Seoul, first thoughts.

I’ve now been in Seoul for a little over a week.  I arrived Friday afternoon after what seemed like a marathon spent in airports (20+ hours total travel time).  I flew out of Halifax and as I had an early flight I got dropped off by my good friend (Thanks Albenie!) and spent the night hanging out at the airport.  The trip started well as I had a few old school pinball games to keep me busy.  One gobbled up my change without working, another worked but the flippers/buttons didn’t seem to respond and finally the Elvira machine rocked.  Needless to say I spent a few dollars wasting away the hours on this one:

We had a switch of planes in Toronto and then a quick stop in Vancouver where I had time to grab a bite to eat and snap this shot for my brother (Hope you like it!):

My Korean friend was able to meet me at the airport (name omitted, see my privacy page).  We took the 6011 bus from Incheon to what I like to refer as “downtown Seoul”.  We checked myself in at the hostel (Banana Backpackers, you can read my review here) and proceeded to take a nice walk around the Insadong neighborhood.  As I had been up for over 48 hours without sleep at this point I felt like a walking zombie.  The excitement of being in South Korea, seeing my great friend and stretching my legs kept me going for a few hours.  We had a quick snack at a coffee shop and as soon as we sat down I could feel the energy seeping out me.  We headed back to the hostel where I went to bed and my friend returned home.

The following morning I was up at the crack of dawn after a wonderful night sleep.  The nice single room I had booked in the hostel was exactly what I had expected but I picked the wrong single room!   (More on that in another post.)  I woke up at 4 am and I believe this was partly due to the long travel, lack of sleep of the previous few days and the large time difference between Seoul and Montreal.  For those of you that continue to follow this blog you’ll come to recognize that I truly walk around on foot a great deal.  Seeing as I was up at 4 am, I took advantage of this to wander the streets before the seoulites started their daily commute.

I walked for a few good hours, logging my route using a gps tracker so that I would be able to find my way back at some point.  I eventually found my way to Cheonggyecheon, the beautifully restored river than runs through part of Seoul. As I walked along the path I got several funny looks and warm smiles from the various Seoulites when we crossed paths.  At least one looked at this crazy foreigner and then checked his watch to see what time it was.  I suspect he believed I was still up from night out of drinking on the town.  After walking along the  Cheonggyecheon for an hour or so I cut through some side alleys wandering in the general direction in which I thought the hostel was located.

If I’d have to wrap up my initial thoughts on Seoul from one morning walk I would describe it as serene and clean.   Keep in mind I was walking between 4 and 7 am.

More to come on Seoul and South Korea in the next few days!