After a short 3 day week I headed up to Seoul to meet with Dave and Steve to catch some baseball games and knockout a few stadiums on the list. Unfortunately there was a down pour on Thursday so the game was a wash. So instead Dave brought us to a great restaurant for some galbi (rib meat minus the rib) and later to a nice pub where we met one of his Aussie friends (who is much better than his other Aussie friends).The next day was beautiful and we spent a large part of it sitting outside of a decidedly non-Korean type bar and had a few Guinness to pass the time as we waited for the ball game. We all sat there reminiscing about the great times we had at outdoor pubs in Czech. To ad a bit of surreality to the experience, a group of Russian women turned up to give it an even more Eastern European feel. Spasiba(sp?) ladies!
After spending ages on the subway we made it to Incheon where the game was being played. We bought our $2 tickets and $8 bags of chicken and took one of the rows with tables in front. The game was exciting, lots of fans there cheering on their team and lots of beer a very short walk from out table. At one point in the game all the home fans pulled out sparklers for some reason. I was given one as it was on its last leg but I was happy nonetheless.
On Saturday Dave had to work so we parted ways and Steve and I headed off to an old prison that the Japanese used to hold Korean "heroes"(not Hiro, who is Japanese). It seemed more about hate mongering than anything else (our guide even pointed out some turncoat Koreans and told us how she hates them) and it even gave us the opportunity to try out being tortured. I got inside one cell that I couldn't stand upright in (I ain't Asian) and the guide locked me in (wasn't happy about that). You could also stick your head into a display that was supposed to show your face on the body of a Korean being electrocuted. Nice. After the Japanese were kind enough to leave Korea the Koreans used the prison for non-hero Koreans until
1989 (hopefully with less torture).Steve and I hoped onto the subway for a long journey to Suwon (a Seoul suburb)to another game. We got on the wrong one watch and went a bit out of the way but finally got there.
Somehow we got seated with the visiting fans but still had a good time. Nobody gave me a sparkler though.
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