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| The statue of Brothers ,Seoul |
I had no idea what to expect from the country. Last year in March I was hitchhiking in Lake District,England
I met a young guy from Belgium in Ambleside and we did a big hike with him. He told me that his sister got married and moved to live in South Korea. I thought, why would you move from Belgium to Korea?
After I spent about 2 weeks in the country,I think I know now.The country is one of the most interesting I've ever visited and more importantly,people are extremely friendly.
We arrived in South Korea on the next day before noon.The weather was cloudy and rainy.The few french guys who were on the ferry decided to jump off and check out the little port town of Donghae as there were few hours layover before it continues to Japan.I also met a Korean cyclist who cycled from Germany to Finland and also like me traveled on the trans-Siberian with his bike to return home overland.He recommended me to visit DMZ museum on the border with North Korea.
I passed the border control very quickly.The lady checking my passport got very impressed with the beautiful passport pages we've got . She wished me a nice stay and didn't bother to ask any additional questions. Almost every time when you enter a new country you've got to give them an address and phone number at which you'll be staying. While being in Russia I found out that you could actually make reservations through Booking.com without paying for it. You don't have to give your bank card details so,once you enter the country you can stay wherever you want without worrying that you'll be charged .That's great if you decide to camp or use couchsurfing.So I booked one night in hostel in Seoul ,without paying and gave the address and phone number of the hostel I found on Booking.com at the border.
As I got off the terminal I started walking and it felt a bit like in a fairytale . Little houses ,strange signs and
vegeatbles planted along the sidewalks.
I was planning to hitchhike to Seoul, so started walking to get out of Donghae. Unfortunately, it started raining quite a lot . I didn't have any navigation on my phone as there were no maps of South Korea for Here maps.For that reason I decided to take a train from the port to Seoul.I only managed to download an application that were showing me landscape and names on only major roads.
I went to the train station and all the staff got together trying to help me where exactly I want to go in Seoul as there were several stops in such a big city. That was my first impression of how kind Korean people are!
I arrived in Seoul quite late in the evening.I started walking and trying to find the hostel I booked .
I asked several people and found out that they were all using application Naver .Even so,they couldn't help
a lot find this impossible address and the language barrier seemed to be a burden .
Before I realize it was almost midnight.
I was walking in this 10 million people metropolis at midnight with a huge rucksack trying to find that
impossible address.
I gave up searching and decided to camp in a nearby park next to the University Building in the center of
Seoul.
I knew that S.K. is a relatively safe country so was more worried about being fined.
You never know! I slept on a small hill between two huge rocks only with my sleeping bag as the weather
in Seoul was much nicer and wasn't raining. I had a peaceful night and in the morning started walking to
explore the city.
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| Donghae |
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| Donghae, people growing vegetables on the streets :) |
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| Seoul |
I usually don't like big cities but Seoul became one of my favorite. The streets extremely clean,
a lot of interesting sites to visit. You need a good week to get a glance of the city.
In the morning I decided to find the hostel I booked anyway just to see what it looks like.
As I really liked the city I decided to stay a few days to look around. The only downside in the country was finding an address. I couldn't download the Naver map on my Windows phone .
I spend two hours in the morning asking people and getting lost trying to find the hostel.
After I finally did find it turned out that it was fully booked and my reservation canceled as
I didn't email to confirm,as I mentioned above i did it without paying.
I was fine with that as didn't like the place anyway. They let me use their wi fi so I found another much nicer hostel called Zzzip.It was slightly more expensive but included breakfast so it was a good value.
I spent the next few days exploring the city. There were a lot of Americans staying so communication was easy. The owner gave me a map and tips on where to go in the city, interesting sites, markets and so on.
When you enter a city unless you're staying with local or couchsurfer the first thing you want to do is find a Tourist information center, grab a free map and ask them to jot down for you the most interesting places.
Actually, the paper map is only for your own help as I found out later on that the country is so into hi-tech, so most people are incapable of reading a paper map.
It's been more than six months since I'm back from the trip and don't remember all the place I visited but some of theme are Nam san tower(Seoul tower), Gyeongbokgung Palace and Gwangjang market.
The market actually was the most interesting place with so much good food .I highly recommend it!
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| Seoul city hall |
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| King Sejong, creator of Korean alphabet |
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| Gyeongbokgung palace |
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| Gwangjang market-a must visit place |
One of the cool things about Seoul is that is very modern and at the same time, you get a lot of people selling traditional food on the streets . Old ladies selling all kind of Asian crafts and food.
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| Lost in translation |
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| As the saying goes: "Thieves don't read and readers don't steal" |
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| Seoul, from the tower with distance to another favorite city Anchorage which I visited in 2007 |
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| Bridge with nearly 20 pianos near the train station |
Seoul is such an interesting city and I couldn't visit all I wanted for the 4-5 days I spent there .I missed Gangnnam neighborhood :) Also, I know that there is a Bulgarian restaurant somewhere but I decided to skip that.
After the few days spent in Seoul I decided to travel to Sokcho , Seoraksan national park and DMZ Museum on the border with North Korea, so the next day I took a bus to Sokcho.
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