Pötte & Köppe

19 degrees and rain - in this weather I spent an "indoor day" today with a museum and shopping. The "National Museum of Korea" has been on my wish list for a long time, if only because of its exciting architecture.

It tells the story of Korea from the Stone Age to the Japanese occupation using artifacts. On the 2nd and 3rd floors you will find traditional handicrafts: calligraphy, painting, inlay, furniture, metal, porcelain... as well as artifacts from other countries.

What I liked was that in each themed area there were objects that were explicitly meant to be touched. I also found details like video projections within the display cases, "digital immersion" video installations and interactive elements exciting.

It's a huge complex, I just strolled past everything and rarely stopped to take a closer look, and it still took two hours. But I have to say that the content wasn't all that captivating overall. I always compare it with the Scottish National Museum, which is just absolutely brilliant.

Both museums (Scotland and South Korea) are free, by the way - Germany could take a leaf out of their book! What I will definitely remember from today is the man who was happily trimming his fingernails with nail clippers next to the water dispenser on the second floor... 🤢

After the museum, I took the subway to the other side of the river to Yeouido (see above), where two huge malls are right next to each other (IFC Mall and Hyundai Mall). I wanted to eat something there and stroll around a bit. That was the plan, but it was sooo crowded...

Fun fact: Seoul is one of the 6 largest metropolitan areas in the world (bigger than New York!!) and is one of the 10 most visited cities. A total of 9.8 million people live here. If you include the metropolitan area, the number is 25 million - that's a third of Korea's entire population. And it feels like all of them were in the mall today!

Since it was definitely too full for me, I went back outside and trudged through the rain in search of noodle soup. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any, so I had a vegan bowl with tofu, mushrooms and rice. (The dressing was super-spicy, I had tears in my eyes while eating it...)

Then I went to Insadong, where there are all kinds of souvenir shops, handicrafts, galleries, etc. It just fit the theme of the day well. Conveniently, there are also a lot of good restaurants there, so I had mandu (stuffed dumplings) for an early dinner.

They are available steamed or deep-fried, with different fillings. I had kimchi (spicy, but luckily there was pickled radish here, which "quenches" the heat wonderfully) and a mixture of meat, glass noodles and various vegetables. Very tasty, and the whole portion only cost €9!

It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, let's see what nice things I can think of. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday today - mine is almost over and I'm going to sleep. :)