KOREAN DUCK SAUCE: SEOUL & DMZ

on 1st of december lady winter came to seoul and brought below zero temperatures and snow,
however following weekend it was sunny.
inha university actually is located in the town of incheon in metropolitan area, from dorms to the capital's city centre it still takes roughly 100 mins by sub

soo this was my first real visit of seoul

admiral reaching higher than high-rises

walking from the city hall towards the gyeongbokgung palace complex you reach the statue of great admiral yi sun-shin who won several naval battles even when outnumbered in 16th century during japanese invasion

few yards further sits king sejong the great - the inventor of korean alphabet hangul which was presented in 15th century by king stating following:

"Because the speech of this country is different from that of China, it [the spoken language] does not match the [Chinese] letters. Therefore, even if the ignorant want to communicate, many of them in the end cannot state their concerns. Saddened by this, I have [had] 28 letters newly made. It is my wish that all the people may easily learn these letters and that [they] be convenient for daily use."

hangul is clean, logical and easy to learn

consequently i reached the gate of gyeongbokgung, i admire the guards for standing 3 hrs in freezing temperatures (in those boots) until changing of the guard happens

louis vuitton

mighty entrance to the entrance

there is still place to chill in seoul:

from tales of chinese zodiac:

jazz jackrabbit's grandpa

history vs. modern

later i headed to colossal street markets of namdaemun and dongdaemun --i will go back shopping, there i was overwhelmed by everything, well, they sell everything, i forgot to take a picture

that's how we do in da kitchen yo

after i aimed to get to my airbnb accommodation in itaewon, on the way over the namsan park again

historically, itaewon was residential district of american expats, later english teachers, now it is welcoming international district for everyone to enjoy nightlife, it is famous for hooker hill and gay clubs which are not that much warmly accepted elsewhere. sorry, i do not have any photo of a hooker

multi purpose exhibitions halls on the han river

the banpo bridge below has led lights and water fountain show, there are 380 nozzles on each side to shoot totally 190 tons of water per a minute (source (kr))
to be lighten up by led lights to create rainbow effect (picture google this: Banpodaegyo rainbow)

one of the 27 bridges to cross the river in seoul

but it did not operate because it was like vladivostok real feel temperatures, duh

i finished the evening with supertasty kebap

--

next morning

from seoul station i took dmz train towards the north - demilitarized zone is cirka 4km wide buffer zone on the borders where both koreas agreed not to place any military facilities/equipment

flower power

this hippie cheerful train with stickers saying "love peace Harmony" was gonna take us to place which could be possible the ground zero for the third world war.......

near the borders, on the imjingang stop our passports had been checked in order to continue

from here it is only 209 km to dpkr's capital

afterwards we proceeded slowly through last railway bridge, the vicinity of railtrack was isolated by barb wired fence-- from speakers you could hear the theme song from superfamous korean war movie Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War (btw, personally strongly recommended, it has very emotive story).
and also instrumental composition Heart asks pleasure first. All these influences together gave varied and noticeable feelings.

in a few minutes, we finished the ride in the last stop of south korea dorasan, which is at the same time considered as the first stop towards the north.

there is created something called peace park - does this looks peaceful in your eyes? :D

below, one of many unification symbols - generally, south korean aim is to unify the counties, they are same people, same language, same ancestors, common heritage. but after korean war nonsesual political ideologies brought different development and it hinders the unification

we boarded shuttle bus to take us to the 3rd infiltration tunnel. it was discovered in 1978 - north koreans claimed it was just a coal mine...it is also called tunnel of aggression and it is believed that north koreans wanted to utilize it for direct land assault of the seoul

you descend through steep bored walkway and after hundred of meters you reach the actual tunnel