Last of Seoul

Below are another 4 images of Seoul, to maybe summarise the last few days of my stay in Korea.
The one at the bottom of the 4 pictures was taken after a shopping trip in Dongdaemoon, the Korean fashion town where you have about 3 huge apartment stores with many floors in each, retail shopping mall houses and other shops and markets. I think we were walking just a short distance down the road to get something to eat but we saw about 3 of these stages, two of which were in use. We stopped for a little while to see these 5 girls doing dance routines to Korean pop music. On the other stage a guy was singing. In general it seems the Koreans like singing and dancing in public, well like karaoke as well. I guess a very Asian thing... But Dondaemoon is huge, or at least the shopping malls are huge! We only made it through one (in one afternoon), not trying to get lost. Each floor has loads of stalls, they are shops but all open kind of thing, and you can really get lost even on one floor, let alone on the other 10.

The second last picture was taken in the very centre of Seoul, well if there is such thing as a centre. It was the start of a long night out - a Saturday night and Hyunsun's birthday party which we started off with going for dinner with Byoungwon another one of Taey's friends who we had met before for a cinema visit (the new Michael Gondry film) and drinks. Seoul looks better at night when all the lights and signs are on, which they are during the day too, but you can see more the ugly buildings underneath and you can't at nighttime.

That almost seamlessly goes over into the next picture which shows the main birthday crew. After a few drinks and a few more friends we were the ones that went into one of those places where you can hire a room for karaoke. It has its own name in Korea but I can't remember what it's called. It was quite embarrassing, cause the owners took a picture of us because there was a non-Korean in the group. They also wanted me to write them a message on a piece of paper, so I put down my name and where I was from etc. All of Taey's friends could sing like they could be a contestant for Popstars, and I mean that not in a bad way! Needless to say, I felt a bit shy to sing, cause I can't sing at all. I need alcohol for that and I was drinking orange juice, so no chance there :)
After that just Dongwon, Jaeyoung, Taey and I went dancing. It was a house club that played really good music (normally not my thing), and also the first place with almost only non-Asians. I was really surprised cause the whole time in Seoul I must have only seen the odd non-Korean person, usually in a touristy place. But this club was full of them.
We then rejoined with the others who had eaten yet again in a restaurant, and we went for more drinks and of course more food! Until the morning hours. So my last picture is dedicated to a beautiful morning in Seoul, with amazing light. I think Taey and I made it back around 10 in the morning. If Taey wouldn't have stayed awake we would have gone past Paju for sure, while I was banging my head against the window cause I was half asleep, but could not get myself to stay awake. A wonder I didn't get a bump on my forehead...