Waking up on Saturday morning was considerably more difficult than it was a week earlier. A week before I had a nice early night, had been planning for that day for weeks and then woke up with nerves long before my alarm went off. This week I had just adjusted to my new time zone, had my first day off (and therefore my first post 7am wake up call) since I flew out here and had been out on the piss the night before…(incidentally, the food for four people, plus enough drinks to get us all pissed came to around 70 000 won, or 35 quid in real money. I fucking love this country!!)
So when I say it was difficult to wake up, I guess I just mean that I didn't even try…every time I groggily opened one eye and realized I didn't have to do anything, I was straight back to sleep again. It felt like home. Unfortunately, it wasn't and when I woke up I realised that instead of it being a shitty cloud and chav filled day outside, it was actually gloriously sunny and around the 30+ degrees mark and not only this but that there was a big surf competition happening on the other side of town. And it was now 2pm. Let me repeat that for all those people sat back home. 30 degrees. Surf competition. Hoyeah.
An incredibly greasy 'toasted' (read 'soggy') sandwich later and I was on the tube on my way to SongJon beach with Emily. I've always head a lot of non-Londoners say that they would love to live in the big city citing, amongst other reasons, having to 'do the tube thing'. Personally I'd rather hack off my arm with a rusty spoon than live in London, but I do quite like 'doing the tube thing', and after last year's continual driving it's such a relief to not have to do it anymore…!
Anyway we got to SongJon for the end of the competition…no worries, It's still bloody hot and I have my trunks. I said a brief hello to everyone, did a quick awkward 'towel beach short change' and I was off…my first time swimming in the Korea Strait…and damn was it warm! I could not describe to most of you how good a feeling this was…It's been such a long time since I've managed to have a swim in a nice sea on a nice beach it's untrue…in fact Portugal aside (which was very choppy and surprisingly cold – though it was the atlantic), I haven't swum in anything but British seas in around 10 years or so! So this was gorgeous, warm and still (once past the breakers at least, there was a surfing comp on after all…!) and I cannot wait to get back there again…!
Anyway, enough about swimming. As I got out more people started arriving…Of course I hadn't really met many western people around, other than those I already knew and a couple of guys from Youngdo (my island of residence) so it was nice to start seeing people from all over the place. I was surprised actually at how many people there were here from the UK – a couple of northerners, southerners and a Scotsman – but then they were far outweighed by the New Zealanders, Canadians, Americans and Aussies. We started drinking (some pissy Smirnoff ice rip off at 1.75 a pop…the most expensive alcohol I've bought so far!). and the great thing is about this place is that the shops never appear to close – we were still making trips to the little corner shop, when the party had swollen to around forty or so people and a beach fire – to pick up some more Soju.
Ah Soju – a vodka style drink, weighing in at 20%, rancid but drinkable. Most Koreans drink it straight, but we didn't quite have the guts for that so it was mixers all the way (with some kind of strange coconut-y cream soda-y thing. But best of all, best of all – a beer sized bottle (and remember this stuff is generally drunk in measures so that's a fair bit) costs just over 1000 won. That's one Dollar. About fifty pence…
The hangover's a fucking killer, though.
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