Seoul

Arrived in Seoul at 05:00, the scripting language has changed, and faces has gone a bit longer, and I am still very very tired...

I have to admit that while planning this trip and searching on the internet for things to do in Seoul I got a bit disappointed.

Palaces, shrines, palaces and more shrines were the only things I could find in those "must do" online guides... but when we landed things got a lot more interesting.

Observing Korean Food, culture, architecture, or even the people has become more interesting than any must-see place. Girls are all slim, tall, dressed in tiny shorts and high heels or bright coloured snickers (some bizarre shoe & shocks culture going on), and guys... hmm (funny enough I can't remember much about the guys).

Brands and labels are written in English (you can tell that the world cup (football) was here and they have made an effort), so there is no problem reading station names, points of interests, directions, etc.

I said reading, because pronouncing and remembering is a totally different story.

8 out of 10 tube stops are called GYWANDONG or DONGWANDONG or DINGKONGDONG or GYWANDNONK or any possible (and random) combination of the letters W, G, Y, D, K, N, O.

Every time you find a station from the printed map, by the time you look up on the actual station sign you don't remember the name anymore and now you are searching back on the map for that F$%#$%dong place. I was doing this for hours until I found a workaround. Instead of looking for a long name you will never pronounce or remember, try to find the commonly used letter that are missing. So DONGNIMMUN is the station that starts with D and has no A compare to the next one called DONGDAEMUM that starts with D but has no I. A bit complicated method but trust me the other way is far more difficult to learn.

Our first day here is a Monday and all the sightseeing places where closed so we walked around downtown for orientation and to experience some of their open markets and street food. In the evening we booked to see theatrical play called NANTA which was something between a cooking show and a stand up comedy.

We finished the day in the area where all the clubs and bars are lined up, but in a weekday it was more of a quiet drink.