There is hardly a bad word to be uttered about Seoul. It is vibrant, yet gentle. It is modern, yet traditional. It is vast, yet compact. With a cornucopia of things to do and see and eat and feel, there is something for anybody's taste. Museums, shopping, parks, theatres, sporting venues, restaurants Korean and international, amusement parks and so on and so forth etc etc. But most importantly Seoul has Korean people. One should never generalize, but Koreans might just be one of the friendliest, nicest, most helpful people in the world, and not so in a smarmy fashion.
One of them of course being Cholong, who continued to join me on my tourist escapades and taking me to traditional eateries. SeMA, Seoul Museum of Art, had some weird-ass video installment exhibition going, and the works of two of Korea's more famed contemporary artists: The master of painting intrigueing eyes, Chun Kyung-ja, and the diverse multiartist Kim Ku-lim.
With the pretentiousness out of the way we ventured for the hilariously corny Trick World, in which the visitor interacts with props and paintings, creating illusions ready to be captured on camera. Oh how we laughed. Oh how we laughed when Cholong was not only dangerously close, but actually across the edge of a skyscraper. How we laughed when I seemingly made water in the same urn as Michelangelo's David. How we laughed when the forced perspective caused the pint-sized Korean to tower over the reasonably tall* Swede.
Shits and giggles would continue, as we entered Myeongdong Theatre to see the vastly popular and critically acclaimed musical performance 'Nanta', a lively show with a loose plot of the antics of a trio of restaurant chefs. As the owner hires his untalented nephew in a high position in the cooking crew, hilarity ensues. With little to no dialogue, but with plenty of dancing, acrobatics, magic tricks**, martial arts and, above all, drumming on everything but drums with everything but drumsticks, using kithenware, cleaning utensils, food, and so on and so forth etc etc in their stead. The show was good fun, and quite impressive in parts.
One of the evenings there was also time to follow suit, and do what the local young and, presumably, hip do. Strolling along the south riverwalk, with freshly bought pot noodles and beer, some of them in 1,5 litre PET bottles, sitting down wherever looks nice and consume said refreshments while viewing the river, the people and the occasional little fireworks. Of course, a full urban river experience should also include a river cruise, and so we went slightly marine for a while, watching the city lights shimmer in the water, and checking out the many bridges crossing the Hangang.
A late morning, due to some much needed internetting, airport transport arranging and repacking, started the last full day of this odyssey, and I happened to walk out of my hostel just as the initiation celebrations was in full bloom at my neighbouring Hongik University. I was on my way to round off the day, and by that the entire trip, with a visit to the national museum of Korea. It was well worth the visit, especially the exhibitions on ancient Korean history, and the museum building and its surrounding park area are grand on a non-bragging scale.
Passing by Gangnam, I made my way to the Jamsil area in Southeast Seoul. A farewell dinner of sorts, with Cholong and some friends of hers. Traditional Korean barbecue, where they fry it up at a hot stone slab in the middle of the table, was enjoyed along with conversations in somewhat broken English. I believe I tried all that was put to the fire, including the mystery intestines and the pigskin, and the, hm, interesting method of adding a shot of some 25% booze in the beer. But proper beers were to be found at the bar across the street; a self service system with several fridges, stacked with beer from near and far, including Beerlao dark, Smithwicks, Young's Double Chocolate Stout and more. And with that, I took my leave, saying a fond farewell to my local cicerone and headed home, getting ready for an early start. It turned out that 05:30 is not necessarily early in Seoul; it might just as well be just slightly late evening, as the streets and alleyways were filled with still-partying youngsters, locals and foreigners alike. And just like that, I found myself in a subway station, waiting for the cheap and quick airport train that would mark the end of this journey. Or, you know, the beginning of the next.
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*) At least compared to the average Asian
**) Illusions, Michael....
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