The Seoul of Korea

And how I was lucky enough to stumble upon it

Scott McAdams, 9/20/2022

The last time — and first time — I wrote here [on medium] I told you about my experience in Uganda. My wife and I spent two months in Africa kicking off a “world tour” of sorts while we take a break from the corporate grind… and more importantly: to live!

Since Uganda… we rode camels through the dessert to see the pyramids in Egypt, visited a traditional hammam (aka bath house) in Marrakech, galavanted along the beaches in the South of France, pretended to fit in at the Monte Carlo in Monaco (spoiler: we didn’t!), we walked all over Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower at night.

After Africa and France we were back stateside spending time with family and friends between Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Texas, and California. While back on the home turf, between sorting out political differences (cheap joke!), we had to alter our plans for the “world tour” and figure out where to head next?

Our very rough itinerary had us going to Japan to start a ~6ish month stint in the Far East. The plan was Japan — > many countries in SE Asia — > Australia — > New Zealand.

I’m not sure if it’s the sushi, the baseball, or both but I’ve always desired to visit Japan. Well, Covid strikes again! At the time of our desired arrival, tourists were still prohibited from entering. My middle-aged dreams of eating sushi while drinking beer in the bleachers of the Tokyo Dome would have to wait.

So, I put my advanced technical skills of the millennium generation to good use: opened Google Maps, searched “Japan”, zoomed out gently using my thumb and pointer finger, adjusted my phone’s brightness levels, and searched for the nearest big city in that part of the world that might have direct flights from SFO. Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Taipei (probably off the table at the time of this search)…

United Airlines has a direct flight daily from SFO to Seoul that’s billed as 12 hours but takes like 10.5, it was a few hundred bucks cheaper than our previously-booked flight to Japan, and I could do it all online without having to call the hotline that makes you wait on hold for two full episodes on Netflix.

We had never even discussed it as an option. I hollered at Meg from the other room and said “hey hun, we can get to Korea cheaper and faster! I think Seoul is supposed to be dope.” She responded saying that sounded good and within five minutes we were booked.

I swear it was that easy. The part about how we chose Seoul. Megan and I both have some friends and past co-workers who are Korean Americans, and sure, we’ve heard a bit about Korean heritage from them but NEVER was it on our short list of places to travel.

… and buddy, were we mistaken!

There’s a lesson in here about the value of spontaneous behavior or not over-thinking every decision you make in life, but I’ll save that sermon for another time, let’s talk about dumplings!

After ~10 days in Seoul, South Korea, let me tell you why this is an amazing place to travel, why westerners need to move this great city up the power rankings list of top destinations, and why I am so damn thankful we stumbled into Seoul on a Google Maps search.

To do that, I’ll get back to my American roots and build a list of ten things. This is purposefully vague because some ‘things’ will be stories, other will be observations, and some might just be my personal perspective on said ‘things’. It seems like the cleanest way to share my experience of Seoul with you.

Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own — these are only things I saw and thought during my time here. I’m no expert on Seoul or Korean culture. I spent ~10 measly days there and could of spent 10 years in that one city without running out of things to do and learn. If I overstep my boundaries and claim something that is inaccurate or deserves to be challenged, please bring it to me. Would love to learn more!

Now let’s get to it…

1. This city is massive: Seoul made New York City and all it’s burroughs feel small. Both massive in land mass and population. By the numbers, recent reports claim ~9 million population in the downtown metro area, ~26 million in the greater metropolitan area — which is 50% of South Korea’s total population. By comparison, NYC claims ~8.3 million residents in the metro and ~20 million in metropolitan (~6% of total US population). Total land mass of Seoul is approximately (and roughly) 5–6x the size of NYC. Compared to NYC’s 5 burroughs, Seoul has 25 districts and each has a lot to offer. We walked an average of 12–13 miles/day and like to think we checked out most of the districts but didn’t even come close. One of the many reasons we want to go back! Best part of it all — a massive, highly populated Asian metropolitan area? It didn’t feel crowded or congested at all. Aside from our feet, we got around town on the Seoul Metro…
2. The Seoul Metropolitan Subway: The bees knees of public transportation. The GOAT of international subway systems. This beautiful electronic beast oughtta teach a Master Class to big American cities on how to do it. When we shuffled through the pages of recommendations we got on Seoul from friends, one common theme was “ride the Metro! It’s the best!” As a native Chicagoan, and a big fan of the nightly entertainment you can get headed to Harlem/Lake on the Green Line, I was skeptical of all this high praise. I thought, how great can it be? It’s just a subway. The Seoul Metro has multiple stops in each of it’s 25 districts; essentially allowing you to get from any corner of the city to another, popping you out into the ‘main drag’ of your final destination. When you need transfers from one line to another, you stay underground the entire time with very clear maps & arrows (in Korean and English) guiding you to the right train, headed in the proper direction. And when you get to your final destination there are numbered exits that put you onto the street on the proper corner — these sync up perfectly with the local e-Maps apps when trying to get around. The longest commute we had which included two transfers and some steps on either end, was like 55 minutes and got us from the NW corner of the city to the SE, covering about 14 miles. When you pay for a train ticket (a paper ticket) and return it at your final destination, you get a refund for it (~$0.50 on a ~$2 ride). Trains are always on time and come every 5–10 minutes; we must have taken 20 rides and didn’t have one delay. Everything is electronic — maps and audio messages to keep you informed — and the majority of stations feature full-on markets in the open space; grab a meal, flowers, postcard, and new pair of slacks before heading home, all at the station! The seating on each train cart has a dedicated area for elderly, pregnant, and/or handicapped and it is obeyed religiously (more on obedience in a sec). Did I mention free (and reliable) Wi-Fi? It’s clean, it’s quiet — no one is blasting phone rap and dropping bars (another ode to the Green Line!), it’s fast, and reliable. Imagine if any American big cities had this type of public transit? 10 out of 10.

