Week 22 - Seoul

The next exciting week! Starting with the flight from Bangkok, which was unfortunately pushed back so that I didn't land in Seoul until midnight. The Airport Link no longer runs after midnight and you have to rely on night buses. Google Maps works very poorly and you actually need a whole ecosystem of new apps for this country. The Cocoa Corp. Apparently rules the country here and you can only set up an account with a cell phone number. That's why you can't navigate with KakaoMap, call a car with KakaoTaxi, etc. Unfortunately it was also the coldest day of the trip, so I walked out of the airport at -7 degrees and stood at the machine with the unfamiliar characters. Everyone around me was running around like scared chickens, frantically buying tickets, which startled me too. In the stress, I abandoned my original plan and had three lovely Korean girls buy me a ticket, which took me into the city center. So far so good... However, when I stood at Seoul Station, for the first time on the trip I was a bit helpless and very lost. Mainly because the well-known apps here are not that reliable. I refused a normal taxi because of the exorbitant prices, and in my distress I later regretted it because I couldn't find one anymore. Everyone around me booked Cocoa Taxis, which I couldn't do. For the night buses you need a Tmoney card which you can top up and then tap on and off on the bus. Of course I didn't. Then a bus driver kindly let me through until I realized that the bus was going in the wrong direction. Get out and walk back. It's now 2 a.m. and my hands are completely frozen after coming in from the toasty 36 degrees in Bangkok. I had to collect myself first and then found a convenience store, bought a tmoney card and finally got on the right bus. Luckily this happened to me in a very safe city. It wasn't scary there at night either. In the hostel I met a wide-awake Esther who was struggling with jet lag. Since you can't have a conversation in a hostel room, we got the first triangle of many at 7/11 (3 a.m.) and ate it on a park bench and greeted each other first. In the following, triangle means the triangle gimbap (Korean) or onigiri (Japanese). Basically a sushi in the shape of a large triangle with a variety of fillings (Tuna Mayo Rice is the best). You can get them super fresh and really tasty in all convenience stores here for around 80ct to €1. I've eaten them in Vietnam and Thailand and also in Germany, but here they were the freshest:

In fact, we both woke up around 11 a.m. every day and were then out and about very late. We really had a good tour of the city center, saw and ate a lot and got a good insight into the country over a five-day stay. I actually really enjoyed the food here. Unfortunately we couldn't try everything, but we were able to find some street food. Generally it is a lot of meat and fish in all forms and often served on skewers in a lot of (spicy) sauce or broth. Some good dishes were rice cakes, fish cakes, Korean fried chicken, mung bean pancakes, dumplings, mini gimbaps, grilled seafood and lots of milk teas hehe. We had a few disappointments when it came to drinks, as everything here is so extremely sweet that you almost fall over.

In general, we both surprisingly had quite a bit of culture shock. First of all, there are hardly any tourists in general, especially no white people. You really stand out from the crowd. Culturally, there are a lot of differences here that are noticeable. People's behavior is fundamentally very different. This extremely polite and considerate attitude, which on the one hand is enviable and on the other comes across as so brainwashed. At times you really feel like you're on a film set. Especially in the subway. It is very quiet, eating and drinking is not allowed, the priority seats for older people and pregnant women are always left free, even if there are only young people around and many have to stand, everyone wears black and the style of clothing as well as makeup and hair styling is the same for everyone almost identical, everyone is looking at their cell phones and there are few groups of friends chatting or anything like that. You feel like you're watching a film clip. In addition, news about North Korea and evacuation videos about the subway and how to put on the gas mask are shown on a continuous loop on the screens... There are CCTV cameras everywhere in the city and once we got a message on our cell phones that a man was being looked for (We found this all a bit creepy, but at the same time you can see from the city's low crime rate that it's effective):

There aren't that many tourist attractions in the city now. There are a few neighborhoods you can walk through that are hip or chic, there are old villages and there is Gyeongbokgung Palace.

The shopping experience here was actually striking, as stupid as that sounds. You already know Korean Skincare from hearing about it, but somehow I was totally uninformed and didn't really have any idea about it. Fearful of missing out and because I needed a new cream for my face anyway, I frantically looked for recommendations on Tiktok. In addition to many special skincare shops (à la Lush or Body Shop) where you are chased in by two ladies outside, there is also Olive Young, the Douglas equivalent, where I bought a cream and a serum with a high percentage of propolis (?). Let's see if you notice a big difference in the end. When my skin glows all the way to Germany in a few months, you'll know! 😏 In addition to skincare, there was mainly a shocking oversupply of hair clips, headbands, hair ties and similar hair products. In all designs you can imagine: made of teddy fabric, plush, silk, with attached teddies and other wild plush figures, etc. There were also lots of plush pendants and patches in stores with the wildest names (e.g. Butter, Blingbox, Wappenland...) . Everything is so extremely 'cute'. To my great surprise, I fell into quite a buying frenzy, which I always consciously suppress when traveling. Besides, I'm generally not that impressed by such junk, but somehow I found it all so exaggerated and cheesy that I found it funny and cool again. So here is part of my haul:

We have a sneaking suspicion that this was a soft introduction to the wild world of Japan, because it is also a country for victims of consumption. I think the traditional mixes with the kitsch there. We are super excited and are now finally on the plane to Osaka after a long night at the airport! See you soon🇯🇵🎎💴🏯