 |
| 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:
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment