Seoul I: Let the Eating Begin

I arrived in Seoul ready to eat, since the food on the plane left something to be desired, like the Sandra Bullock buddy comedy that was shown along with it.  I found a regular ol' Korean place in the airport that was packed with real deal Koreans so I figured it had to be passable.  I got a bowl of udon and veggies and stuffed myself right, then hopped on the airport express train to the main transit station where I boarded the metro to the hood of my hostel.  I didn't know they did this in Korea, but they do the cram-jam onto the subway like they're being forced on by fascists with cattle prods.  By the time my station came up, I was packed into the middle of the car and, not knowing how to say, "pardon me," or "let me off this thing!" I silently forced my way out.  If only these people spoke Spanish or something!

Outside of the metro, it was dark out with the haze of a 10 million person machine visible in the glow of the street lights, but not too cold.  I followed the directions I had written down in my notepad and stopped upon seeing an illustrated menu at a riceball shop where I got a riceball filled with kimchi and a bowl of broth for $1.50 and ate it with some college kids who, I assume go to school at the University in the hood.  The kimchi was probably the worst kimchi I'd ever had, but bad kimch>no kimchi and for the price, I wasn't gonna complain.





sick bashguard, brah.



I finally got to the hostel and got situated then headed out to to take photos and to try to avoid going to bed at 8.  I stayed out for a bit then went back and fell asleep in my 4 bed dorm that was occupied by 2 nice 21-ish Australian bros doing the 6 month asia trip thing.  They got back at 5 in the morning just as I was getting up.

I figured I could find a 24 hr food provider and headed out for the day, finding a restaurant run by two middle aged ladies that had a picture menu that I used to point out that I wanted bibimbap.  It always comes with small dishes of items like kimchi, pickled radish, etc.  This time, in addition to the usuals, it came with what I think was fake meat wiener sliced up with sesame seeds sprinkled atop.  After eating I looked through my Lonely Planet for things to do at 6am and I found a 24hr fish market that was supposed to be pretty dank as far as fish markets go.  This would likely sate my lust for photo ops of dead animals. 



prpl haze

fish market exterior

I hopped on the metro and got off at the fishmarket stop when upon crossing the pedestrian bridge over the tracks to the fish building, I began to smell fish on the roof before I got to the stairs to make my way down to the sea-meat.  I went downstairs to the market which stretched further than seemed possible in either direction, sea life/death of all sorts glistening under giant CFL bulbs.  The smell wasn't as strong as I thought it would be, but it was in the low 40s outside.  I can't imagine what it smells like in the summer.  Anyway, mind blown.  The amount of bio mass in that one giant building seemed impossible.  How could all these animals be harvested without completely depleting the ocean of all life?  And on a daily basis!   Ahh, that's right!  Ocean=nearly sucked dry.  I get that there are 20 million or so people in the Seoul metro area and that they gotta eat, but fuuuuuck.  I guess this is an illustrated lesson on overfishing and human indifference to non-human suffering. I realize that my relationship with meat is somewhat sanitized and as a "conscious omnivore" I guess I'm also conflicted seeing the total capitalist honesty of these folks.  See photos below for excellent atrocity:

rayz



cool amidst the chaos





fish anat 101



city hall

 I left the fish market as it was approaching 9am when the non-fish related attractions opened.  I headed to the city hall stop on the metro and popped in, took a picture of the new city hall lobby, and then headed to some palace complex that housed a modern art museum within its walls.  It turns out, and I kinda already knew this, but I don't really give a fuck about palaces or whatever, rather, my interest generally lies in contemporary beauties, oddities, and travesties.  The museum inside the palace complex had a retrospective on 20th century Korean painting that was pretty interesting and featured some ink paintings by Soo Hyun Noh.  The nice thing about Seoul thus far is that museums are generally pretty cheap, in the $1-$7 range.

As I was leaving the palace complex, there were a bunch of kids getting they's picture took with some dudes dressed up in traditional Korean palace guard attire, who maintained straight faces through the goofing.  One guy was armed with a bow and quiver full of reed arrows.   He sported a fake gotee, among his clean shaven blade-on-a-stick wielding subordinates.  They did a big changing of the guard routine and the old guards marched off to their barracks (I'm sure), past the Dunkin Donuts (where I had a really excellent chocolate donut before entering the palace complex YOLO).

