julia is almost on her long way to seoul. school in france is finishing on 6th of february for 2 weeks of semester break. she has to stop over for one night in paris near the airport-charles de gaulle which is the most inconvenient place, i know, getting there and away but we got a cheap, direct flight for her. that's an argument! meanwhile i finished confirming our hostel in seoul which is almost as great and convenient like those in japan, just cheaper. at least i grabed my backpack and prepared myself again for the next adventure.
on 5.30 o'clock am of the 9th of february, i found myself, slightly nervous, waiting at the arrivals gate for her. i prepared a welcome sign like it's usual in asia, to draw attention in a big crowd waiting. i was kind of released when she came out with her suitcase and a grin, you never know. after some welcome time, me now too with a big grin, we made our way through the crowd outside the buliding, heading towards the airport bus #6011 to insa-dong, our living destination for the next 2 weeks in SEOUL:::
this was also a completely new experience for me and a great chance to explore the city of seoul in a totally touristic way. korea has also four distinct seasons, like in europe, but spring and autumn are considerably shorter than summer and winter though the nature shows clearly it's four differentiated dresses. winters are very cold and unfortunately also mainly grey, so we had to cope with red noses and icy toes and fingers. that's why we know all of the franchise companies like dunkin' donuts, which offer a warm place and serve tea, now really well. unlike, our room was not that well heated place, but, like the korean style, this room was also equipped with, more or less working, heating mats. on our first real sightseeing day, after one, curing the jetlag and julia getting in touch with korean food, especially how you eat it, we started with a circle bus ride through the citycenter to get a general view over the huge and versatile city. it was great but far too fast to get a real overview, that's why we continued our starting-up day with a short hiking up the nam-san, seoul's landmark mountain. i already got the impression that the majority of asians didn't learn how to go up the hill, judging by the many small hills equipped with cable cars. anyway, we had a nice, half an hour, walk up to the nam-san tower and it's observation platform with a gorgeous view, passing by parts of the old city wall and huge stone flambeaus, used as an alarm signal in former times. seoul has five old palaces, set in the citycenter and which where used by all kind of royals to live and ruling. the structure and appearance is in all these cases, at the first glance, very similar because of traditional building rules and the importance to build in harmony with nature and spirituality. we visited, of course, all of them and each has some speciality, mostly concerning how to deal with the landscape and the nature. we began with changdeokgung with it's famous beautiful secret garden and ended up with the huge imperial palace. the architecture with just stone and wood and it's way of construction details is still incredible.
during the two weeks we tryed out many things to eat and different types of korean food but Samgyeopsal (pork meat, sliced and grilled at the table) and Toppoki (rice cake noodles in hot red sauce) were our favourites besides several sweet snacks they sell everywhere in the streets. i also introduced to julia these famous ready-made noodle snacks called Ramien, robert and me are eating if dormitory food is again uneatable.
you can find, besides many small christian churches built in and looking as normal houses, two major buddhist temples in seoul. we visited the bongeunsa-temple, south of the han-river and enjoyed one half day of temple life programme including an introduction to buddhist praying and the famous, holy korean tea ceremony. as you can see, julia, my big tea lover, even got the chance to try it out for herself. the traditional experiences continued by visiting the chongdong theatre for a traditional korean music and dance performance. i can tell you, even the sound of music completely changes so far away from home though in a very interesting way, basicly with flutes, all kinds of drums and weird guitars.
to explore the traditional korean way of shopping, before the time of international shopping centers and department stores, you have to visit once one of the big market places in seoul like namdaemun market. this incredibly crowded place is a real sight for its own and besides, you can buy everything from, mostly, old korean women which look like they have been sitting there since the war is over. we used the chance and had a funny experience bargaining for a nice handbag and also smelling horrible things to eat like these bug grubs.
war is still not over between the two koreas and, as you know, the situation is difficult. to get to know more about, we visited the really interesting war museum and also went on a daytrip to the dmz, the demilitarized zone between north and south korea which contains about one million landmines. you can visit one of the tunnels, north korea built to invade the south, look on the northern side of the boarder from a observation platform, strictly ruled by the army, and visit the last train station before the border on the way to pyongjang where a huge new logistic center is set to serve a big industrial site in north korea, runned by the south koreans to create new relationships.
one day we also visited the place of my studying this year, the inha university in incheon, luckily on a sunny winters day, so we could explore again the korean ability and parfection to design gardens and landscapes.
in the end of our two weeks the weather got really nice and we took the chance to look again at the amazing view, up from the namsan and at that time also from the cafe inside the tower.
we both agree, seoul is a very special and incredible city which you could never dream of if you just know western cities. it is a city, combining deep tradition with modern lifestyle and currently still getting modern and improved. it's also so huge that we just know the most famous places after two weeks intensive, feet hurting, sightseeing together and it was just beautiful!
