| My
Second Trip to Seoul, September 23 – 25, 2011
I just got back from
my second trip to Seoul, Korea this year… I flew to Detroit
September 23, Thursday morning…early (people who know me know
that I like to get to airports early)… there were two flights I
could have used to make the connection but I wanted to try the
one that left at 6:30 a.m. so the other one could be my backup…
I caught a bus at the corner of Stillwater and McKnight Roads at
4:55 a.m…. it was still very dark, of course, and the bus stop
there is overhung with the cottonwood trees and brush that grows
along the side of Beaver Lake… across the street from the bus
stop is a gorgeous oak tree… it is not huge but about mature and
maybe 35 feet tall… every time I am at that stop, I am reminded
how beautiful, stately and amazing trees are to look at… as I
try to memorize the shape of the branches so I can use that in a
drawing some time…
Thursday morning, it
was raining lightly and the top of the tree was outlined against
the blue gray of the early morning city sky… the Zen balance of
the black branches and leaves against that gray sky was just
breathtaking…
The bus came and I
made it to the airport… seeing all of the early morning
commuters looking tired and hung over for the most part, made me
think about how lucky I am these days and have been in this
life… I barely got on the flight… there was one person who was
apparently late for the flight and the gate agent said that if
that person did not get there when it was time to close the
door, the seat was mine because I was next on the standby list…
so, I was, as usual, the last person on the plane… and then, on
an old MD 60, we were up into the sunrise to Detroit… which
looks better from the air than from ground level… lol from the
standby screen, I could tell that I was going to get on the long
flight from DTW to ICN, so I called Hotels.com and booked a room
in Incheon near the airport for $70 (the cheapest hotel that had
an airport shuttle)…
Then at noon, the
big 777 started loading and soon we were heading across Canada…
I was in coach with a window seat, so could look out but was
over the middle of the huge wings, so could not see as well as I
had hoped but, it was cloudy most of the way anyhow… the clouds
cleared for a while over northern Canada just as we were passing
over the border between the Northwest Territories and the Yukon
Territory… not much evidence of human habitation up that way…
just brown hills and lakes everywhere… beautiful of course as
this planet mostly is, but desolate…
After about 14 hours
in the air, it was good to walk off the plane in Seoul Incheon
Airport which is a bright and modern facility… customs was
friendly and quick since I had no baggage except my backpack…
and the info desk called the hotel for me and asked them to send
the shuttle… I like to have a hotel booked for a flight like
this because after so long in the air, I am always tired and a
bit spacey so it is good to have a place to go that is easy… I
cashed in $40 for Korean Won and walked out to wait for the
shuttle… it was a gorgeous day maybe 75 degrees Fahrenheit and
sunny with a nice breeze… I was a bit surprised to find that in
the small town of Incheon, nobody including the shuttle driver
or the hotel people, spoke English and unlike in Seoul proper,
none of the signage was in English either… but the people were
so friendly and helpful that checking in was a breeze… the room
was on the sixth floor with a nice view of the huge bridge that
links Incheon with Seoul… and in the distance I could see the
hazy outlines of tall buildings… across the bay and to the left
and right too… I went for an hour walk and saw mostly shops of
various kinds and in every vacant lot a garden or small farm
with neat rows of plants, usually with an elderly person
(someone my age or older lol) tending the crops… nice to see the
land being used productively and the old people as well… I
bought a Coke Zero and a large bottle of water for about a
dollar and a half and walked back to the hotel, drank the water
and fell asleep at about 6 p.m. just a bit jet lagged…
Woke up at about
3:30 a.m. well rested and flipped through the tv channels not
surprised to see three or four channels of soft core porn… among
the soap operas… turned off the tv and worked on a drawing until
9 a.m. the hotel room was good sized with a large very hard bed
and a big flat screen tv… there also was a computer in the room
I could have used and an assortment of personal items including
condoms on the dresser… a great idea, I think, that the hotels
provide condoms so that even the most stupid, intoxicated,
whatever person who gets laid in the hotel has a condom at hand…
which must help prevent both stds and unwanted pregnancies…
makes good sense to me…
I had reserved the
shuttle for 9 a.m. and when I boarded the shuttle there were
already two men in the back seat who looked like Americans to me
so I commented about what a nice morning it was… and one of them
said “yes we are lucky” in a slightly German accent…
I figured out
the train from Incheon to Gimpo airport (the other Seoul
airport) with no problem and got on the subway at Gimpo… most of
the ride from Incheon to Gimpo was above ground (or water) and
so I got to see the mountains and endless columns of buildings
in the morning mist (smog?) looking very oriental and
mysterious… and the vast flat plains of what looked like mud
along the shorelines…
The Seoul subways
