Cold as Ice

I was in Hongdae in Seoul. This is known as the ‘club’ district. People go out there at night. They talk, they drink, they dance, they have fun, and they go home when the sun comes up and I have many times done this exact thing in this exact order. Last Saturday I was walking around with my buddy Nick and saw a bar that I heard of a while back. I told him, “Lets go check it out.” We found the place in the basement of the building and started to check in. It was $15 for entrance but included was one drink. It was a little more than average for Hongdae but we paid our cover, and then we started to get ready to go into the bar.

The guy giving us our jackets/ponchos told us the longest anybody ever stayed here was a little over three hours. “That is not long,” I thought, “to be hanging out at the bar.” This bar was a bit different though. The catch was it was made of ice.

To enter the Ice Bar, I walked in a door that is much like a door to a walk-in freezer, and, well, that is what this place was, a giant walk-in freezer. It had chairs made of ice, a bar made of ice, ice walls, ice glasses for drinks, and ice decorations. It would have only been complete with an ice ceiling and Frosty serving drinks.

Fifteen minutes into the experience I started to realize that I was indeed getting cold. To make it worse, I had to pee. That was the secret I thought the three hours thing. The cold is hard enough to manage for three hours but to be in a bar and be drinking and not go to the bathroom for three hours, well, that is another thing.

Needless to say, thirty minutes went by and now I was dancing/shaking to stay warm. I thought I was dancing. I am normally an okay dancer, but I wonder if other people just thought I was shaking. I was thoroughly cooled off and put my sights on lasting an hour, not three. I made the hour and celebrated by holding one finger up to symbolize one hour as I stood next to an ice lady who I can only imagine had been there a lot longer. After that, I got a t-shirt to say that I have done that and been there and am probably not going back.

Cold times and cool bars,