Beautiful city

  

<>

<>



Central Seoul certainly is a captivating city. There is a huge blend of architecture and attention to detail.  The rich history, palaces alongside modern buildings – such contrasting architecture draws you in and holds your attention.

One of the things that struck us in our exploring the city are the variety and number of sculptures. Whilst it doesn’t quite equal the number of coffee outlets, it’s not far off. We wonder if there must be some agreement with the city prior to completing a building that x-amount must be put aside for a sculpture or park – a sort of contribution back to the city.

Stark contrast to the central city is the outskirts of Seoul, although clean and ordered – (numbers even on the side of each apartment block) the apartments lack imagination, they are lego-like buildings that stretch out for miles. They are often in hideous pinks. They are practical constructions but not particularly pleasant on the eye or conducive to a stimulating environment.



   

Strong family focus



Traditional



Live sculpture



                                                                                                         

                                                       





At park near Seoul Station - Japanese influence


 



Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)



The DMZ,  is one of South Korea’s largest tourist attractions. On the day we went there was in excess of 4,000 visitors.

Crossing from South Korea into the DMZ through check points.

Takes about an hour and half to get there from Seoul.

(We notice this after we took shots of each other at the fence, opps...)

The military demarcation line (MDL) of separation between the two sides at the close of the Korean war forms North Korea's boundary with South Korea. A demilitarized zone (DMZ) extends for 2,000 meters (just over 1 mile) on either side of the MDL. Both the North and South Korean Governments hold that the MDL as only a temporary administrative line, not a permanent border.

  

<> 

<>

 

We decided to take the half day tour and recommend this is ample to anyone considering it…it is about as much time as one wants to spend on buses, being shuttled from site to site.  We were glad we didn’t take the 8am tour and found that 11am - 6pm was plenty of time for us. It is  a really interesting excursion.



  The main sites we took in were:

Imjing Park; home of the remains of a train called ‘the Iron horse that wants to run’ (Thomas’ cousin), the Freedom Bridge, Unification Pond and the Freedom bell.

 

       The 3^rd Tunnel. This was probably the most exciting and challenging of our stops. North Korea attempted to build four tunnels under the DMZ, which were discovered by the South in 1978. Each tunnel was constructed to enable 10,000 soldiers to pass through in one hour!  The 3rd tunnel is 1.7km long and we were allowed to travel 115m down into it and walk a 246m section of it. Quite incredible the thought of it all.
     They give you hard hats, which was just as well - the soldiers passing through it must have been oompa loompas, some of us kept hitting our head every two steps or so!

What is wrong with this picture?!

Well wishes left by visitors from around the world for a successful unification.

      Dora observatory, this was a chance to look out through binoculars at North Korea and see a North Korea Village, a North Korean city, industrial sites and agricultural areas. On really clear days you can see Kim Jong Il, well a statue of him anyway. If you manage to see the real KJI it might be time to leave.

·   This Dorailway station is completely ready to go, a fully built 'transcontinental railroad' just waiting for reunification. We were able to buy a ticket and go out on the platform - no trains obviously, but great to see preparations are being made for reunification.

As is always the case on tours like this in Asia we had a ‘bonus stop off’ at a few places where we could buy goods on the way back. On this occasion a ginseng factory (Korea is ginseng heaven), a North Korean food outlet and gem factory. We bought some North Korean Govt alcohol,  chocolate soybeans and ginseng.

On the whole a really interesting day - we recommend you take the tour if you are ever in Seoul.



Coffee in the city

Upon arrival we were slightly concerned we might not be able to get our decent caffeine fix each day to keep the wheels turning. We were somewhat surprised to find our assumptions were way off the mark.

Seoul is a coffee capital and we have been blown away by the number of cafes in the city, the ease of access to them, and the variety of choice. There are over 150 cafes within a 1km radius from our apartment. It is café Mecca, and we are now wondering how they all survive?!

A surprising bonus is that the coffee is good. It is fair to say the quality varies from café to café but that is the case in all cities. In general though you can have your fix of whatever your pleasure is and the service in every café we’ve been to is polite and efficient. (Café’s are extremely clean too!)

So, as we went for a walk this week, we took some photos of the cafés just on our block. It’s crazy we didn’t take pictures of them all, many of the outlets i.e Starbucks have one on each side of the same street! There are also a number of little cafes that we didn’t take pictures of but hopefully this collection will show you some of what is on offer to choose from….

Just a few of the cafes on our block

Cafe Drop Top has a great feel - average coffee though

Coffee Bean is in our lobby and at work - good coffee!

Settling in

We are settling in to Seoul and finding it an amazing city, full of life, diversity and colour.

Can’t believe we have been here a week already! It just seems like yesterday that we arrived and were greeted by PK with a bottle of wine, flowers and the key to our apartment!

Our orientation to work has gone smoothly. We are set up in our office with brand new toys to play with! If all goes according to plan, we will be issued our registration cards next week.  Our work dinner at ‘Once in a blue moon’, an excellent jazz restaurant, was a great night out.

We are exploring the subway and find it an inexpensive and easy way to move around the city. Taxis are good too, although in peak hour it can take forever to get short distances and when it rains it is near impossible to hail a cab! We definitely need to improve our Korean language skills.

So far our three major shopping excursions have been to E Mart (in the I’Park Mall), Lotte Mart and Namdaemun Markets (both of the later are in walking distance to our accommodation which is great).  There isn’t much you can’t find here in Seoul, plenty of western brands and the local foods and products are great too.

There is so much more to do, learn and get used to...

Seoul Square

Namdaemun Market

Local restaurant

View from our building  

Lotte Mart

Shopping at I'Park

Packaging our food - tape and ribbon - E-mart