1. Obedience and Respect: I don’t mean in the way you either obey or disobey (me most of my childhood!) your parents. I mean in the way the Korean people obey the rules of the land, respect their homes and each other. I mean in the way that literally nobody crosses the street unless there is a green walk symbol; this infuriated me — we had some lengthy intersection wait times. Masks are worn here religiously (still); indoors, outdoors, and everywhere in between. This is two-fold: mostly to fight the spread of Covid but also to protect from breathing in polluted air. The Korean people are used to wearing masks for air quality so I assume having to mask up constantly for Covid wasn’t much of a culture shock to them. But let me tell you, I was about the only sonuvagun ripping my mask off everytime we got off the subway. Respect for each other was evident. In 10 days there we saw literally no conflict amongst people; no fighting on the streets, no arguments at bars/restaurants, no police arresting people or pulling people over. It was wild. Everyone seems to obey the laws. Respect for the land was the most arresting and refreshing thing we got to see on a repeated basis. Ironically, there were very few trash/recycling bins on the streets. We’d finish a coffee and walk for miles before finding a place to properly dispose of it. The ironic part is that there wasn’t a spec of trash on the streets/alleys, in the rivers, in public parks… anywhere. The single cleanest big city I’ve ever been to. My take on what has resulted in Seoul when you have this level of common respect for your land and each other? Very few homeless. Very safe neighborhoods. Beautiful public spaces. A peaceful place to live.
2. The city that never sleeps: I know that’s a nickname for New York City and I’ve been there enough to understand why — and my visit to Seoul won’t unseat NYC as the rightful owner of the name. However, it was funny to see some very quiet and borderline sleepy neighborhoods by day just absolutely LIGHT UP in the evening. Our one big night out was in Itaewon — a commonly known “Ex-pat” district of Seoul; which was refreshing for us after spending about 4 full days of speaking very little English to strangers and struggling through broken Korean greetings with the help of Google Translate. Itaewon was lit! It felt like Nashville, Austin, and San Diego had a love child and spit her out right here in Seoul. Everyone spoke both English and Korean (or so it seemed). Lots of students from the local universities but a good amount of 30’s and 40’s too so we didn’t feel like we were going to be adult chaperones all night. We bar-hopped drinking Heineken, Budweiser, and Jack Daniel’s (because, of course!!). We played pop-a-shot with a Korean born NBA player! We met plenty of euros, Americans, and Korean-Americans, but ended up “settling down” for the late night festivities with a group of Korean students studying chemical engineering — this was a nice compromise to my engineer wife — where we belted out Taylor Swift and Elton John in a traditional Korean karaoke room! It was awesome. When we asked our new friends what they would do tomorrow (Sunday), they laughed and looked at us like we were crazy. Eventually answering that they would be sleeping all day after staying out until 5 or 6am. Perfect response. It also helped educate us on why most coffee shops don’t open until 9/9:30am and don’t close until about midnight. A key learning I took away from this trip was never to fully judge a city until you’ve been out in it. That’s never been a problem for me in the past so I suppose I won’t let it get in the way anytime soon.

