Day 13 : Baseball

Two main goals today.

A cruise on the Han River.
Korean baseball at Jamsil Stadium.

I can report that I got my Korean baseball experience.

Today is a public holiday in Korea. Apparently most of the world also has the day off. Australia - predictably - does not. So the first few hours were spent at the Airbnb, Krissi on video calls and both of us on laptops.

Eventually we made our way to Yeouido - Seoul's financial centre, regularly referred to as the Manhattan of Seoul. The comparison holds. Skyscrapers, parks, a river on all sides.

We stumbled into the Seoul Spring Festival without meaning to. It had a giant tethered balloon, street food, and corporate pop ups.

One interesting observation - a street vendor surrounded - completely boxed in - by signs placed by the police about illegal trading. He'd stopped selling. But apparently he wasn't allowed to leave either. Just sitting there waiting for some kind of resolution.

We never found out how it ended.

Then the river cruise - about an hour on the Han, The highlight was the seagull feeding, which the tourists absolutely loved. Seagulls as a tourist attraction. They should come to Glenelg.

From there, train to the sports precinct and into the ticket queue at Jamsil Stadium. We had hope. We had time. We had maybe twenty people ahead of us.

They sold out.

Gutted doesn't cover it. I bought a hat. Got a photo in front of the stadium.

Regrouped. Caught a train to Dongdaemun - markets, outlet mall, Joe's Juice. Krissi bought two pairs of glasses. Life goes on.

Dropped the kids back at the Airbnb and headed out, just the two of us, for Korean BBQ. Pork belly on the grill, Kelly's beer, banchan covering every spare centimetre of the table. Pork, and more pork.

Wandering back afterward, we stumbled across an entire buzzing strip of bars, restaurants and shops - neon signs, packed footpaths, Friday night in full swing. About 500 metres from our front door. We have been walking in the wrong direction all week. 🤦

And then, on the way home for supplies, there it was.

A baseball batting cage. One dollar in the machine, fifteen balls, high speed. Probably should have worn the helmet give the beers I had with dinner - the safety standards felt…. buyer beware.

I connected with maybe half. None were going anywhere useful. The ball is considerably faster than expected, which is either a reflection of how hard baseball actually is, or of how many beers I'd had.

But I promised myself a Korean baseball experience.

I got one. Just not the one I expected.Okumaya devam et