Shopping attempts

This day started by getting up late - I'm not intending to spoil any good old traditions in Korea - and with the intention of buying a towel, a blanket and a pillow - don't ask how I managed to sleep without either, but it wasn't as hard as I would've thought. Finding a pillow near my place for 3 € only was easy, but shops selling blankets in Seoul seem to be as easy to find as diamonds in deserts. My first attempt to get cash using my credit card also blatently failed, yielding me a receipt with lots of Korean writing, a large sum of money written on it (they us the same numbers here) and no money whatsoever. Johannes explained to me he had made the same utterly distressing transaction before and that getting cash required a global ATM. So ccompanied me to the Hyundai mall, one of the larger ones in Seoul, where - after two more unsuccessful attempts - I finally got some cash. Satisfied, we ate first. I chose something resembling an omlette, but called differently and filled with rice, while he went for a soup filled with something comparable to omlette. The mall was extremly nice, huge and - especially for Korean standards - expensive, but sold no blankets anywhere. We eventually found some in one of the higher floors of the attached department store, but they cost way over 100€, which led us to surrender all hope in that mall. On our search, we came across a nice bar, where loads of Koreans spent their time surfing on classy laptops with their friends, while seated on comfortable sofas. Later on, while having a quick drink, we ran into an American living in Korea, who explained to me how to get to a little market where blankets could be bought at a reasonable price. On my way there, I encountered a weird building, which appeared to be cut in half by forest. Don't ask what it was, I don't know ;-)
After a bit of searching I then found the recommended store, whose owners were - of course - on vacation. Thanks to some exciting discussions with Koreans in sign language more than any other I found another store and ended up paying 15€ for my blanket.
Satisfied, I returned home and met Johannes again to have a beer and one of those amazing fruit platters, which they serve to accompany it. The local beer isn't stunning, but certainly better than any brewed in the US :-)
A promising thing to know before going to bed...