Seoul on Ice

King Sejong the Great (foreground). Baegangmaru Summit (possibly) in the background.

Greetings from frigid Seoul, South Korea.  This is only the first stop in an extremely-desperately needed, once-postponed, two-week vacation. And it will be a brief one.  Three days.  Two nights.

The vacation flight left Las Vegas at 10:50 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28, and arrived in Seoul-Incheon at around 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 30, because of the crossing of the international date line. Which means I will never have experienced Wednesday, January 29, 2025, ever in my life.  It also means that the Republic of Korea is in the books as my 42nd country visited ever.

I am staying in the rather new Hotel Prima in the historic Jongno neighborhood.

The room may be small but I can't say enough great things about this hotel. They let me borrow an electrical adapter, since I did not buy one pre-trip for the unique South Korean electrical plugs. More importantly -- much more importantly -- despite arriving at the hotel at around 7:00 a.m., they let me check in and access my room at that hour.  That is an extremely early check-in.

This is the neighborhood around the hotel.  So the historic neighborhood doesn't look all that historic.

But a few long blocks away and it gets historic.

Meet King Sejong The Great. With an ancient astronomical device in the foreground.  This is Gwanghwamun Square. Known for its historic statues.

This, one, however, I don't think counts as "historic".

It kind of looks like that Arby's mitt that they used in advertising several years ago when, for some reason, even though the words "roast beef" were right in the name -- Arby's -- R B -- get it? -- they decided to pass themselves off as a sandwich chain. So maybe it's an homage to failed advertising history.

But there is more legitimately historic statuary:

Admiral Yi Sun-sin.

He did something historic. Probably involving ships. Seeing as he was an admiral.

He is a popular photo taking stop.

No tourist can resist the photogenic charm of Admiral Yi Sun-sin.

Not even a tourist who already has the full vacation beard thing going on day one of the vacation. 

Did I mention it was cold in Seoul? It was 19 degrees Fahrenheit when the plane landed. Not that I'm complaining!  Weather.com said it would be 12, so 19 is veritable heat wave.

With this weather, it's no shock that the Christmas decorations are still up.

My bones were starting to freeze through to the marrow, so I opted to partake in a Korean tradition: the jjimjilbang.

This is a street on the walk over to one.

After soaking in the hot water to thaw myself out, it was time for a treat. A cruffle!

I'm guessing that, like the cro-nut, a croissant-donut hybrid, or the cruffin that they serve at Carl's Donuts, which is a croissant-muffin hybrid, I am guessing this is supposed to be a croissant-waffle hybrid.

I wasn't picking up any waffle vibes.  But the thing was absolutely covered in cinnamon sugar that did not fall off with each bite.  It was awesome.  I don't even care that it is much more "waffle" than croissant. Washed it down with a latte because of course I needed caffeine after the overnight flight.

Then it was off to Gyeongbokgung Palace.

This is where the emperor lived back when Korea had an emperor, which was back before it was conquered by Imperial Japan following the Sino-Japanese and the Russo-Japanese wars.

This is winter, of course. And it is frigid cold. But I wasn't seeing many tourists. I was starting to wonder where they were.

I found out: Gyeongbokgung Palace!

And here's the reason why it was so packed:

Well, that would've made me come here if I'd only known. Although that makes no sense, given that I did come and did not know. But it was a very nice surprise.

Apparently it was free for the Lunar New Year celebrations and this is the last day of gratis pricing. Glad I didn't wait another day!

I get the feeling that this is sort of the "Forbidden City" of Seoul, South Korea. I could be wrong. But I also get the feeling that, for Koreans, Chinese analogies are not nearly as offensive as Japanese ones would be.

It just keeps going on and on. You keep walking and there are more and more structures.

This is as deep into Gyeongbukgung as I got.

I'm guessing it's religious. But that's a guess.

I never did learn why so many people -- young people especially -- were dressed in costumes, especially the "southern belle" skirts.

Time to leave Gyeongbokgung for the day's final stop.

This is the National Museum of Contemporary Korean History.

Subtitled: Why we hate the Japanese so much.

A significant percentage of the historical exhibits were dedicated to Japanese atrocities which started with the Japanese occupation in the end years of the 19th Century and concluded with the dropping of the A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even the exhibits on the rise of communism, the Korean War, and the dictatorships in the Republic of Korea from 1950 through the late 1980s, were not presented with the same degree of passion as the Japanese atrocities.

