Korea 2011....

As I was updating my daily photo blog (sorry again, I’ve been so bad with keeping that up to date) I realized that I never did post anything regarding my amazing trip to Seoul, South Korea.

The entire trip was somewhat last minute. Somewhat is a bit of an understatement.  I was talked into going by a friend who used unusual means of persuasion. Apparently constantly yelling “koreeaaaa” for 4 days straight whenever they saw me online or in person was enough for me to buy a ticket to Seoul for 11 days.  This was 2 weeks before actually leaving for the city.   Everything seemed to fall in line. Sales on tickets. Friends in the city. A friend going as well. Money situation.  You only live once. So I went.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect given I’ve never been anywhere out of north America in recent memory. Trips when I was younger with parents don’t seem to be very memorable. Definitely haven’t gone anywhere during my photographic interest history. I’ve heard a lot about asian cities and what to expect so I began preparation.  In those two weeks I created my usual robust document of everything about the city that may have been interesting to me. Of course I never do get to see everything in that document (in one visit) but it’s just nice to be prepared. I also picked up some tid-bits of Korean which was tremendously helpful since most of my time there would be spent wandering alone.

Seoul blew my mind.  The busy city feel is an understatement. I was also terribly efficient and seemed to put Toronto to shame (which in my mind isn’t too hard when it comes to transit especially).  The people were very nice to foreigners and were extremely helpful. Most of the signs are in English as well, usually in the Romanized form so that was very helpful.  My document guide came in very helpful since I had an idea of where things were before I had to go to them.  I did get lost, but that’s part of the fun of being in a foreign city, it’s how you really discover a place.  That’s also why I chose not to go to other areas of korea. I really wanted to feel Seoul. I wanted to feel what it felt like communing from Ilsan (a suburb) to the city with the business folk and other travelers going downtown to work.  I think I was able to obtain this goal and really wish I could’ve stayed longer.

Without going into day by day details I was successful at experiencing various aspects of Korean life and culture.  From teaching at a public school (where apparently I was a star) to traveling downtown during rush our squeezing myself into public transit.  I saw as many palaces as I could as well as wandered most districts that are “notable” in tourists eyes during different times of the day.  I was able to “get lost” (several times on purpose) in the city several times so I could explore without having a final destination, order food in the native language as well as help other tourists who were having trouble (because I apparently looked like I knew where I was going).

I would without a heartbeat go again if circumstances allowed.  Now onto what this blog usually is about. Photography. The amount of opportunities for “everyday Korean life” photos was staggering but I limited myself. I have several thousand photos from my trip but have really only been able to just dip into a few. I’m sure as the years pass I’ll go through them more and more when I want to remember that great trip. For now I’ve gone over a few and chosen about 100 to post. The weather wasn’t a photographic dream, it was fall so the colours were nice, however the rain during the first part of the trip wasn’t fantastic. Overall the array of photos I have are from typical tourist to just wandering the inner streets of Seoul.

Anyhow here are a few photos. My daily photo blog will showcase nearly all of them (if I remember to update!) along with other photos inserted from trips and everyday adventures.