You never find happiness faster than when you're lost in a foreign land. Haha. That is, if getting lost was your intention to begin with.
It was the year 2013, and I was at Seoul, South Korea on a business trip for 2 months. I knew little Korean - barely enough to get by, and I knew that I wanted to see as much of Seoul as possible.
One fine weekend - the first one infact, I woke up to the sun shining through my window. It was supposed to be raining! I had made no plans. Not that I knew anyone outside of work...but I would have found out about places to check out if I'd known it was going to be sunny.
I had just 7 weekends there, and I intended to make the most out of all of them. Who cares if it was just the first of them.
I had a map from the hotel, a pretty one, which had cartoon representations of important places to visit. There was one tricky part before that though. I had a metro card, but knew nothing about the metro.
I set out anyway, how hard could it be!
The metro station was only about 200 mts from the hotel, and with Korea's amazing wifi connectivity, though I didn't have a number there, my phone latched on to open wifi s and I was always connected.
I got in, decided that I'm going to figure out the subway system.
The Gangnam Station - I was staying at Gangnam, you see - was on of the biggest on Seoul, with a huge underground shopping area.
I found out where to get on the trains with the help of a friendly stranger who decided it was easier to just walk me to the trains rather than try to communicate between my broken korean and her broken english. She also showed me how to use the card - even adding a pro bono class or where to recharge it. Very sweet of her I must say!
We reached the trains, but our communication level could not help her clarify where I wanted to go. I couldn't make her understand that I had no clue! hehe. She might have thought I was crazy then.
I got on line 2, without knowing which direction it was headed. I had a simple agenda initially. Find out how the metro worked.
I saw the lights blink as it reached each of the various stations.
The subway travellers at Seoul are wonderfully entertaining. Most are hooked to their headphones and staring into their phones - watching a drama and quietly laughing to themselves, or chatting with someone on Kakao talk, Few students study from their books, Atleast a couple of couples wearing matching T shirts and having lovey dovey arguments in their own little world - or sharing headphones, and there are always women wearing sky high stilletos, but perfectly balancing themselves in the moving train - even without holding onto anything.
I decided to get off at Bong-Cheong station - purely because it sounded fun. Oh the joy of getting to do absolutely anything you please!
I got off the station, and found that this was a much smaller station, easier to navigate my way out. Once out, I wandered around enjoying the fall colours, and watching the different hues of orange swirl and dance their way down.
I ended up at some shopping street. I picked up some note books. I loved that day.
I got lost, and then found myself near another metro station after asking a wrinkly old grandma. Our conversation was all of three words - repeated multiple times - and a lot of smiles
"Metro Station Oediyaeyo?"
"Ahh...Methroo?"
"Nae..Metro"
A lot of pointing, me looking confused, more pointing, me nodding because I didn't want to bother her too much.
Smiling and saying okay, and she smiling and looking confused - her turn to wonder if I understood.
Turns out the pointing was bang on, I ended up at Sillim.
This time I found the difference between the train directions and how to figure which go towards and away from Gangnam. Ended up back there and also wandered around the station figuring it out like I would a mall that I might have to keep coming back to.
Isn't it lovely to end up at places by chance, places you might never go (read find) again yet have enough time to wander around there in peace, and get back home with an insignificant but peaceful memory?
I found a noodle store not far from where I stayed - between the station and the hotel. They had pictures next to the name of each dish (yaay!) I picked something that looked delicious, it delivered :)
Went back and slept in peace.
The next day, I was actually going to find a destination ;) Though that sounded boring just then!
Annyoung :)
I had just 7 weekends there, and I intended to make the most out of all of them. Who cares if it was just the first of them.
I had a map from the hotel, a pretty one, which had cartoon representations of important places to visit. There was one tricky part before that though. I had a metro card, but knew nothing about the metro.
I set out anyway, how hard could it be!
The metro station was only about 200 mts from the hotel, and with Korea's amazing wifi connectivity, though I didn't have a number there, my phone latched on to open wifi s and I was always connected.
I got in, decided that I'm going to figure out the subway system.
The Gangnam Station - I was staying at Gangnam, you see - was on of the biggest on Seoul, with a huge underground shopping area.
I found out where to get on the trains with the help of a friendly stranger who decided it was easier to just walk me to the trains rather than try to communicate between my broken korean and her broken english. She also showed me how to use the card - even adding a pro bono class or where to recharge it. Very sweet of her I must say!
We reached the trains, but our communication level could not help her clarify where I wanted to go. I couldn't make her understand that I had no clue! hehe. She might have thought I was crazy then.
I got on line 2, without knowing which direction it was headed. I had a simple agenda initially. Find out how the metro worked.
I saw the lights blink as it reached each of the various stations.
The subway travellers at Seoul are wonderfully entertaining. Most are hooked to their headphones and staring into their phones - watching a drama and quietly laughing to themselves, or chatting with someone on Kakao talk, Few students study from their books, Atleast a couple of couples wearing matching T shirts and having lovey dovey arguments in their own little world - or sharing headphones, and there are always women wearing sky high stilletos, but perfectly balancing themselves in the moving train - even without holding onto anything.
I decided to get off at Bong-Cheong station - purely because it sounded fun. Oh the joy of getting to do absolutely anything you please!
I got off the station, and found that this was a much smaller station, easier to navigate my way out. Once out, I wandered around enjoying the fall colours, and watching the different hues of orange swirl and dance their way down.
I ended up at some shopping street. I picked up some note books. I loved that day.
I got lost, and then found myself near another metro station after asking a wrinkly old grandma. Our conversation was all of three words - repeated multiple times - and a lot of smiles
"Metro Station Oediyaeyo?"
"Ahh...Methroo?"
"Nae..Metro"
A lot of pointing, me looking confused, more pointing, me nodding because I didn't want to bother her too much.
Smiling and saying okay, and she smiling and looking confused - her turn to wonder if I understood.
Turns out the pointing was bang on, I ended up at Sillim.
This time I found the difference between the train directions and how to figure which go towards and away from Gangnam. Ended up back there and also wandered around the station figuring it out like I would a mall that I might have to keep coming back to.
Isn't it lovely to end up at places by chance, places you might never go (read find) again yet have enough time to wander around there in peace, and get back home with an insignificant but peaceful memory?I found a noodle store not far from where I stayed - between the station and the hotel. They had pictures next to the name of each dish (yaay!) I picked something that looked delicious, it delivered :)
Went back and slept in peace.
The next day, I was actually going to find a destination ;) Though that sounded boring just then!
Annyoung :)
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