and bought it. I paid 60,000 won (300 danish crowns) for the phone with an extra battery and prepaid service. It turns out that I am too young in South Korea to buy a phone (that really made me laugh) so Kiki was kind enough to let me put the phone in her name.
After buying the phone we walked around in mid DongDaeMun and just looked around at the different kind of events set up, like a model contest, a couple of other contests and some attractions and smaller markets. Attractions like this one. I think this kind of thing can only exist in Korea: a crazy ride with no seat belts and a ‘sadistic’ ride controller.
After having looked around town for a bit we headed to the markets to look around and also to find a Korean-style mattress for Kiki because she thinks that the bed is terrible. I reckon that I have lived in student accommodations for too many years to notice how bad the bed is. This one is actually one of the better student accommodation beds that I have had.
The first market that we went through only sold clothes, hats and towels. The second market was a food market mainly selling seaweed and fish like sardines. I usually feel that markets like that smell really terrible but for some reason I didn’t dislike the smell of this market, even though Kiki complained (and I am the one with the sensitive nose). The third one (that we found after having abandoned the search for a mattress) finally had what we were searching for. We went around a couple of small shops to see the different prices and qualities and Kiki ended up buying a thick korean-style mattress for 30,000 won (150 danish crowns). If that doesn’t make her bed better then no mattress here in Korea will.
We headed back to mid DongDaemun afterwards in order to get a korean-style hotdog. I say korean-style because when thinking hot dog most western people will probably think of the American-style one: a bread with sausage and mustard, but the korean hot dog is quite different. It is a sausage on a stick cooked with some potato wrap around it and topped with a bit of ketchup, honestly: it was delicious! We went to the Cheonggyecheon stream to eat our hotdogs and just talked for several hours while watching the water show and the different people at the stream: lots of fun.
Tomorrow I’m heading out to Namsan Tower. I think I will most probably go alone since Kiki has already gone 2-3 times and wants to use tomorrow to study for Monday. Now that I have a phone it will be easier for me to go out on my own. Not that South Korea is a dangerous place, actually quite the contrary, I have never felt more safe in any big city than in Seoul. No one that I have met here yet feels that Seoul is dangerous, we haven’t avoided any places of town, and even if one takes out a wallet filled with money in the middle of the street there seems to be no threat at all (not that I have done this myself that often, but I have seen many people do it). I never have to worry about my bag as much as I do in Europe, and the only dangerous thing here is the traffic (that tends to be quite crazy however). Apart form the crazy traffic the only danger I think I can encounter here is getting lost in Seoul, and that is were a mobile phone comes in handy.
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