Being a city person, I enjoy walking around urban centers, especially in Asia, exploring the streets and neighborhoods in the company of the locals. I did plenty of that this trip, in weather that was faultless: eighty degrees, sunshine, and low humidity. May, September, and October are the best times to visit Korea if you want to enjoy a near-perfect weather. I've been on the peninsula during each of these months and find September to be ideal. An unusual climatic distraction did happen to me this trip for which I was unprepared: hay fever. I suffer from it at home during September but have never had itchy eyes on any previous vacation here. Happily I was able to get the equivalent of Allegra and Zaditor at a pharmacy on Monday morning, my third day, eliminating the problem.
As I've mentioned in other pages on this website, it is such a pleasure and honor just to spend time in the ROK that for the past several trips I've made no big, formal plans, knowing that my asphalt and cement walkabouts would keep me entertained. I set minor goals of seeing two concerts and one baseball game during the seven-day and eight-night stay, but that's it—and I exceeded those by one. In total I attended three concerts at the glorious Seoul Arts Center, enjoying a string quartet, a piano trio, and a violinist accompanied by a pianist. The Korean artists played music by Brahms, Dvorak, Janacek, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, and a living Korean composer, who was present at the performance of his composition. And I loved it all. Had I stayed longer I'd have attended more.
As I've mentioned in other pages on this website, it is such a pleasure and honor just to spend time in the ROK that for the past several trips I've made no big, formal plans, knowing that my asphalt and cement walkabouts would keep me entertained. I set minor goals of seeing two concerts and one baseball game during the seven-day and eight-night stay, but that's it—and I exceeded those by one. In total I attended three concerts at the glorious Seoul Arts Center, enjoying a string quartet, a piano trio, and a violinist accompanied by a pianist. The Korean artists played music by Brahms, Dvorak, Janacek, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, and a living Korean composer, who was present at the performance of his composition. And I loved it all. Had I stayed longer I'd have attended more.
I spent my Sunday afternoon at Jamsil Stadium, watching the Doosan Bears play the visiting KT Wiz, a team new to the Korea Baseball Organization. Based in nearby Suwon, the Wiz, like virtually all first-year teams in any sport in any league, have spent the season in last place, but they played the Bears close, finally losing 4–3, despite a modest attempt at a ninth-inning rally. Though the game was fun to watch, the action was, as always for me, in the stands, with the incredible Korean baseball fans, pounding their thundersticks and singing those songs in unison. I know of nothing like it in the West.
There's no real order to the rest of the pictures, just a few more memories of this city I love so much.
Seoul: always building, always getting better
I'm going to be radical in 2016 and not vacation in Asia. Though I'm not the least bit tired of the Big Four (Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and mainland China) it will be good for me to see something else. And based on my incredible South African experience that finished less than two weeks before this Korean trip began, I've decided to visit Cape Town and Durban at the bottom of the Dark Continent next year. But I'll return to the Land of the Morning Calm in 2017 and will assuredly think about it and its wonderful people every day until then.