About two weeks ago my awesometastic friends Ross and Nicole asked me if I wanted to go to Daejeon with them to celebrate Canada Day. After considering all the options, I reluctantly agreed...okay, so that's a bit of a lie, I was incredibly excited about it. Canada Day is one of my favourite holidays, one that has always been one of the highlights of my summers and I would have been pretty bummed out if I didn't get to do anything special for it. Throw in the fact that Ross and Nicole are more fun than a barrel of monkeys on crack and my obsession with seeing new places around here, and you'll get the picture right-quick.
*Public service announcement: once you get past all the boring writing, you will be rewarded with a ton of humdrum pics at the bottom of the post!...and this is why I never bothered with public relations*
So, we headed straight from work to the bus terminal (well...they did. Poor bastards. Since it was deskwarming week, I was home by 3 p.m., had time to chill out, watch a movie, make myself a delicious and tasty meal then go and meet them. I do love me my public school). After 3 hours on our limo bus we arrived in Daejeon, which looked awesome even at first sight in the dark!
After dropping off our stuff at Kim's place (thanks Kim!! Despite never having met me, she offered her place for the 3 of us to stay at all weekend...my introduction to the awesome waygooks of D-town) we headed to Yellow Taxi, a foreigner hangout. I've been to a foreign hangout or two around my area and, to be quite frank, have been less than impressed with them. But wow...the Yellow Taxi was different. For one thing, it's huge...there is a dance floor, a stage, a bar, tons of seating, booths, pool tables, dart boards, you name it, there's actually stuff to do other than sit at the bar like sardines and get drunk (little known fact about sardines: they spend their Saturdays crowding bars and getting hammered).
The atmosphere was wicked too...tons of people in Canada shirts (myself and Nicole included!), hockey jerseys, even fur hats! There, Ross and Nicole introduced me to a ton of their old friends (they used to live there) and I they were all first-rate homies. I'm generally a friendly dude and I'll go up and talk to anyone (I'm like that overly friendly and trusting 5-year-old you KNOW is going to get abducted one day), but in Daejeon I met my matches. Within half an hour, it was like hanging out with old friends.
There was even a live band that played an hour-long set of Canadian tunes...everything from the Guess Who to Sam Roberts...first rate stuff. That night we went to bed at around 5 a.m. (well, I slept on the floor in my awesome new sleeping bag!). A few hours later we were up and ready to take on Daejeon.
After having breakfast at Kraze Burger, (my first burger in 4 months and while it was nice, their idea of a veggie burger patty is a slice of fried tofu...ummm...yeah) Ross and Nicole took me to the Expo Park, which was built for the '93 Expo. It was like something out of an old sci-fi movie set...I'll let the pictures do the talking on this one...
One of the rides, reflected in the window of another ride that looked about as safe as a rusty 1972 Ford Pinto:
The IMAX building (BC people: remind you of anything? ...looks just like the Omnimax building in they built in Vancouver for the '86 Expo)
Oldschool arcade:
Ferris wheel:
One of the many rides:
All aboard the crazy train...
They had an oldschool Lola race car...I've read so much about Lolas, but never seen one in person...yay...
After that, we wandered around Daejeon a bit, Ross and Nicole kept showing me wicked little lively neighbourhoods, awesome futuristic bridges, buildings, etc, then we headed to the opening of a foreigner restaurant serving Mexican food. Kinda funny being a Hungarian-Canadian eating Mexican food in Korea...doesn't get much more culturally diverse than that!
After that, we bummed around the area for an hour or two (I absolutely loved it...it has such a positive vibe...and...and...AND....I saw a brand-spankin' new Nissan GT-R...dayumm....after being surrounded by Kias and Hyundais for 4 months, it was nice to see a real car). Then we yo-yoed back and forth between the Yellow Taxi and the Mexican place, which turned into a dance bar after hours...again, I met a ton of cool new people, including Petra, with whom I had way too much in common...I mean her weapon of choice is a Canon 40D with a 50 1.4...how can you not like a girl who rolls like that??
Somehow the night got away from me and I managed to finally go to bed at around 8 a.m. to the relaxing sounds of rain absolutely dumping outside and thunder and lightning breaking the monotony. An hour or two of sleep later we were up and running again...headed into a few new parts of town and then off to the bus terminal to pass out on the bus.
Ummm okay, that's about it. Oh yeah, and I'm sporting a sweet-ass moustache right now. I'm not gonna lie, it's really sexy. I'm not sure how I'll be able to fight off the hordes of girls who will want to feel the sensuous tickle of my cookie duster on their various body parts. Oh yeah. Ladies of Korea...watch out.
Also...Daejeon watch out...I really liked you. We should do this again. For reals. We can be friends only, if you want, but I really want to see you again. Okay, well now I'm just sounding silly. Soo...umm...Daejeon...umm...you have my number. Call me. *Click.*
T
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