1. Big coffee city: Not exaggerating when I say there was anywhere between three and 12 coffee shops on every major intersection. They’ve all got dozens of drinks from frappes, to “ades” (what they call lemonade), to milkshakes, to coffee and tea. The majority of the coffee shops are by far the most westernized part of Seoul that we encountered — most were very Dunkin’ Donuts-esque; coffee is average, if you want food it will be microwaved and loaded with calories, and if you fancy a smoothie to start your day out “healthy” it won’t be made with real fruit. As our friends from Austria noted — whom we met and spent two nights dining & drinking with down in Busan (southern part of the country) —most all of the drinks on the menu were iced, not hot; didn’t seem like a coincidence to me that the European noted they couldn’t get a hot coffee! The common local brands were Compose Coffee, Ediya, and Twosome Brothers. Starbucks was everywhere and that was actually one of the only spots we could rely on to get a true Greek yogurt. When you get just off the main intersections you would find a little more boutique-y coffee shops with limited menus and strange hours. Most of them were classified as “desert and coffee cafes”. It was cool. Not necessarily my cup of tea (had to) but definitely something we noticed as unique to Seoul. It seems like I just knocked on the coffee situation pretty hard. Having coffee options on every street corner is WAY preferred to the alternative. Especially a place that knows how to make a black iced coffee without needing to explain yourself… Looking at you, Europe!
2. The food was silly: Let me quickly get my gripes with the food out of the way at the top before I make your mouth water. The biggest complaint was that healthy food options were limited and required a little extra effort. Being able to order a fruit cup or side of fresh/steamed vegetables was hard to find. The most veggies we ate were the side dishes served with KBBQ — so I’m not sure if kimchi and green onion straws really qualify. However, this is a dramatic POV. If we really wanted, I absolutely could have gone to one of the countless markets when we arrived and bought a few cucumbers or heads of lettuce to keep in the fridge for the week where they would have eventually spoiled…. Because damn, the traditional Korean grub was wayyyyyy too good to waste any meals on green stuff. So, let’s get to it. The highlights included: (the aforementioned) Korean BBQ — delicious meat, beer, and side dishes with an incredibly fun environment. Many couples and/or families were spending their evenings here. Dumplings and thick noodle soups were everywhere and they were always incredible. We even ate dumplings at the baseball game. Nothing like baseball, beer, dumplings, and ice cream! My favorite dumplings on the trip were the kimchi stuffed ones with a little kick and huge flavor. The night street markets could be found in pretty much every district 2–3 times over. Our favorite items we devoured were BBQ chicken on a stick, sweet & sour chicken in a cup with steamed rice cakes (like a sweet pillow in your mouth), sautéed garlic butter shrimp, and potato chips on a stick! Life changing!! Basically they medallion thin slices of potatoes, deep fry them, and then you get to roll the stick around in cheese & onion flavoring salts. We had the mung bean pancakes that’s basically a savory offspring of hash browns and pancakes — very greasy, recommended for a hangover. Lastly, we ended very few meals without getting something sweet on the walk home. Had to reward ourselves. It was only fair. Twisted donuts were baked fresh and sold in small cups you usually find at a water jug — those things were awesome. Bingsu is a shaved ice cream that comes with your choice of sweet toppings (the one we got had little cheesecake balls on cocoa powder on top) and usually served in gargantuan portions. You’d routinely see groups of 3–4 people sharing one. Our favorite was the classic soft serve ice cream in a cone that could be found in most places. Breakfast was not a huge deal here and our best guess as to why is because typical nightlife runs into the wee hours of the morning; not a big audience for fried eggs and toast! We did try a popular local chain called Isaac Toast that served Korea’s spin on egg sandwiches. Most every commercial establishment (or non-market, non-restaurant) we ordered food from was all run on kiosks in the front of the house. This actually made it pretty easy for us to view the menu in English with pictures included. As my former co-worker Tony taught me “Korea is basically living in the 22nd century! Everything is digital!” We crushed tons of other food and it was all amazing. These were just the highlights. Worth traveling here for food alone!

1. Cheap livin’: For a city of this size with such an advanced economy and tremendous living conditions, the day-to-day expenses were unbelievably affordable. The Korean Won comes in at about 1,000 KRW = $.70 USD (as of this writing). Coffee’s were $1.50. Train rides across town were $2. Beers $3. An order of eight meaty dumplings from the market cost you $4 bucks; San Francisco residents, what would that cost at Dumpling Time? 30-minute taxi rides were $15 at most and our most expensive dinners at nice KBBQ places were $40-$50 all-in including tip… which… isn’t a thing in Korea. We stayed in above average Airbnb for ~$75/night in a central part of town (Mapo-gu neighborhood), right next to a train station, and yes, we had a dozen coffee shops within a few blocks. Most museums & tours of said museums were free or only a few dollars for entry. By my estimation, if a day of tourism cost us $100 here in Seoul (for two), that same day would have cost about $500 in SF or Chicago (my two most recent hometowns).
2. River walk(s): We spent most mornings (and often afternoons/evenings on the return) walking a few blocks from our apartment to the walking/running/biking path along the great Hongjecheon River. Just one of many crystal clear bodies water cutting through the heart of Seoul. The water was beautiful (and clean!) but the infrastructure built alongside the river was incredible. Two-directional pathways, clearly marked for biking and then separately for walking/running. Free-to-the-public fitness equipment what seemed like every half mile, badminton quarts, basketball hoops with community-use balls (ball is life!), benches frequently, and many well orchestrated stone pathways that allowed you to cross to the other side without having to go up and over street-level. My wife couldn’t believe that this hidden gem was ‘buried’ underneath a highway or high-traffic/noisy area of town. And I couldn’t believe they provided community basketballs to the public and entrusted they wouldn’t be stolen; most outdoor courts in places I’ve lived have a locked cage over the rim unless someone is attending the court. Locals of all ages know and frequent these paths to find calm, peace, and exercise.

