Some Seoul Snipets

This is going to be one of a small series of posts with pictures and commentary on our three week stay in Seoul Korea which we arrived home from just last Wednesday. I take a lot of pictures of buildings, plants, scenary as opposed of people or family (Zoe does that), just in case you were wondering. The order of the pictures and commentary is not in any particular order or in chronological order of what we did. I just want to make you (the reader) aware of that, so as to hopefully avoid some confusion. I hope you enjoy!

This first picture is of Seoul Station or the "Old Seoul Station", which has been there since the 1920s. Construction was completed in 1925. The new station connected to it is a place where you can connect to Seoul Subway lins 1 & 4, can take trains to the airports, and Korean Rail (KTX) trains that can take you to other ciies in Korea. Of course, outside there are places where you can get on multiple buses, which routes go by Seoul Station since it is a major connecting point and in the middle of the city. There are also restaurants, coffee shops, stores, and even a cultural museum that make Seoul Station a tourist destination in its own right.

These next pictures are by Hongdea Station (Hongik University) (홍대 역) in the Mapo-gu district of Seoul. There is also Hongdea Street, which is a neighborhood full of restaurants, bars, shops, entertainment that is popular with Koreans and tourists alike. Yena and I went there one day near the beginning of our trip int he morning and found this almost like hidden park area with trails full of trees, native plants and flowers that also had like little cultural shops you could go into. Unfortunately, when we went, none of them were open yet, and we didn't stay because already at 9 or 9:30 in the morning, it was so hot! I wish it was cooler, so that we could explore more, but I love how there are more and more of these almost hidden green areas "gems" that you can find in Seoul these days!

This is a picture of Cheonggyecheon (청계천) is an almost eleven kilometer stream that runs through downtown Seoul that is popular with Koreans and tourists alike. There has always been a stream there, but in the 1950s was covered up and by the 1970s was a completed highway. In 2003, the Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak started a project to revitalize the old stream.

I took this picture one night as we were walking with two of Zoe's friends trying to find a place to have a beer that would be okay since Yena was with us. As you can see in the picture, it was evening and it wasn't as hot as when the sun is out, so it felt a bit refreshing except for all the mosquitoes that are out. You cannot see in this picture, but a lot of people were putting their feet and legs in the stream to cool off and children were playing and splashing around in it too. It is beautiful in the middle of the city!

This is a statue of a "Comfort Woman" by Ewha Women's University Station (이대 역) to remember and to acknowledge the horrible autrocities that many young Korean women had to endure as sex workers for the Japanese army during the occupation years and WWII period. If you do not know about this, I encourage you to do some of your own research.

Finally, I would like to end with this unique wall or piece of art of glass and mirrors that I found in the huge iPark Mall that is connected to Yongsan Station (용산 역) that is another major station in Seoul like Seoul Station. You can connect to multiple subway lines as well as other trains that can take you to other places throughout Korea.

Anyway, I thought this was an interesting piece and in some ways seems fitting for Seoul Korea. It is a wall where you can see yourself in the mirrors, but can be confusing because you are not sure why it is there or where the mirror even is in the middle of all this glass. However, a part of you feels nostalgic and light like you have seen something like this before like in a mirror house at a fair or carnival. It feels both old and new or modern at the same time and in some ways that is how Seoul and Korea as a whole for that matter feels like to me. This makes things more nteresting and enjoyable in my opinion!