South Korea Journal — Day 3–18.8.17
It was a pretty hot and humid day, the sun was blazing through our room’s curtains and made me all energized for the upcoming day.
We had no specific plans for the day ahead — my mind was not in right place to plan anything, as it was anxiety-ridden, and on a constant defense mode from a future attack.
The Cheonggyecheon stream was four minutes walk from our apartment. Therefore we decided to go there first.
Once we were outside my eyes had spotted a FedEx’s courier.
At that time I worked at FedEx and whenever my team’s members traveled abroad they’d taken pictures with our global colleagues.
I had never had the chance to meet a foreign colleague. Brazenly, I had approached the courier and stopped him momentarily from his work.
My mind turned blank once I did it. When my friend smiled at him with her camera that’s when he understood that I wanted to get a picture with him.
The courier possibly thought that I was a very strange foreigner, who liked FedEx or perhaps it’s couriers? I hope not.
Once the photo was taken — it felt like I have accomplished the mission of my life. I don’t know why I felt brave for approaching a local person.
Sadly, that feeling quickly faded away.
As we arrived at the Cheonggyecheon stream, we saw many people walking or just sitting on the rocks beside its corners while dipping their feet in the cold water. Walking among the locals made me realize I was in Korea at last.
We chose a spot and sat down for a bit, decided to soak our feet in the chilling water. While enjoying our feet-soaking activity we had spotted a Korean photographer across the stream. The photographer struck a few poses so my friend could take some of his pictures, he was a funny guy.
Many couples walked beside us — It was so cool to see women and men dress almost the same, they sometimes even had identical shoes.
I had remarked that Korean couples tend to wear the same sets of clothes, that’s how you know they were officially dating.
There was also a family of three — a father, mother and their daughter, they wore a black t-shirt and blue jeans.
It was fascinating, as this type of similar wardrobe sets — a rare sighting in our home country.
After a short while, we decided to roam to another place, that’s how we met a local woman that asked us to take her picture.
This was yet another uncommon sight as in our home country — people don’t usually stroll the streets and ask random people to take their picture in the middle of the working day.
We asked that woman for directions, she advised us to keep going straight. Unknowingly we were moving towards Gyeongbokgung, the main royal palace of the Joseon dynasty, that was built in 1395.
It was so hot that we couldn’t bear being outside anymore, we looked for a hideout and stumbled upon the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History (대한민국역사박물관), which admission was free.
We decided to stay and learn a little about the Korean’s history.
The museum was opened until 6 PM. It was so big that I had not really the opportunity to see all of the exhibits.
Once we exited the Museum’s premises we went to see the palace, We couldn’t stroll inside as it was already past the operating hours.
That’s when we decided to head “home” (that’s how we called our Airbnb apartment).
On the way we figured that we have never had lunch, so we dropped by a place that sold sandwiches and various fresh fruit salads — we needed some vitamins as our diet was not the best.
You may not know it, but “Google Maps” doesn’t really work in Seoul.
We used “Korea Tour — Offline Maps” app instead, it was good, but it had its flaws.
Many suggested us to use the “Naver Map Navigation” app, but the one I downloaded at the time wasn’t really English friendly, and my Korean reading skills were very poor.
After having some Kiwis and grapes — felt like I was loaded with vitamins we continued to walk home.
Our apartment was located in the Jongno-gu’s area, which was actually a great area, well connected to other popular attractions.
On the “Korea Tour” app I saw there was some kind of Buddhist temple on our way, which was Jogyesa Temple (조계사), it was a beautiful temple,
and its surroundings radiated calmness and peace.
