seoul searching

Pardon the terrible pun, but on Saturday, I did in fact go Seoul searching. It was a wonderfully humid, smog-soaked afternoon and after an hour long transfer-filled subway excursion, the highest point in Korea, N Seoul Tower, was reached. I surfaced at Seoul Station, a distinctly historic building covered in a curious westernized architectural facade, and was immediately greeted by a totally random Christian dance troupe. Within the procession, four costumed Korean women performed something reminiscent of a rain dance while a Korean Jesus stood gallantly by. An all horn band played backup to a pre-recorded tape of what reminded me of Paradise Found, the 14 member church band I cringed over so many times throughout my adolescence. It was quite entertaining, in its own completely bizarre way, but really made me consider the strength of Christianity here. Seriously, church steeples are all over the place, and just like Chicago, you are sure to encounter lone preachers standing atop milk crates, denouncing your way of life through megaphones, and completely 100% accurately predicting when the world will end (okay, that realistically cannot be determined in my Korean encounter, but I would be willing to bet one dollar). It was interesting to say the least, especially since I never thought I'd encounter something like it here. 

Anyway, with a loosely scheduled plan to eventually reach the tower on my own time, I sauntered around, took mediocre pictures on my complete crap of a camera, and absorbed the charm. The area was the most natural blend of corporate urbanization and residential neighborhood I've ever seen. Somehow, it managed to go from big city steel and glass to quaint, charming restaurants, five to six story apartment buildings, and outdoor snoozing shop clerks within a couple blocks. Trying to capture these aspects on camera was difficult if not impossible and it forced me to appreciate being in the middle of a distinctly different culture, feeding into the limitless alterations of my own urban perceptions. Its what makes being in a foreign country so exciting, especially one with such characteristic variance. 

So Seoul Tower is on top of this area called Namsan in the middle of the city. Because the region is so hilly, most of the natural terrain has managed to stay intact. This is not to say human impediment hasn't occurred, as countless paths, statues, rest areas and fountains accommodate the weekend tourist on their excursion upwards. There are two methods for getting to the top: a cable car and about 3,000 steps directly upward. I chose the latter. It wasn't all bad, as just like climbing anything high, you can immediately dissuade your muscles from feeling pain by pumping them full "Whoa! Holy crap! I can see the whole city from here!" adrenaline. The higher you climb the path, the better you feel about yourself doing so. At least I think so. 

Right before the plateau the tower is situated on, there was a beautiful, completely stunning structure built during Korea's Joseon Dynasty that had once acted as a smoke signaling post. In fact, there was an entire defensive wall from this era which culminated at this point along most of the path upwards. It was stunning for two reasons:

1. The view from it literally overlooked the entire Northern section of the city, a view that had to have been completely, stunningly different around the time it was built.

2. The structure was essentially six gigantic furnaces, actually used as a perfectly reasonable, if not totally necessary, means to communicate messages to places miles and miles away. 

Like all physical historical things I encounter, it created an eerie, totally weird feeling within me just trying to imagine what it must've been like at the time the stones for such a project were being laid. How vastly different that atmosphere must have been. Trying to imagine how people back then must've casually interacted to pass the time. So weird. 

But yeah. After this point, the modern tower itself became the focus and I proceeded to the top. Once there, I observed the completely ridiculous massiveness that is Seoul and relished my moment above the world, less than 200 kilometers from Pyongyang, and over 10,000 from Chicago. 

Click here for my pictures of the trip.