So Much Seoul

The Korea Party Tour continued this weekend, despite us literally losing a member in Daegu. Long story. But nevertheless, sans Blake, on Friday night we arrived in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, and the biggest city that I have ever been to. And when I say big, I don't only mean in terms of population...everything about Seoul is just on a grand scale. The Seoul Metro is one of the most extensive, and confusing, in the world. There are 15 color-coded lines, including a dark blue line, a light blue line, and a medium blue line. And there are about 1000 different stations, many with very similar sounding names. Looking at the map for too long will cause your head to spin.

Seoul has five royal palaces that were built during the Joseon Dynasty between 1392 and 1910. I went to see the oldest of these palaces, Gyeongbokgung Palace, which was built in 1394 by King Taejo and is said to be the grandest of all of the palaces. Nearby Gyeongbokgung is Cheong Wa Dae, which is the presidential residence of the Republic of Korea. There aren’t any snipers on the roof like there are at the White House, but there’s still a fair amount of security. I tried to walk up to the gate to take a better photo and three armed guards started chastising me in Korean. And the residence is also known as the “Blue House”…same-same, but different.

One of my favorite places in Seoul was Insa-dong, which is a large street market in the heart of the city. The street itself is closed to vehicle traffic, so the place is swarming with people, and full of traditional Korean culture. There are street performers, traditional tea houses, restaurants, craft stands – really anything you could imagine. Insa-dong is known for its many art galleries, which are scattered down a number of narrow alleyways that line the street. There are more than 70 galleries, so it would take a very long time to experience all that Insa-dong has to offer. But I enjoyed the Kyung-In art house, which has three stories of indoor and outdoor exhibition halls, as well as a garden and tea house that are all elaborately decorated.

The street food in Insa-dong all looked really good. As usual, it was mostly gluten. But I did find a vendor who was making and packaging chap sai yu gwa, these little bite-sized snacks made out rice, honey, and nuts. The man spoke some English, and it turns out that in addition to being sold at his little pushcart on the street, the snacks are also available at www.koreasnack.com. Of course, he had never heard of gluten, but I tried few of the snacks anyway and felt fine afterward.

Just after dusk I headed to Namsan Park, where N Seoul Tower sits atop of Mount Namsan. I rode a cable car up to the base of the Tower and then took an elevator to the observatory, 479 meters up. It was pretty stunning to see a panoramic view of Seoul, and get a sense of just how massive the city is. There are skyscrapers stretching off into the distance in nearly every direction. There’s also a good deal of smog in Seoul, so the further away you look, the bright lights sort of fade to black. I’m not saying the smog is a good thing, but standing at the top of the tower, this effect makes you feel a little bit like you’re in the center of the world and beyond the city limits is just nothingness.

We stayed in a guesthouse in Hongdae, the area near Hongik University, which is Korea’s major art college. There’s a lot of culture in the area, with a seemingly endless amount of theaters, jazz bars and street art galleries, along with some amazing graffiti on the walls of buildings. Mostly though, the area is known for its great restaurants and nightlife. Seoul has some of the best clubs in the world, and many of these are within walking distance of one another in Hongdae. You can buy a bracelet that will get you into most of the clubs in the area. Once inside, the sheer size of the places is incredible, and there’s just an insane amount of LCD screens, smoke machines, laser lights, etc. This club had three floors and a stage in front of the DJs, all packed with people dancing all night into the morning. After one of our nights out, my friend Worth unloaded an entire fire extinguisher in the hallway outside of our room. Poor decisions. It looked like it had snowed and about a half inch of snow had collected on the floor down the entire hallway. I think it’s pretty safe to say that they won’t be welcoming us back to the guesthouse any time soon.

On Sunday we took the train back to Gwangju, and today we are back to school. I had to work during the Super Bowl, which started at 8:30 AM local time, so I ignored my kindergartners for half of the morning while following the game on ESPN.com. And now my Packers are the Super Bowl XLV champions. Can’t wait to watch the full game on tape delay after work. But for now, congratulations Eliot, you just won the Super Bowl, wear that ring proudly.