Firstly I should mention that all the newspaper stuff on the North and South Korea shootings does not seem to have any impact on daily life. I had a walk round the streets last night and everyone was going about their business as usual.
Major drama after work yesterday. I got lost going home on the subway last night. We missed our stop and had to mess about with route maps etc. Difficult when everything is in Korean. Instead of a 25 minute trip we ended up doing a 1 hour journey. What really annoyed me about it all was that it only takes 30 minutes to walk it. But walking it…. does mean exposure to the wind and cold!!!!
I keep trying to figure out how to describe this place. Different, easy, very clean, very busy, nobody talks on the subway, on the streets everyone spends their walking time on their phones – not talking but watching videos as they walk along… the rest are busy standing around drinking coffee from small Styrofoam cups or smoking. Lots of smoking…..Strange. Pretty useless description I know but it is difficult to add more at this time believe me. Oh yes and everyone looks Korean. Again this is something very clear as foreigners are few and far between in this area. I am told there are some very good foreign restaurants and entertainment areas in the Itaewon area. It’s a few kilometres away so taxi or subway. Will be checking that out over the weekend.
Like in Uk and other places there are lots of free newspapers and flyers given away at the entrance to the subways. Once on the trains there are a group of people busy collecting all the discarded freebies. They collect them up but moving in and out of the commuters, and bag them then and there. Nobody seems to notice as they continue watching their videos. Add in the very noticeable fact that nobody eats or drinks on the train. All very clean.
So this lunchtime I’ve decided I’ll take a walk around and try to capture a few shots showing ‘down town’ life in the central business area of Seoul.
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