Seoul Part 3: Tourist

People at home are always telling me, "You look like a tourist with that camera."  I can't really blame them, especially if I'm wearing a vest with gear poking out of the pockets, a 1970's-era looking camera (sometimes, it is that old, sometimes it isn't), and a look on my face as if I'm seeing everything in my own city for the first time.

Life is just nicer if you treat everything like you're seeing it for the first time.  I mean, don't be an idiot about it -- it's still the same thing you saw yesterday.  However, it's a different day.  The sun is in a different place, and there are different people standing around or walking past, doing different things wearing different clothes.  Hell, you're not even standing in exactly the same spot as yesterday.

Literally, everything but the thing itself has changed.  This is called context, and I try to get as much of it as I can in my photos.  You miss out on a ton of stuff walking from place to place just staring at the sidewalk.  Or if you manage to get lost and end up on the "scenic route", just keep in mind the reason they call it that, and maybe it'll end up being a worthwhile detour.

Don't even worry about the camera.  Just take it all in.

Our usual modus operandi when traveling is to drop ourselves into a foreign destination and spend as much time as we can looking around to see what locals do.  However, we do indulge in the occasional tourist trap.  Seoul Tower on Namsan is nice little place with a panoramic view of Seoul.  There's a cable car from Myeongdong that will take you up to the base area.  There's a path to walk up, but it was icy and we decided not to bother with it.

It's one of those places where you take your high school sweetheart for a romantic date.  There's a "couples ticket" for $39USD that gets you a ride for two to the base area, and then a pizza or spaghetti dinner for two at the "Italian" restaurant there.  The food was passable and worth the trip, especially because it must have been an off hour and we had the place to ourselves with a nice window seat.  Once you get up there there's evidence scribbled all over of love found, lost, and unrequited, There's also a love lock wall covered with locks as testaments of couples' undying love.  The gift shop sells locks and permanent markers for your convenience.

The trip to the observation deck is a separate ticket.  They also have a couples ticket.  I think it's an elevator ride for two and a bucket of popcorn and a box of chocolates or something.  We didn't bother with that.  Just the elevator ride.


We had the good fortune to be experiencing most of this stuff for the first time on this trip.  We'd gone to Seoul in 2010, but managed to get horrifically sick the day we got in.  We spent a lot of time in the hotel room watching televised Starcraft matches and rice cooker infomercials.  Speaking of which, the Noble Hotel near Insadong is the place to be.  It's about $55USD a night, free wi fi, clean stuff, free drinks in the fridge.

Noble Hotel is a 5 or 10 minute walk away from the Anguk subway station, which is right by Insadong-gil, a nice little shopping and eating district where you can pick up cute artsy crafty things like porcelain jewelry or things with birds on them (yeah, think Portlandia, except everything doesn't suck).  Ssamziegil is basically a big corkscrewing complex lined with shops to that effect.  You walk up the path until you get to the top, and take the stairs back down.

If you stick your head down the side alleys, they're full of restaurants serving pretty solid traditional Korean stuff.  They're also good for a drink.  Lots of places try their best to make it clear that they will gladly serve you alcohol.  Unfortunately, I wasn't traveling with drinkers.  Maybe next time.

 

Also near the hotel are some cool historical sites -- well, I guess in a town as old as Seoul, you're never really far from history.  Anyway, the hotel is literally down the block from Donhwamun gate, where you can pay a small fee to have a look at the Changdeokgung palace grounds.  We skipped it for no real reason on this trip and mostly had a look around the outside, which is nicely lit at night and rather pretty in the snow.  It's a warm sight to see after a long day of walking around to let you know that you've made it back.

Also within walking distance (about 15 minutes) of Noble Hotel is Gwanghwamun gate at Gyeongbokgung Palace, where we decided to actually have a look around and test out my new camera.  The palace grounds tend to be nice and rather serene places to have a quiet stroll through, once you get far enough away from the herds of Chinese tourists.

Seoul is also great for shopping.  Check out the Apgujeong area in the Gangnam district for the latest in fashion trends both foreign and domestic.  Like with music, Korea likes to adopt a lot of cues from the West for clothing.  However, they do make a name for themselves with socks.  Koreans make awesome socks.

Anyway.  Apgujeong.  Think SoHo in NYC with little boutiques that sell things both high and low.  You can find some serious four-digit designer wear, but most of the stuff is perfectly affordable and practical, but still refreshingly cool.  I scored myself an awesome down jacket for $120 with a gigantic space marine helmet of a hood.  I wasn't originally in the market for a new jacket, but the one I brought with me was inadequate, and it was just so damn cold in Seoul.  I also grabbed a big pile of socks to bring home for everyone.  That really made souvenir shopping a breeze.  It was socks for everyone.  So far, I've had no complaints.

Sorry if the photos in this post feel a bit "lonely".  I have a 50mm lens on the Bessa (yep, all the photos in this post and the one after it were shot on film), and it does snug the frame up considerably over the 35mm equivalent on the X100S.  What ends up happening is that my photos at 50mm end up being of single subjects.  Maybe two or three if they're close friends or working together on something.

The wider angle on the Fuji really brought in a lot of context while losing a little bit of the individuals in the scene, though it almost requires having people in the frame to give some meaning to all the noise.  You could "zoom with your feet" and take a step back, but I just like being in the middle of things.

Don't worry, though.  The purpose of this post was to show you some of the things we did and saw as tourists in Seoul.  The next post will be more about the people of Seoul and living among them.

Anyway, happy Lunar New Year, everyone.  Stay tuned for more!