The Itaewon district in Seoul, South Korea

 

I had never been to South Korea before, so how did I end up staying here?

Two reasons: Irish music and Google maps.

Whenever I travel anywhere in the world I always take at least a whistle with me in case I find an Irish music session. This time I knew of some before travelling and I took my flute, and had been told there was a good session in Seoul, South Korea. I found the address and booked a cheap hostel as near to it as I could. 200 yards isn't bad! And the session was great!

Also, I have taken to using the satellite images on mapping to decide which bits of a city might be fun. Generally straight lines are boring and winding streets are fun. Itaewon is very winding and, as it turns out, very hilly too. Here is a photo of walking home last night. About a 1 l-in-4 hill!

But what I had not fully twigged is that Itaewon is party central for the city of Seoul. The winding streets are packed with bars and restaurants of all sizes, sometimes stacked three-high! Here are some various images and a video:

 I am not much of a clubber, but can assure you that the place gets very packed, and when I went out early this morning at 5, there were still plenty of revellers in the streets. And I have watched World Cup games at ungodly hours in a packed sports bar.

When you come out in the morning there are still Korean and foreign clubbers enjoying typical hardcore Korean food for breakfast (small cow intestine soup is a big seller).

But it was only when I saw this poster last night that I realised where I had read and forgotten the name before:

It is a government poster asking for more feedback and evidence for survivors of the awful disaster that happened in Itaewon on Halloween night in October 2022. It was the first fully open Halloween since COVID restrictions were lifted and about 100,000 mainly young people had come to Itaewon. There had been no adequate crowd planning by the police and authorities and in a crush on one of the steep streets 159 people lost their lives. 

I had climbed that very street several times before the poster suddenly reminded me of the name.

So it's hard not to feel an extra shade to all of the bright colours on the bars out there. I'm really loving being here, but when I have my last drink here I'll raise it to the ones who never came back.