28 days in Korea

2012 - the year of big things

2012 was for me one of the most exciting year in my life. A lot of big things happened during that 12 months. The most sagnificant were these one: I got married, then my wife got pregnant, we took loan and bought new flat, next we moved into new place and finally I have been in Korea. And actually about Korea visit will be this story.

35 hours without sleeping

I started my trip from Wroclaw airport something about moon, of course there is no direct connection between Wroclaw and Seoul, so at first I had to go to Frankfurt in Germany. Then after 3 hours I could finally proceed towards boarding gate to my final destination. I was very surprised when I saw big airbus A380. For me it was first time when I saw such big airplane, from such close view 🙂 Unfortunately I couldn't fall a sleep, and I spent 10 hours seeting, watching movies and listening music (Adele is still inny head:p), when everyone around me were sleeping like a babies. Finally I have landed in Korea and it was again before noon!! We have 7 hours difference between Warsaw and Seoul time.

From the airport I was transfered directly to the office. Everyone knows that time is money and entire day was in front of me... :) After work, me and my team decided to go for a dinner and that was my first contact with soju - Korean traditional alkohol. I would say that this is something between wine and vodka with very specific taste. Of course I finished totally drunk, but actually it was good way to survive without sleeping from 35hours. And it really helped me to smoothly switch between time zones.

First impression

I never expected that cities can be such big. Seoul is a city of skyscrappers, everywhere where I looked I could see tall buildings. I think that we do not have similar place in Europe and I've never been in different continent (ok I was in Egypt but it doesn't count:p). What I was impressed is that everything was very clean and well organized there. Even people in subway or on walkway did everything according rules - for polish people unattainable... Second thing which stucked in my mind were grill bars in the buildings and plenty of people inside them. In Korea eating outside is something common, for sure more than in Poland. Last impression is related with climate and weather, I was there in September and what shocked me was huge humidity and hot temperature. I did not used to live in this kind of conditions, so it was very hard time for me.

Above the skyscrappers

For sure everyone who is visiting Seoul has to go to N-tower and see city panorama. N-tower is placed in the hill which is relatively close to the city center, this cause the view more impressive. I had a chance to be there just after the sunset - I went there by walk with small path through the forrest, that is why I missed sunset :) But nevertheless it was worth to go there.

Few words about history

Next place visited by me is Gyeongbokgung Palace, old castle which actually is not old...I mentioned this intentionally, becuase according to the guides, it was totally ruined by Japanese. And here I need to say one comment, Korean history is quite similar to Polish one. For many years Korea was under Japan occupation and what the Japanese tried to do was to destroy Korean culture. Almost same as Poland during Partitions time.

Between hell and heaven

Next place which I am going to tell you is the border with North Korea. I visited place called Imjingang. There is a station where you can take a train and go inside DMZ area and actually be by one foot in North Korea. In Imjingang you can see an exhibition with big, old train excavated from the Han river. You will find there many flags hanged on fance saying about unity between both Koreas.

Oppa Gangnam Style

Last place is Gangnam in Seoul. I can describe IT in few words: beautiful ladies, expensive cars, rich guys, parties and night life. And actually this place live entire night. Do you remember Oppa Gangnam Style song?
If not you can listening it here:

I mentioned about this song becuase 2012 that was a year when PSY released it:) And being in this place helped me to understand what PSY is singing about.

Where the tourist does not come

During my 28days visit in Korea I of course saw more place than described above. Here you can see few pictures from my trip:

Time to come back

During my time in Korea I received the best news in my life. My wife got pregnant (of course before my trip :) ) and she called to me and share this happiest information in my life. After this I just counted days down and I was so happy when I finally came back.