Cats. Dogs. Kitties.

Another weekend, another day trip to Daegu. We had a mission that needed to be put to action, a hole to be filled, a hole shaped like a certain 16lb cat left back home. It was time to visit a motherfucking cat cafe.

After wondering around looking at a map I had on my phone, having a burrito, and being stopped by a group of young banking students to get a photo with us, we found the CATDOG Cafe. Actually the name in Korean was Dogs VS. Cats Cafe, but I think that's a bit misleading because no battling occurred. At least not when we were there. 

Entrance fee was 8000W (5.5€/4.7£), and included a drink. Most of the drinks on the menu were coffee based (BLEUGHR) so I had a "peperment" tea (snicker snicker). After that, it was shoes off, slippers on, hand sanitizer, and if you wanted you could get a hideous maxi skirt from the front desk to wear over your jeans so you don't get covered in fur. To that I say pfffft, do I look like an amateur to you? One floor was cats, one floor was dogs. We decided to start with cats because god damn it, I just love cats so much.

We sat down with out teas, and waited for the cats to flock to me like I was Snow White. After a few minutes of no cat action, George said out loud what we were both thinking: "These cats are like strippers". Damn right, little furry whores. Customers could purchase little bags of cat treats from the front desk, and the cats knew this. God damn hustlers, they would only flock to the people with abundance of snacks, and let them touch their tummies. I was very upset, I had wanted to build a meaningful feline connection, not a cheap one night stand where I would shove dollas in the form of cat treats to their hairy cat knickers. Distraught. 

"I can has a treat, you can has a lapdance?"

"Nvm, this Korean couple next to you has some."

"Hiya guys, you looking to buy tonight?"

Barely able to hide the disgust on her face, "Fucking time wasters.."

This little one is strung out to hide the ugly reality of what her life has become. 

"Treats?"

"No treats."

And just then, a cat appeared from the mist. A real old fashioned gentleman cat. 

He's a Scottish Foldear, that's why he looks grumpy. But he was very lovely. 

I then made friends with the Korean girl pictured in one of the first photos, and she gave me some cat treats. I felt bad because I had cursed them previously. So I went and gave majority of them to this cat who loved me even when I was broke. The rest I made rain on the sluts. 

Last goodbyes with our own cat, it was time to go upstairs to have a go at the dogs. 

Upstairs the vibe was the same: money or animal treats makes the world go round, and unfortunately here we couldn't find that one old, wise soul who could see past all of that and accept our tummy touches. 

George can read hangul (I know, BACK OFF LADIES or I'll bite you in the face) so he was able to translate some of the dogs names. The sausage dog was called Limousine, the pug was called Mandu. Mandu is a Chinese dumpling, with a really wrinkly and fold-y surface, and it does really look like a pug's face. The big white lab was called Banana. I don't know why. Maybe he likes bananas or it's a reference to penis size. 

Notes from fans. 

All joking aside, the place was very clean and well run. The animals had a "back stage" room where they could go if they didn't felt like being with a ton of people, and the one's that did enjoy the hubbub but didn't feel like being touched, has special ribbons which meant they be cranky. 

Before heading home, we ticked one more thing from my list of things I wanted to do here, as it fit with the cat theme well. 

Plastic food. Note the official Hello Kitty hotdog. 

Mint chochip frappuchino and a tiramisu. The tiramisu was just a cheesecake. 

"Nom nom, give kitty all your tampons and sanitary pads!!"

I asked George if the men's room had a Hello Kitty urinal of her with her eyes closed and mouth open but he denied it. Maybe he was just embarrassed. 

Daegu (For Finnish people: pronounced like Deeku. Hahahah.)

Hahaha oh man, this post will be such a bummer for you guys. It wasn't a bummer for me, but I can already tell you that you're going to bummed out as fuck. "Why?" you ask nervously, biting your cuticles, "did something awful happen?". The answer is yes and no, You'll see as you continue reading this post. Now that I've appropriately set up a mystery, let's begin.

George was at work last week, leaving me to my own devices when he was away. I used my spare time catching up on jet lag and cleaning the apartment. So when the weekend rolled around, we felt we had to DO something together. So on Saturday we spontaneously decided to go visit a near by city of Daegu. The (very well air conditioned) coach there took exactly an hour and cost 5000W, so approximately 3€. Upon arrival, Daegu was very pretty but also shit hot. Korean summer is finally kicking in full force, with the daily temperature around +30°C. George comes from the land of rain, and I come from the land of ice and snow, so it goes with out saying that we're currently dying a very slow and melting death.

Oh anyway, Daegu was very beautiful. I've never been to America, nor have I seen too many photos of it, but I imagine it looked a lot like San Fran: it was very hilly and a lot greener than Gyeongju. I don't mean recycling wise, I mean plant wise. One of the many conveniences of Korea is that the same travel card works everywhere, so we just hopped on a bus towards the main railway station.

What did I say: Hilly. And yes, that's my normal face. 

George sitting on that bus I mentioned earlier. This is where fate intervened. I had already given up on any Buddha celebrations, because Gyeongju wasn't throwing any sort of a party and Seoul was too far away, when I noticed that poster on the bus window (you can see a part of it on the upper right hand corner). "What date is it today?" I asked with an incredibly shakey voice. "The 11th", George replied (he has a very deep voice, if that helps you imagine this scenario). "Are you shitting me?" I asked, lady like. We had somehow managed to come to Daegu on the day of the Lotus lantern parade, without knowing it. 

We had a lunch, and went to town to do some shopping before nightfall, but only managed to go to one (1!!!) shop before having to leave for the park where the festival started. I was outraged and swore to return because Daegu had about a trillion more shops than Gyeongju. Rough and scientific estimate. 

We got the underground to the park and started walking. It wasn't quite nightfall yet, but we could see the parade floats being inflated and prepared for the parade. Shit was mad exciting. 

And that's the last photo I took before my camera ran out of battery. Haha, didn't I say? And the whole festival was sooo gorgeous, you guys. We walked all the way up to the hill where the last of the parade floats were, and there was a stadium filled with thousands of people holding lanterns, enjoying some traditional music and dancing. We got given a free lunch in a bag, and some lanterns to hold by a mother of a girl George knew. 

The whole evening was magical: there were hundreds of lanterns being released to the sky, fireworks, candy, a group of high school girls who came to tell me that I was beautiful and to politely ask if they could have their photo taken with me (I said yes, but only from my good side), the world's cutest sausage dog that I got to pet, the parade, and I even got a lantern that I found abandoned on the street. I don't have photos of any of that, but I have these few shitty ones from my iphone. 

The lovely ladies that gave us a free lunch. It was all lost in translation, but I think they were from a school as their teen girls were the ones who wanted to have their photo taken with me.

George holding a lantern. 

Lanterns, yo.

After seeing most of the parade but suddenly being exhausted from all the fun, we took the last bus home and snoozed all the way.