A glimpse of Seoul

Today we awakened to a very dense, cold fog, which persisted over the day. Unfortunately it meant that not only were we unable to obtain good clear photos, but also we were freezing cold on our outing to Seoul, especially when we had a bout of rain. When our friendly tour guide told us that they are not experiencing Spring yet, because the cherry blossoms are still not in bloom, but in the heart of winter it gets to below -20 degrees Celsius, I could not help but shiver even more and wonder how the people cope in those conditions. And apparently it is even colder in North Korea. 

On the approximately hour’s drive into Seoul from the port, we saw hundreds of apartment blocks against a backdrop of mountains. We also saw some sporting stadiums and a place where golf can be practised. Our guide was justifiably proud of the fact that Seoul has already hosted the Summer Olympics and is looking forward to hosting the Winter Olympics next year. There would not be many cities able to host both!  

 Our first visit was to the ‘Palace of Shining Happiness’, formerly the residence of the king, now a museum and top tourist attraction. Its grounds and many buildings had been beautifully designed,  with so much symbolism in the design. For example, the square tapered columns symbolised the earth while the round ones symbolised the heavens. There were many older students wandering around in full costume, apparently preparing for a concert. Their costumes were just lovely! 

It was really interesting to see small brick-lined furnaces under the buildings built to heat the floors. Apparently Koreans sleep on a mattress on the floor. Winter would have been impossible without under-floor heating.  Our guide told us that they were the very first to invent this method of heating, 

Next we stopped at the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple, which was established in 1395. As it turned out, our timing was impeccable, because they were preparing for a special ceremony to inaugurate the next leader of the Buddhist faith. So there were bright-coloured lanterns hanging everywhere, lots of flowers and candles, a choir and orchestra practising, TV cameras and hundreds of chairs set out, and a great air of excitement and reverence.    

After that we had free time in ‘Mary’s Alley, where colourful small shops of all kinds competed for our custom. We even saw a variation on fairy floss (cotton candy): dainty little parcels spun from honey, then filled with nuts or chocolate. It smelled delicious.

We also saw the Presidential ‘Blue House' where the President lived until her recent ousting. It was still heavily guarded, but police in Seoul only carry a stick. Our guide told us many interesting things about the political situation. He also told us that what we thought was fog was actually smog that keeps rolling in from China!

The new and the old. I will post the rest of the photos tomorrow. These took a very long time to upload.