I missed yesterday’s every-sunday-I-will-publish-a-post day because we’re now travelling in seoul. I used to write more stream of consciousness posts while I travelled, but somehow over the past few years my writing has gotten more complex. Every piece is A Thing and takes me hours. It is not something I personally desire, but rather an outcome of my potentially deranged psyche. Sometimes I just want to write something casual, but every time I start typing it just becomes this Thing. So for this post I thought I’ll just share a few photos from my trip so far.
Seoul was a destination my partner and I have been wanting to travel to for years. We watch kdramas regularly, and we keep telling each other it would be so cool to be at those places we watch on tv. It seemed like an impossible dream because of the pandemic, and even when travelling restrictions relaxed we were not sure if we could really take the almost 7- hour flight with a n95 mask without eating.
But as I age I become more acutely aware of the impermanence of life. The pandemic has driven home the point that the freedom and space to travel is not something to take for granted. And even without the pandemic I was always constantly paranoid that something would happen that would render me home-bound. So we discussed and decided to brave this trip, really wanting to fulfil this wish of ours before it becomes too late.
I was really excited to see my first tteokbokki cart:
We keep seeing these red people on the streets, I thought they were selling something. They claimed to be providing tourist information, and I thought it was just a scam to get you to interact with them before they sell you something. Turns out I am a sad cynical person and they were really there to help tourists with information:
I tried to take photos that would show the colours of hongdae:
…not sure what was going on but I was very lucky to catch an insane plane formation in the middle of hongdae:
In the middle of Seoul’s bustling busyness, there are well-used tree-lined parks:
There would be numerous instances of cafes where decadent pastries would be displayed abundantly out in the open:
I love how their old architecture is interspersed with the rest of the city:
One day I’ll find the courage to dine at one of these:
I guess there are street chess players in every city:
And of course there are ahjummas selling kimchi in big basins:
I’ve decided to limit my photo selection to ten for this post! Hope I’ll be able to publish more Casual Things. 🙂