Right before our trip to Jeju we went to Jeonju for the night and caught a soccer game. My students are MAD for soccer, and mentioning Park Ji-Sung even in passing gained me instant entry into their cool books (even if only briefly.) Korean adults are about as keen on soccer as their kids are so I figured watching a game would be awesome!
It kinda was. Jeonju stadium is a 15 minute/8,000 won cab ride from the bus terminal so it's a long way out of town. The stadium's huge - seating just under 45,000 - and was built for the 2002 World Cup. Our taxi driver dropped us at the wrong end so we missed the first half walking around the edge and finding a ticket booth - ask for the East entrance if you're using my blog to figure out how to get there!
When we finally got them the tickets were cheap - 10,000 won each ($11.30). Before going in we stocked up on fried chicken (10,000 won a box outside the gate) and BEER! Unlike NZ, Korea lets you buy booze outside and take it inside, but we grabbed a six pack of Hite just inside the gate. A bit pricier than normal at 15,000 won ($17).
The stadium was mostly empty, although one end was packed with green-shirted Jeonju supporters chanting and drumming and bowing. I would have chanted with them but after watching about 5 minutes of game play I realised that the Jeonju team are cheating bastards! I've never seen so much acting in my life. It made for an entertaining game though, I was almost happy they didn't win. Next stop: Baseball game.
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