South Korea – June 2025
The itinerary my friend Sinae shares with me before I arrive for my 1 week layover in Seoul is packed. “But don’t worry, you’re only busy at night. You can rest during the day.”, she adds. With the yoga festival in Gangwon supposedly being one of the more relaxed events, I am already bracing myself for the dinner & night out planned in Itaewon towards the end of my stay. Even though it’s scheduled for Sunday, I know better than to expect an early night. Sinae and I take the metro to the popular clubbing area in South Korea’s capital, where we meet our friend Sue for dinner at 6pm. Sinae selected the creative Izakaya called “Kuroiya“, which she used to go to often while she lived in a nearby part of Seoul.
We order a huge mixed sashimi plate with tuna, octopus, salmon and scallops being the common selection. But there is also raw beef and sea urchin on there, which I don’t usually go for in Japan. The dish is accompanied by the prettiest porcellain containing white rice, Korean style gochujang dipping sauce, soy sauce wasabi, kimchi and ginger. Of course that’s not enough plates for a dinner in Korea. So we also get the restaurant’s signature Nabe (Japanese hot pot) and plenty of Soju. We spend a few hours catching up, gossiping, exchanging travel stories from the past year since we last hung out and discussing Sinae’s addiction to the secondhand platform “Karrot”.
4 bottles of Soju in, we decide it’s time for the next part of the evening: the gay bar. Both Sinae & Sue agree it’s more comfortable to party in gay spaces, since there are less annoying guys trying to hit on them. The place we’re headed to is near by and we meet up with more people on the way. Like always, there are friends of friends joining. As the token foreigner in the group, I my interactions meeting new people in Seoul usually go like this: first comes the surprise, then the brief introduction with name and age, followed by an apology for the lack of English (& Korean on my side). This evening tho, a few of the new aquaintances are very eager to know more about Europe, and talk about their own lives too. And one of then isn’t even drinking!
With the bar being relatively quiet, it’s Sunday after all, we mostly hang out on the terrace among ourselves. There is only a brief dancing session to the DJ playing wild Korean tunes before the first person expresses a need for food. I’m actually impressed that everyone lasted past 1am without snacks. Giving into the craving, we move to one of the many eateries in the area that specialize in midnight meals. Since the plates of fried noodles, rice, fried chicken, etc. are usually accommpanied by more drinks (read: beer & soju), I’m still not sure wether to classify those places as restaurants or bars. Anyway, lively conversations in Korean and the odd English phrases here and there fill the room with great energy. Then, another groups gathers around the other set of tables on the upper floor and the noise level increases once again.
Feeling a little tires, I do my best not to end up like the girl from the painting on the wall next to me. I know it would neither be the first, nor the last time, someone takes a nap here – I’m also aware that I’m representing the foreigner community now. Some people apparently feel the same low as me and decide to head home. Sinae also checks our transportation options, but we’re pretty far from her place. With the last train long gone and the taxi fare peaking at this time, we decide to hold out a little longer. And so, 5 of us end up strolling down the hills of Itaewon at 4am, looking for some entertainment. As many times in East Asia before, karaoke comes to our rescue. We pay for 1 hour at the vending machine at a KTV place and I watch the Koreans performing hits from all the past decades.
The foreign language options are limited and I resort to practicing my Japanese with an old city pop song. Other than that I’m content listening to a few K-Drama songs I know and take the opportunity to rest a little on the comfortable couch. Sinae’s friend’s stamina is truly impressive. Especially considering that they will all have to work to some extend the next day – or rather later today. It’s almost 5am when we leave the KTV. Here we split up from Sue, she has to go in another direction to return home. Us 4 remaining party goers heading west, slowly make our way towards where the first busses will start running a while later. Here we find one of the popular photo booths, which are an essential stop for any night out in Korea. We dress up and take a couple pictures before finally calling it a night.
One again, 1 friend splits up heading to another neigbourhood. Left are Sinae, Chuck and I. We are just considering all our options, when I spot a share bike station. I say that I usually choose this mode of transportation to head home at night in Japan or Switzerland and Chuck with a seemingly endless amount of energy, quickly suggests to ride along Han river till the busses start running. An so we drive on the spacious cycling path with the sun rising behind us. A few “Just a little more” later, it’s suddenly 6.15am and we drop our bikes at another share bike station in Hapjeong. From here Chuck returns home on foot, while Sinae and I wait for the 7am bus to Sinjeong. Most other people on the bus look like office workers or students – Sinae and I can’t help but smile to ourselves thinking that we suddenly feel 10 years younger.
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