Hosive

touring south(ern)south korea, the long, long flight home, jet lag and getting back to work has backed me up from blogging. to avoid writing about korea until august, i’ll lump half a week together. i still want to talk about our detour to the farmland where theresa’s dad grew up, our adventures at the dmz and loose loki ends…but first a quick tour of the sights from the majestic palaces to the absurd indoor theme park: lotteworld!

i started our touring by getting in trouble taking a picture of hyundai world headquarters and their proud display of their high marks in consumer report. if i ever make it back to the suburbs, i might consider getting one. or maybe i’ll stick with my volvo plans.

in korean corporate culture, there’s a lot of spying and stealing of ideas so a guard came and asked me what i was taking pictures of. theresa’s aunt explained i was a(dumb)american taking touristy shots. he was reluctant to let me go.

changdeok-gung is the best preserved of the korean palaces. the compound was used to house the royal family and do government business. this was also the home for the last crown prince of korea and for the last royal family member until her death in 1989.

this was a nice relaxing tour and stroll…especially through the gardens where we got to see some cherry blossoms. we learned a little about korean culture and promptly forgot most of it. that’s the way these things go.

we took a cable car up to seoul tower that gives panaromic views of the city. it looks out in all directions and gives approximate distances to actual cities around the world including home(s) and our possible next year’s big international destination. hola rob and julie. i think i masked that well.

it was cloudy and hazy so the views were only mediocre.

we toured around in the city bus to get a layout of seoul before deciding on spending the afternoon at the national museum. museums are super cheap and super huge. with very little space in homes in the city, this is a great place to spend the day. we got pda-s and walked around for hours until our heads were full of korean history.

but again, i’ve promptly forgotten most of it making room for battlestar facts and baseball trivia.

inside one of the ginormous malls in seoul has a full fledged aquarium…again, the concept of not that much private space..so people gather at the museums or at these one stop entertainment centers. f you would rather shop then learn, you head to the mall. and if you want to learn a little, you go to the aquarium at the mall.

theresa’s nieces were so cute running around the place. but after they did the touching exhibits, they stank of fish.

another mass gathering place is lotte world….an indoor amusement park. i tried to show the layout of the land from one of these mechanical ‘hot air’ balloon rides. pretty standard fare with a few thrill rides for adults and a lot of disney “borrowing” like the castle at the center of the park. there’s an outdoor area as well. a pretty good park for kids and people with spawn. i wouldn’t go there on my own or for myself. i would save my money for the theme park we did not make it to: everland….its supposed to be worldclass with crazy rides! maybe next time in a few years from now. i hear theresa has already made plans with vision pam without me or wayne’s opinions.

clearly, going to touristy spots is not the sum of a country or a city. these places were interesting sidebars…but many people get fed these as the main story. for me, the main stories, the good stuff, the life of the country/city are the places where real people go to live, eat, dream, worship and gather….not where the tourists are. i still like the everyday place, the mundane and the not so popular. but like my irish boy says, some of the (nonsense)is still pretty cool.