Changing Money

We alighted from the ferry around 10:00 AM at Busan, on the south-east coast of South Korea. Met Seamus's buddy, Shane from Carlow, who was to meet up with some others at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Soeul, where the FAI officials were staying, and where the tickets were on sale. Now we just needed some Korean money, but there was a long queue at the money-changer in the ferry building, and it didn't seem to be moving. Obtained the location of a nearby bank from the tourist information desk and headed there. However, we still had a wait the best part of an hour to obtain our won. Don't know why it takes so long to change money here and in Japan—and you also need to supply personal details like name and passport number, even when changing the smallest amounts of cash. Later that day I changed money at the Westin hotel, which took approximately two minutes.

Busan to Seoul

We then took a taxi to the train station—taxis appear to be cheap in Korea, minimum charge being 1,500 won. The tickets to Seoul cost around 70,000 won, as far as I recall, and the trip took about five hours.

On the train met two Irish fans John and a friend who had a copy of the Lonely Planet guide to Korea, which I perused to get some background on the country and on Seoul.

From the Westin Chosun to the Sea Wha Motel

Upon our arrival met up again with Seamus and Shane, and made our way on foot to the Westin Chosun hotel, one of the top hotels in Seoul, which is near City Hall in the centre of the city.

The FAI officials were stationed just inside the entrance of the hotel, and there was no problem picking up tickets (as long as you had $100 cash in won or US dollars). At the Westin hotel Terry, from the Dublin Liberties, joined us.

There's an Irish bar in the Westin, O'Kim's, but the drinks are on the expensive side—9,000 won for a pint of lager and an exorbitant 18,000 for a Guinness. On the TV we watched the conclusion of the Germany-Paraguay game, the second-round game of the championship. It was a lackluster encounter—both captains were goalkeepers—and it wasn't until the 88th minute that Oliver Neuville picked up a cross from Bayer Leverkusen teammate Bernd Schneider and smashed the ball past goalie Jose Luis Chilavert. Before that Chilavert had come out of goal to take a penalty kick, but he put it over the bar.

Next on TV was the concluding stage of the rugby match between Ireland and New Zealand in New Zealand, which the host country won.

Then we had to find a hotel. I had a number of addresses noted from the Lonely Planet book, in the vicinity of Tapgol Park, so we headed there and stopped off at a tourist information kiosk where the official phoned and reserved places in a nearby "motel". The son of the owner (or manageress, I'm not sure which) picked us up and drove us to the place, Sea Wha motel. After we checked in he took Seamus and myself to the station to pick up the luggage. Told us his mother had to go into hospital—she had cancer. On the streets, many are wearing red Korean jerseys and Korean flags and World Cup souvenirs are on sale everywhere. The Koreans are obviously glad of their success so far in the tournament.

The Korean Restaurant

In the meantime the others had headed off with a couple we met in the hotel, Niall (from Dublin) and Louise (from Sligo), to a nearby restaurant to watch the England-Denmark game. By the time Seamus and I got there, England were already leading 3-0, and it wasn't even half-time. This remained the final score. Ferdinand, Heskey and Owen scored, which brought England into the quarter finals for the first time in 12 years.

Now to the eats, and drinks. We were drinking large pitchers of beer for 9000 won, but some bottles ended up on the table too. Traditionally in this country bottles get passed around, with everyone serving each other: except with familiar friends, it is customary that you don't pour for yourself.

Over innumerable courses brought on huge plates we had a great chat, especially travel stories—Terry about travelling overland in the Middle East, across the Allenby Bridge (a trip I'd done myself) and from Thailand down through Malaysia. Neal and Louise about Thailand and Cambodia. Louise had worked in London and Japan—her father's name was Don Conlon. And then it transpired that Seamus and Louise had worked in the same village in Belorus, as part of the Irish Chernobyl project, but on succeeding years, and had worked with the same group of people. Small world!

The only nearby toilet was in the gay disco next door. Neal and Louise had visited the disco the night before, but we decided to forego the pleasure this evening. We broke up at midnight. Seamus still had a few tickets to get rid of, so he went off with Shane to look for Shane's mates. Terry, Louise and Niall headed towards Itaewon, the touristy nightlife area, while I (boring old fart) headed back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep.