Mulloskeys Adventures Abroad

Following the DMZ, it was a sleepy bus back to the USO office in central Seoul and to the Breech’s hotel. Fortune blessed Erin and I because it was St. Patrick’s Day, and we had not one, but 5 Breeches!! And we had them all to ourselves. Fortune would also have it that the main festivities were situated a block from their hotel. We grabbed some road pops and joined the party. It was so cool to see so many Koreans getting into the spirit. There was a Korean band playing traditional Irish jigs, an assortment of novelty hats and painted faces, and best of all free Guinness! We felt very much at home. Truly everyone can be Irish on St. Patty’s Day…

Over the next while we soaked it all in, figuratively and literally. Caitlin met up with some friends while Pat, Michael and I made some friends of our own: some army guys.

Next we walked the Breeches along Cheonggae (a reclaimed stream that used to run down the centre of the city before it had road built over it after the war… it’s been uncovered and recently turned into public space) to the tourist hot spot Insa-dong. Sr. Breeches really enjoyed it. A short ways away, in Meyong-dong, the Breeches treated us to a wonderful meal courtesy of the good people at T.G.I. Fridays. Erin and I are really grateful to the Sr. Breeches for letting us crash their family vacation. It was nice to see people from home.

From there we convinced the whole family to join us in Hongdae toget their feet eaten by fish. Essentially the Dr. Fish cafe has two pools with many small fish that only like to eat dead skin. You may remember a post from last year about the pool where you can put your whole body in. Anyways, Mr. and Mrs. Breech were giggling like little school children and we all were having an absolute blast. Their fun was what clinched my return to their good books. This was confirmed when we said good bye and both Mr. and Mrs. Breech hugged me!

Now it was just the kids and time for bar hopping and St. Patty’s fiascoes. First we went to OI bar. This is a super cool hookah bar made entirely out of white plaster. It looks like some kinda crazy version of a multi-story Fred Flinstone house and is easily the most unique space I’ve seen in Seoul. Sitting on pillows around candles we agreed: as cool as this place was it was not what we were looking for for St. Patty’s day

A couple of great bars later we ran into my childhood friend Stephanie Ciancino. The best part was she is friends which each Breech sibling so we were all happy to see each other. Our second last part of the evening was the famous ice bar. I had not been to an ice bar before and it had been a dream of mine since 2 hours earlier when someone told me about it. This one is kind of a cheap knock-off of the one from Quebec Winter Carnival. First you get these nifty parkas and gloves. Then you explore the frozen wonderland.

Complete with ice sculptures…

Ice benches, and blocks of ice with holes carved int them to drink out of…

Inside the place was awesome. Everything was ice. There were cool benches, costumes, lights and several ice statues including one of a huge ice bust of a man. Our drinks came in large blocks of ice with a hole carved in it. Back to the ice bust. It was complete with an ice penis with a tube running from the top allowing for shots to be poured down and consumed via the ice penis. I went first. Erin was rowdy and egging me on.

Warning: Viewer discretion, especially parents, is advised. ps. sorry the video’s sideways.

Erin will surely divorce me for posting that video. Don’t judge us

After that we all took our turn. What’s a drunken night without one Breech taking his shirt off and the other giving everyone the finger?

Exploring the ice bar we found several bottles of mysterious yellow liquid/ice. Next to them were names and pictures. Apparently the bar had a running contest for the person who could spen the most time there without leaving. This included leaving to pee. The record was 22 hours. They weren’t allowed to leave the bar. The champion and his next closest competitor’s pee was kept here in these bottles. The things we do for the glory of a small corner of a random ice bar.

Finally we went to another Korean must see and do – the Nore (singing) Bang (room) aka… karaoke. These are the private singing rooms where patrons can sing to a small group of friends. Like me, I’m sure you could never imagine yourself singing in front of people. But in a private room, with only your small group of drunken friends and some soju that you snuck in – it is an unbelievably good time! Unfortunately we were so drunk that Pat passed out after Sweet Caroline and Erin was the only person to remember to take a picture.. this is the only one. We will definitely be hitting up little Korea in Toronto to share this good time with the rest of you.

Thanks to all the Breeches, and Caitlin’s friend Kat, for an amazing visit. What an absolute pleasure it was to hang out on the other side of the world with the most legendary family we know.