 Then I headed to a much larger palace complex that was on the way to the Art Gallery Strasse.  In the massive courtyard there were booths erected in celebration of kimchi and all its various incarnations.  There were sample dishes next to the display dishes that folks picked at with their fingers which I thought was rather unsanitary for a culture where surgical face masks are the norm for the sickly and for the folks who are not down with the sickness (o-wacka-wacka).  As I was wandering towards the exit, I was approached by a middle aged man who asked where I was from, my name (his was Sam) if I was an English teacher or tourist, how long I'd been there, what my job was, where I was staying, what I was doing right then, etc.  He said he was Korean American and lived in SF and was constantly being sent by his boss to Korea to make deals with start ups n such.  Seemed like a nice guy, but his line of questioning, especially the "where are you staying" question seemed a little sudden and unreasonable, reminiscent of my pals in India who so liked my beard.  He offered to show me around the palace, but I declined saying that I was gonna go back to my hostel and take a nap which was kinda true.  I bid him farewell and thanked him for his offer and strolled off in the direction of the art galleries, safe in my (possibly reasonable) paranoia.

Then I hit up the Art Gallery street which had a bunch of Hyundai galleries, most of which had some really great work.  The best was a bunch of 1/2 size human forms cast in resin and rendered incredibly accurately and realistically.  See below.  The baldheaded sitting woman was probably the most terrifying piece of art I've ever seen.  I was literally scared that she would come to life and punk me as I gawked at her, inches from her face as a dare to myself.    I'm a sucker for, like dead fish, realism.  Then I went to the modern and contemporary art museum that had some incredible works too including but not limited to:

1. giant blackened room with a grid of static-zapping beacons that were programmed to zap in patterns reminiscent of a crowd clapping in sync.  The patterns changed and after a few cycles, I laid down on the floor looking up and pretended I was on drugz.  It was LOUD! 

2. Giant blue building made of fabric with a traditional korean building inside, also made of fabric.  I can't even conceive of how it was designed and fabricated.

3. Weird Star Trek looking organism that lit up and made sounds. 

 

 

In one of the galleries, a very attractive 18 year old-ish gal approached me and said hi.  I expected her to speak to me in English (why else would she approach me?) and when she started talking in ganja/cough syrup-slowed Korean and looked at me like I should understand her I just stood there trying to think of how to say Sorry I don't speak Korean in Korean until I realized I didn't and said, "Sorry, I don't speak Korean," in English.  I should make a flash card of that phrase just in case anyone else thinks I, for some reason am more worldy than I am.   

At another gallery I done saw a water tank with an ink jet printer device on rails directly above it that printed a skull made of arabic characters on the water's surface.  The ink slowly sank down.  It was druuuugs-good.

My kinda lamp!
 

nearly alive

Some day I will own this.
 

youthful police, getting ready for a riot at the art museum

bukchong

As I was leaving the Art museum there were a bunch of men in black suits with walky talkies milling about the lobby and a bunch of unarmed neon-garbed unarmed very young cops outside in a courtyard with riot shields.  I wondered if they were real cops or just the standins for bullshit activities like this (standing around, not doing anything).  My understanding is that there is ZERO crime in Seoul, except maybe for organized so all the cops hanging out in one place, just looking cute might not be a big deal.  I asked a bunch of people in the museum what was going on and the best explanation I got was that there was about to be a protest, against what, no one knew or was willing to explain.  I hung around for a bit, watching the police hang out awaiting orders.  I do love documenting cops being dicks, but I got bored and walked away, finding myself in Bukchong, a neighborhood of traditional style homes.  

bringing power to the past



rooftop jardin



bleached eyebrows, thought you should know



Then I stumbled upon the Savina museum, which cost $1 to get into and had a retrospective of an artist whose name I can't remember, but had had some cool works  of melting stars and illustrative ink drawings.  



riot cops

On the way back to the metro I found the protest which consisted of a couple hundred women sitting peacefully on the inner half of the sidewalk who were chanting every so often and holding up banners which I obviously couldn't read.  This was outside of the Hyundai building and the ridiculousness of the police presence made me chuckle.  I guess they were just there for the purpose of intimidation.  Suckers.

dinner