Seoul (서울)

After yesterdays heavy fall on the mattress, this morning brought a very vigorous start. By which I mean, there's no intelligence before noon and even standing upright required at least double digits.

Korea brings quite a mixback between the other Asian cultures that I'm used to. The big brothers China and Japan each seem to have their own share of influence. Mainly, getting run into like back when I was in China, but in contrast, I had a whole group of people who refused to move before I was done with my picture, no matter how much I tried to let them pass. Everytime that I seem to have some way of holding onto a reference that I'm used to from other Asian countries, they surprise me yet again.

One of us has a friend that lives here and was willing to take a couple of days off work to show us around. Only problem: while this friend is bilingual, the second language is chinese and therefore not compatible with all of us. Two of us had a great time speaking with her, but after making the mistake at some point of asking where we were going and a half hour discussion ensuing trying to explain it to us (whilst I think changing their minds every 20 seconds), us two english speakers decided that the sheep approach was probably far more efficient.

The temperature (whilst measured as pretty low) was actually pretty acceptable through the entire day. It was only when night time struck that various limbs started dropping off. Currently being defrosted whilst I look for the super glue. Lesson learnt: need more layers, especially when it comes to socks. But after 16km of walking on the first day, I think my feet deserve a break.

Whilst shopping made up a significant chunk of today, it did lead to another one joining our travel team. The green bunny is green, extremely fluffy, molts well on black coats, and in need of a Korean name.