In order to squeeze the most out of my time here in Seoul, I decided to, literally, walk all over it. The mission is simple. Each day I take a subway ride towards a certain destination And from there, I walk back towards my hostel, while stopping at various interesting spots.
Day one wasn’t what I had expected it to be. It was fun, and the things I saw were truly heart warming and interesting, but, well, I got lost… I couldn’t keep a straight line or even know if I’m going the right way… I don’t know if its me or the lousy map I stole from the hostel. But just in case, next time I’m taking my compass.
In anyways, I’d started today at a one way ride to Yongsan station, a good 12 kilometres away from Namsan hostel. In Yongsan, I’ve spent my time checking out video games and the free console games near the Imax cinema. I hooked up with a killer 6yr old whom I had one of the most intelligent English conversations I had so far with any Koreans. Most of the conversation was concentrated into single words, such as `move`, `kill`, `head shot` and so on, but all in all, I enjoyed his company.
Later on I decided its time to start moving, and so I hoppeti hopped out of Yongsan, towards my hostel.
…. 10 minutes later I returned to Yongsan, because I’ve found out I was going the wrong direction. And so I started again.
….about 30 minutes later I had realized I was, again, walking a bit less of the wrong direction, but still, a wrong one. But I’ve decided to make the most of it and, while I was in the neighbourhood, visit a small family park near Hyochang stadium.
Day one wasn’t what I had expected it to be. It was fun, and the things I saw were truly heart warming and interesting, but, well, I got lost… I couldn’t keep a straight line or even know if I’m going the right way… I don’t know if its me or the lousy map I stole from the hostel. But just in case, next time I’m taking my compass.
In anyways, I’d started today at a one way ride to Yongsan station, a good 12 kilometres away from Namsan hostel. In Yongsan, I’ve spent my time checking out video games and the free console games near the Imax cinema. I hooked up with a killer 6yr old whom I had one of the most intelligent English conversations I had so far with any Koreans. Most of the conversation was concentrated into single words, such as `move`, `kill`, `head shot` and so on, but all in all, I enjoyed his company.
Later on I decided its time to start moving, and so I hoppeti hopped out of Yongsan, towards my hostel.
…. 10 minutes later I returned to Yongsan, because I’ve found out I was going the wrong direction. And so I started again.
….about 30 minutes later I had realized I was, again, walking a bit less of the wrong direction, but still, a wrong one. But I’ve decided to make the most of it and, while I was in the neighbourhood, visit a small family park near Hyochang stadium.
On my way there I caught some kids playing at a mini arcade video game (see pic). Actually, there are quite a lot of these tiny machines all around the city, luring those inoccent kids to play them with their inoccent coins.
The park was beautiful. Winter have left its mark on the bare trees, and yet they managed to maintain a serene façade, and it echoed gently through the park. T
here were mainly elders, either playing Japanese chess, or working out at the various workout machines built for their needs (see pic. notice the lady on the left learning how to steer a bus). Here and there were some muddy ponds, and at its middle loomed a small hill, which operated as a martyr shrine. The shrine was dedicated to some four Koreans who died as heroes while trying to end the Japanese occupation in Korea (see pic). What I mean by dying as heroes, is that one by one they tried to blow themselves up near the emperor, and failed. Afterwards they were 
executed, and became martyrs. Such a lovely story, don’t you think?
I moved on, heading towards the great `Lotte Mart`. I guess I had to check the Tuna prices there. What I found was a huge store which has just about everything. Two endless floors and an abundance of workers shouting at you to buy whatever they are ordered to sell you. As I was wandering around, I caught myself at the fruit section, staring at a 100 dollar fruit basket (see pic). It had only 2 avocadoes,
one Mellon, some 4 apples, a Pineapple and some other stuff. 100 bucks!.
After 40 minutes of eye-shopping, I headed back to my quest, and continued to what is called the City-hall. Seoul has many city centres, and you count the City hall as one of them. Anywhere I looked I could see, feel and smell thousand of Christmas lights hanging atop of anything that doesn’t move. Tens of thousands of Koreans were littering the city streets, walking to and fro with their Christmas
cakes and silly furry animal caps, smiling and chirping all about. At the midst of all the commotion was an Ice-skating platform, built only 2 weeks ago or so. Today, it was surrounded by dazzling Christmas lights and a huge shiny Christmas tree (see pic). A buzzing crowd was awaiting the Platform to open, and already all the tickets were sold out flat. I stayed there for a while to witness the Breakdance show, and after an hour or so, I continued my journey.
The end of my journey ended abruptly near Myong-Dong market. I got so lost that I’ve decided to finish my walking about in a good old subway ride home, but not before I toured the whole area, partly because I was lost… but it was worthit: the decorated trees and the Dongmyong gate were a sight for sore legs indeed (see pi
cs).
The park was beautiful. Winter have left its mark on the bare trees, and yet they managed to maintain a serene façade, and it echoed gently through the park. T
here were mainly elders, either playing Japanese chess, or working out at the various workout machines built for their needs (see pic. notice the lady on the left learning how to steer a bus). Here and there were some muddy ponds, and at its middle loomed a small hill, which operated as a martyr shrine. The shrine was dedicated to some four Koreans who died as heroes while trying to end the Japanese occupation in Korea (see pic). What I mean by dying as heroes, is that one by one they tried to blow themselves up near the emperor, and failed. Afterwards they were 
executed, and became martyrs. Such a lovely story, don’t you think?I moved on, heading towards the great `Lotte Mart`. I guess I had to check the Tuna prices there. What I found was a huge store which has just about everything. Two endless floors and an abundance of workers shouting at you to buy whatever they are ordered to sell you. As I was wandering around, I caught myself at the fruit section, staring at a 100 dollar fruit basket (see pic). It had only 2 avocadoes,
one Mellon, some 4 apples, a Pineapple and some other stuff. 100 bucks!.After 40 minutes of eye-shopping, I headed back to my quest, and continued to what is called the City-hall. Seoul has many city centres, and you count the City hall as one of them. Anywhere I looked I could see, feel and smell thousand of Christmas lights hanging atop of anything that doesn’t move. Tens of thousands of Koreans were littering the city streets, walking to and fro with their Christmas
cakes and silly furry animal caps, smiling and chirping all about. At the midst of all the commotion was an Ice-skating platform, built only 2 weeks ago or so. Today, it was surrounded by dazzling Christmas lights and a huge shiny Christmas tree (see pic). A buzzing crowd was awaiting the Platform to open, and already all the tickets were sold out flat. I stayed there for a while to witness the Breakdance show, and after an hour or so, I continued my journey.The end of my journey ended abruptly near Myong-Dong market. I got so lost that I’ve decided to finish my walking about in a good old subway ride home, but not before I toured the whole area, partly because I was lost… but it was worthit: the decorated trees and the Dongmyong gate were a sight for sore legs indeed (see pi
cs).
All well ends well, and I finally finished the first day of the `almost a one way ticket tours`.
2 comments:
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beautiful!
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