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Published: August 22nd 2008
korean spicey dinner
curry rice, potato, vegetables, sushi, nuts, a beer of course and the travelguideThe last days of my trip to South-Korea i spend in Seoul and it's surroundings. This city is probaly the most weirdest cities i've ever been, it was hard to capture it and to place it in a context. The city with its 13-14 milj inhabitants is one of the biggest in the world. In a way with its neon lights, big streets and infrastructure it can be compared to tokyo, only in Seoul there is the systematic and greenery missing. So now and than there are these huge similar and ugly appartment towers areas on a small space which make the city look all the same. I think this city can be a great example for how a megapolis can be turned into a future disaster but still be accepted by its inhabitants. For example, there is a cycling route along the Han-river developed by the goverment (cycling on the real roads is equal to an accident or worse). This cycling route is 34 km long and used daily by mainy people. Due the bigness of the city and the distance to real nature these people rather go sporting or enjoying "the envionment" along this route. This results into mountainbikers,
runners, hikers, roller skaters fully equiped with the best outdoor stuff and moundcap (against polution) enjoying the aspahlt route. I am quite sure that there will be people who never escape the city and are prisoned in concrete without knowing. mainly because of this constrast i enjoyed the city a lot. Besides the concrete scapes i also visited many temples, palaces and real architecture. In that sense i enjoyed the city a lot. The second day i also visited the Demilitarized zone (the only place where you can enter the militairy nobody's land between North an dSouth korea) at least that's what i planned. But because i was wearing a jeans i was not allowed to join the tour....mm strange. Korea is divided into two by a 248 km long and 4 km wide strip which is totally enclosed by fences, wire and militairy forces. people who try to pass will be shot and this happened alreaydy a couple of times in history. Instead of the DMZ i visited a look-out post and the border itself. It was so interesting but also frightning to see this enormous militariy border in a country where you don 't feel this notion. Interesting
is the fact that this enclosed area became a important nature reserve for many rare species of animals totally enclosed against human beings. Even when the border opens it seems due the many mines the area would stay an important nature reserve for this country. Finally I had a distanced look into the country without advertisement and visited some militairy posts before going back to seoul for the last sigth seeings. Than i took the bus and travelled in 48 hours, by bus to busan, boat to shimonoseki (japan) and bus again to tokyo to enjoy my last 5 days!! Amazing time went so fast but at the same time it seems that i am already living here forever. Looking back on my trip to South Korea, i am happy i visited it. To travel alone again made me think about many things, it was a great possibility to reflect on my last half year and to think about my next year as a graduation student. I enjoyed the country and will have great memories to this trip!
Thank you kind, colourfull, special and interesting Korea!!
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