My time in Seoul was brief but informative.
I arrived easily enough, my hostel’s thorough directions including pictures served me quite well, and I quickly settled into some unrestricted internet access. The world without a firewall is very exciting. Later I took a walk around my neighborhood, Hongdae, which is a fascinating and overstimulating shopping and partying center. It’s right by one of the major university, so the student population just exploded the area. For me, the shops didn’t really hold much interest, the thing I’m buying has to be pretty special to warrant me carrying it around with me, backpack weight is really a number one priority. It was fascinating to watch all the young south Koreans go about their lives though, having a fun afternoon in a shopping district. I was also able to find a confirmed store and pick up some snacks, so it was really a win-win situation.
The next day was my only real day in Seoul, so I decided to take full advantage of it by once again, visiting a museum. The National Museum of Korea is really very good, well organized, signed, and extremely informative. It is also extremely convenient, you get off at a subway stop and walk to the museum still sort of in the station. Excellent for those of us, like me, who are not so good with directions. The natural light in the building is amazing, the whole roof is windows, and many more on the walls, but not where they could harm the artifacts. There is an extensive collection of artifacts and art objects that talk about the deep and extensive history of Korean Buddhism, which I knew nothing about, as well as just great pieces of art from many different asian countries. I enjoyed my visit completely.
I then moved into the exciting part of my day– a meeting for some delicious fried chicken with a Korean friend of my Dad’s. We met at a central subway stop and then walked to the chicken place my Dad’s friend had picked out, only to discover that it was closed! A setback, but nothing can really stop two women on a mission for Korean fried chicken, not even the torrential rains that came soon after. We found another place and we soon happily chowing down. It was excellent!
After lunch we took a look at the weather and decided an outside historic square- no matter how beautiful- was not the plan to follow, so we decided to go to the Leeum Art Museum, which is a mix of ancient and contemporary art, and it was quite wonderful. Many of the same traditional Celadon and Bouchon-Ware pottery were displayed, but in a totally different way that made them feel special and new. It was also so helpful to have a knowledgeable Korean artist that could give me fascinating anecdotes on the production of these important works. The museum also had a completely contemporary wing, which mixed big Western names with Korean artists. I enjoyed it so much.
I may not have seen much of Seoul, but I did get a sense for its complete devotion to consumerism, which really isn’t my scene, but I am sure there is much that I missed.