1. Yay Sports!: the most famous hats and sports apparel rocked in Seoul came in the form of three American baseball clubs — the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers. If you’re familiar with the emblems on the hats, you’ll note they just signify the city name and not the mascot (NY for Yankees, B for Red Sox, and LA for Dodgers). Being the baseball nut and sports fanatic I am, I had lots of energy on arrival to ask anyone I saw wearing a baseball cap who their favorite player was from that team? Quickly did I learn that not only could they not understand me but it was apparent they had no idea they were repping a hat of an American sports team; if they did know, they certainly didn’t care. These three hats outweighed any brand logo on all the apparel we saw throughout our time in Korea. Pretty wild! I went on to learn that sports don’t command nearly the same level of energy, attention, money, or fandom in Korea that they do back in the states. We checked out a local KBO baseball game at Jamsil Stadium, home of the LG Twins and Doosan Bears. The two local South Korean KBO squads share the stadium which is beautifully located in Olympic Village (neighboring district to Gangnam) — all deconstructed in the mid-80’s to prepare for the 1988 Summer Olympics. The baseball game itself was a doozy. Much more of a competition amongst cheering sections than it was a worry of the final score. Each team had an emcee who would orchestrate team songs and chants that all the fans knew… much better knowledge of the team songs than the rules of the game. It felt more to me like a High School Musical than it did a baseball game. And back to the respect thing, no heckling of fans or players whatsoever — we’re not in Philadelphia anymore, Dorothy! I started to give the ump some shit for a missed call at first base and I started getting major side-eye. I quickly went back to eating my dumplings and making up my own lyrics to the show! The last and great aspect of the whole thing: I got to see something I’ve never seen in a baseball game, likely will never see again, and for the life of me still cannot make sense of it (I asked everyone for some rationale, to no avail)… the very first batter of the game was intentionally walked. God bless you, South Korean baseball!

1. The Korean War: My favorite part about traveling to foreign destinations, thus far, is that when you get somewhere it inspires you to learn about that place. You end up going down information-seeking rabbit holes (Google searches, adding to your book list, documentaries, etc.) answering “what is this? why do they do this? when did this take place?” 10 days ago I knew nothing about the Korean War. I’m not a history or war history buff to begin with but I would have had a hard time answering many questions about the Korean War before this week. Now, I’m certain it’s the single war I know most about — strangely the difference in opinion of whether or not the war is still going on or not is not mine to answer. The purpose of this section is not to give you any history lessons or commentary on the Korean War, I’m not suited to play that role. However, I do encourage you to find documentaries or stories if you’re so inclined. I’m reminded how much the wars of the 20th century shaped what we’re all doing and how we’re all behaving today. For example, the same-sided involvement from both the US and Japan (under the direction of the United Nations) so soon after WWII seems both confusing and remarkable. The joint efforts to support the RKO (Republic of Korea aka modern-day South Korea) in the fight against communism (team North Korea, China, and the USSR) certainly created paths of freedom for most all of us able to read a blog like this today. And I knew nothing about it. Then we got here to South Korea, we sought out information about the city and what things to do, we checked out the War Memorial and became enamored. Through texting with my dad, I went on to learn that my grandpa (his dad), Martin McAdams, fought in this war for about a year before he won an award from President Eisenhower who asked several thousands of military men to submit an essay answering the prompt “What does America mean to you?” Sometime in late 1952/early 1953, Private Martin L. McAdams was one of 20 chosen winning soldiers, who were granted early relief from duties in Korea, for the essay he wrote WHAT AMERICA MEANS TO ME — featured here below (and damn does grandpa Marty put my writing to shame!). I had known of this essay and some award he won from my Aunt Lynn years ago telling me of the story and sharing his work. Whether I knew all the details or not (years ago), I knew nothing about Korea and nothing about the war — so the story of my ancestors didn’t resonate with me, leaving very little impact. Fast forward to today and the impact is profound. The way this all unfolded ended up being pretty special for me.

What’s the message in all of this?

Travel. It exercises the mind and expands the heart.

Travel to South Korea. It’s fucking awesome.

And never forget, Freedom isn’t free. Thanks to all those who have served and actively serve in the militaries around the world.