I was awake on time at 6.00 and got ready and had some breakfast of tofu and bananas. I headed to the nearest main road with busses where I had got off a few days back. The 500 bus I'd taken then was the first bus that went my way and it arrived about 6.50. I got a seat this time and when we arrived at the airport most people got off and I went to check in but there wasn't many boards and the one there was didn't show up to my flight. I went to the desks for t-way as I'd booked with them but they didn't have my flight so I checked my emails and t-way was my flight to Kota Kinabalu, I needed Eastar jet. I went and checked in and the lady told me I needed to have my hand luggage checked at counter 1. I went to look for counter 1 and every airline had counter numbers starting at 1 and after a bit I worked it out and went to Eastar jets counter 1. My suitcase weighed in at 11kg, how had it got so heavy?? the woman said it needed to be 7kg so I went and took some things out and put them in my jacket pockets and wore my jumper and jacket. I also took my food and drink out and held that in a bag as it wasn't worth paying extra for. I went back and my bag now weighed 9kg so it was still over. I sat back down and found a few more things which were small and heavy and put them in a separate plastic bag but decided that they might not check at the gate anyway since nobody had so far so I emptied my water bottle ate another banana and went through customs. There were lots of plug sockets on the other side but most of them didn't work but I did manage to find one. I read a bit and headed to the gate as one of the last people and had no trouble getting on the plane. My seat was a window near the engine again and the row behind was empty but would have more blocking the view so I took my seat and got a few pictures taking of of Jeju and landing of Seoul. There were no customs as it was a domestic flight and bags came through quickly so I collected mine and took the train to Hongik university station. I got out the wrong exit which made my walk a bit further but it still wasn't far and I arrived at the hostel around 11.30am. The guy there couldn't check me in until 3pm and he also said they did a DMZ tour they could book me on when I check in and it is 46k which seemed ok. I left my luggage and headed out to see some more of Seoul but as I was in a different part of town it was all new here. I headed to a nearby park with view points. The park was on a steep hill and it was a hot day so I should have worn shorts but it was a test for my new trousers and they weren't doing too badly. At the top of the hill there were lots of trees so the views weren't so good. I headed down the other end to a temple and as it was lunch time I had a look in some shops but didn't get anything. I walked on towards the World cup stadium and bought an apple and canned drink on a special offer and in another shop a hamburger. I crossed a main road and a stream which was nicer than the ones in Tokyo as it didn't have a motorway over the top and I got to the World cup football stadium. I took some pictures then went for a closer look to see if I could get inside and there was a supermarket on the ground floor so I went inside. The prices were not great but biscuits were cheap so I got some of those, some pretzels and a tin of fish. I headed out and went to the park nearby but it was a hill with trees on so didn't look very accessible so I crossed the road to another park and walked west. There were people picnicking on the grass but the place didn't have too many features and I went south to go uphill to another part of the park which was listed as s different park. I walked past an incinerator and went up and there were paths to follow. It was all a bit sanitised for me and also not such a fun place. There was a water area for fireflies and some art work but not much else. I got to the south side which had some good views along the river and I stopped at 2 viewpoints there. I went down some steps to the park next to the river which again had paths through the reeds in a bird watching area. I headed East and decided to skip the other park on the hill. I came to an area with poppy flowers and went to have a look and there was a stage nearby with a band on so I walked through the fence and had a look and they were ok with some of the crowd seeming to enjoy them. They played one song and then finished so I headed on again and there was a fence blocking the river front which turned out to be because they had a stage there and I would need a ticket. I carried on past a 3rd stage which had heavier music on and I came to a fountain that was turned off. After missing the path I wanted I went band crossed the main road north and came to another park. There was a building that looked like it might be something so I went and it was an energy centre with things about climate change and interactive things. Apparently the temperature in R.O.K. had increased by 1.6 degrees over the last 130 years while the worldwide average was 0.8 degrees. It was an ok place with a lot translated into English and from there I walked past a lake to a museum which was about the parks as they had been landfill sites in the 70's and redeveloped as part of the World cup bid. I had suspected as much due to the shape and location. I decided to go back to the World cup stadium as I'd seen they had a museum on the World cup I had missed. I got there and they had shops and a gym as well and had utilised a lot of the space. The world cup museum was 15k entry so I gave it a miss and went back to the supermarket to buy a few more things including a cheap ice cream. I walked back to the hostel which was a fair distance and apart from a really busy shopping block with a church steeple behind there wasn't much to see. I stopped in a c u shop and bought 3 pot noodles for the price of 2 then got back to the hostel and got checked in to room 302 which had a fair bit of floor space in the centre but also 10 beds and just 1 toilet. I went back down to book the DMZ tour and it seemed ok although it could go to more places so I paid the 46k cost and was left with just a few thousand won. I used the computer they had to update my blog a bit and then asked if there was a supermarket nearby and one of the girls showed me the way to one which was close. I had a look and it was ok so I bought some fish cake, noodles, cucumber and a tin of beans for breakfast the next day as they only served it from 9.30 and my tour left at 7.25. I ate 2 pot noodles and the fish cake that evening and decided to go out and see a few more places. I headed to the river checking out another small supermarket on the way. The sun was setting as I got to the river so I walked along and watched it go down behind a bridge. I walked to the bridge and went across and it was further than I expected as the river was wide. It took maybe 10 minutes and on the other side I followed the big road west to an artificial waterfall which had no water there but it might be turned on during the day. I headed back and the motorways got in the way but I found a tunnel under them and made it to the river on the south side. A short walk along the river and I crossed a quite high bridge onto Seonyudo island. It was dark so there wasn't much of a view but I walked across the island through the water pond gardens and heard lots of frogs at the end. The island joined onto a main bridge which spanned the river and I took that back to the north shore. I headed back to the hostel and looked for cash points on the way. It didn't take long to find one but it charged ₩3,600 fee and I was sure the one in Jeju had cost just 2,400. I walked on but the next cash machine had a ₩4,000 fee so I left that. The next cash machine charged 0 which was great except there was an error and it didn't work. I even tried it twice to make sure. I tried a few more machines and eventually settled for a ₩3,600 fee quite close to the hostel and took out 60,000 as I didn't want to have to pay another fee. Back at the hostel there were a few people downstairs and after setting my camera battery on charge I joined them but in the computer. They were all young and spoke Chinese or Korean. Someone had left gmail logged into the hostel account and they saw they had lots of exchange requests before I logged them out. Close to 11 I went upstairs and got ready for bed, I was a bit tired but the lights were on in the room and people were sitting around talking, phoning and watching movies. I read for a bit but at 11.30 I got fed up and checked before switching the light off and going to sleep.
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