But there was this awesome view of Gyeongbokgung Palace:

And there was a salute to the creation of the Korean automotive industry.  This is the first car sold that was built in Korea: the Hyundai Pony.

It's not shocking that just about every car you see being driven on the streets of Seoul is either a Hyundai or Kia.  Nothing Japanese (see previous discussion on Japanese animosity in Korea) or American or Chinese. Although I did see one Infiniti and one Tesla.  Other than that: all Hyundai and Kia.

And let's end with this Gwanghwamun Square:

I think calling those inflatables "historic" would be less than accurate.  Day 1 in Country 42 is in the books.

Reflecting on Norm's Last Day

I told the best of the Norm stories I knew and then I just sort of stopped.  The stories were random, but I never reached the conclusion.  I realized that I did not tell the story of his final day. I want everyone to know that his last day was a good day.

The first sign that something was wrong was back in May.  I returned from vacation.  He had a lot of pent up energy.  I let him pick his walk route.  He generally liked variety in his walks.  Many times on the walks, we would pause at an intersection and I'd ask him: "Which way do you want to go?"  And I could see him thinking for a few seconds.  I'm serious.  He would consider his options.  Many times this would happen at the intersection of Windmill and Spencer.  I'd ask him the question and, after thinking it over, he would choose a route and not always the same route every time.

That evening in May, he wanted to go for a long walk.  When he was in better shape, we walked what I used to call "around the block," which is a square with each side one-half mile, making it a two-mile walk.  At the point where we were the maximum distance from home, Norm collapsed.  It was scary.  His breathing got really shallow.  I knew there was zero chance he could walk the mile home, so I called a friend for a ride home.  The friend brought towels, which we could use as a stretcher, and loaded him in the car.

We got back to my house.  I carried him into the house.  At first, he still was breathing very shallow.  I laid him on the sofa and, after about 30 seconds or a minute, his breathing became wheezing.  I took this as a good sign.  He was working hard to get oxygen in his lungs.  I later took him to the vet and the recommendation was what I expected: no more long walks.  His days of walking for three miles or for an hour and half were over.

Norm adjusted to the shorter walks.  And the short walks were short.  They were standard dog-walk length.  Usually only 15 or 20 minutes, although the evening walks in the park were usually over an hour because he could stop and rest in the cool rest a few times each trip.

Looking back, in early September, it is clear now that Norm was going into his final days.  He as eating very well, which is something the dying do, although his water consumption seemed to be normal.

On the morning of September 7, we walked the neighborhood with two of his best friends:  Mia the pit bull and Boomer the white lab.  Actually, it was five of Norm's best friends, including the people walking with us.  He only the stamina for one trip through the neighborhood, but, at one point, when Boomer went over to one of the neighbors to get fussed on, Norm turned around and ran to greet the neighbor.

That evening, we went to Desert Bloom Park.  Norm loved Desert Bloom.  We ran into his friend October, a black pug, and walked with her awhile.  I thought he was ready to go home, but when he got to the car, he wanted to walk some more.  It was the park and he could rest, so I gave in.  He ran -- literally "ran" -- very enthusiastically -- to greet an Indian couple he loved.  And then we started walking back to the car.

I could tell something was very wrong.  He was vomiting up foam with every step, After the incident in May, I pulled him hard to get back to the car, thinking I just needed to get him home into the air conditioning.  I got him into the car.  Strangely, instead of just laying down on the back seat, like he always did -- Norm had excellent car manners -- he stood up and stuck his front half in between the two front seats.  I could pet him continuously on the short drive home.

When we got home, I could not get Norm to exit the car.  He just stayed there wedged between the two front seats.  I finally got him in the house and he immediately wanted to be let out into the backyard.  So I did.  He laid down in the rocks -- no big deal as he used to do that all the time when he was younger -- but when he tried to get up, he couldn't.  Again, thinking I just needed to get him into the a/c, I carried him in and laid him down on the tile.

His breathing was shallow.  It was getting shallower.  And then he was gone.

He was in no pain throughout whole process.  He spared me the very tough decision of having to decide if "now" was the time.  He spared me the guilt of second guessing:  did I do it too soon or did I wait too long.  He went out when he was ready to go.  And he went out after a great day when he had fun seeing his friends.

Norm left this world on his own terms.