were every bit as nice and as busy as I remembered so after one
transfer at the Jongno 3 station, I got off at Anguk… my plan
was to have breakfast at a Dunkin Donuts place that I remembered
as being near the Anguk subway station, but I could not find it…
I think I went out the wrong door… and so I tried a waffle from
a little shop that was selling waffles on the street… the waffle
was hot with a smear of whipped cream or butter and a big smear
of honey, folded in half and served with the bottom wrapped in
paper so you could carry it without dripping all over the place…
and it was delicious… but then, I was pretty hungry…
After walking around
a bit, I went to Jay’s gallery… Jay was doing a presentation
that afternoon for some of his gallery artists and he invited me
to stay for the presentation… the purpose of the trip was for me
to pick up the art that Jay had shown for me in July… I said
that I could stay if we could find a cheap enough hotel and so
Jay graciously offered to find one for me… we set off on foot
through the very tangled streets of this part of Seoul and it
was really cool to just follow Jay without having to worry about
getting lost… Jay is a very good walker but the first couple
hotels we tried were full… so Jay offered to buy me lunch and
took me to this amazing Chinese restaurant where we had a bowl
of delicious noodles with gravy, onions and vegetables… Jay’s
friend was with and they were both extremely gracious and did
not laugh at my clumsiness with the chopsticks and the noodles…
Then we found a
small hotel that had a very nice room for $42… and since it was
almost 2 p.m. we went back to Jay’s gallery which was
surprisingly, only a couple blocks away… and he set up for the
presentation… it was very interesting to meet the artists, some
of whom were American expatriates and one a Frenchman (who
currently has a show up at Jay Gallery)… and the presentation
went very well… the subject of the presentation was a concept
Jay has for the cooperative copyrighting and marketing of the
art that his artists make… and since I do not sell art, was not
something I was actually involved in… still the talk about the
philosophy of art marketing was very interesting and I wish Jay
and his artists great success in their endeavors… God knows the
art market is a vicious and cut throat business and a place
which I think is hopefully ripe for the kind of innovative
thinking that Jay brings…
Anyway, after the
presentation, we all looked at my art which I unpacked and
spread out on the floor and talked about how good of a candidate
I would be for a Freudian scholar…
Then Jay took myself
and three friends to the Seoul arts festival which happened to
be going on that day at the Seoul convention center… there were
acres and acres of booths from many galleries from Seoul and
other places including Australia, New York, Germany and several
other countries… showing their prize works by their best
artists… Jay introduced me to some of his friends and colleagues
(both artists and dealers)… and we looked at a lot of art… my
overall impression of the fair was of a million voices
screaming, crying and whimpering for attention in a million
languages, some totally incomprehensible… and of much art with
the very strong retinal message “look at me…” about 80% of what
I saw was paintings and in some of the booths were old masters
like Picasso… of all the paintings, while I saw much of
interest, I did not see one piece where I could honestly say,
“god, I wish I had painted that…” which says more about me
perhaps than about the art… but, for an old recluse like me who
never looks at contemporary art, it was, I think a very healthy
exercise to see what the international contemporary gallery
world is calling “art” these days…
By the time we made
it back to Anguk station I was tired and a bit footsore… but
though I was still pretty full from the huge bowl of noodles,
Jay and his friend invited me for a traditional Korean dinner…
half of the restaurant had the low tables and people seated on
the floor while the other half was tables and chairs… I
deference to me (old man not used to sitting on the floor lol)
we sat at a table and due to my clumsiness with the chopsticks,
Jay’s friend was considerate and obtained a fork for me… the
food they ordered was a fish stew cooked on a gas burner at the
table… served with some small side dishes of condiments… the
stew was very delicious and even though I was not very hungry, I
managed to eat a large bowl…
Then Jay and his
friend were going to shop for a souvenir for the friend’s wife
(the friend was visiting from the island at the southern tip of
Korea… and after the meal and all the walking, (sorry Mary!!) I
was pretty much done in and had to decline their offer to go
shopping and went back to the hotel to sleep…
The next morning
(Sunday) I made my leisurely way back to Incheon Airport, had a
Sausage McMuffin at the airport McDonalds and cashed in my
remaining won (20,000 won) for dollars ($17)… the flight back
was long and uneventful (watched 4 movies)… and after not
getting on the first flight I tried from DTW to MSP, I managed
to get a seat on the ten p.m. flight so got back to MSP about
midnight… and got the second to last #74 bus downtown in St.
Paul, back out to Beaver Lake… walking along Beaver Lake, I saw
the lights reflecting off the water and the big old cottonwood
trees rustling their branches… then I was home and glad enough
to be after 25 hours in transit…
Seoul is an amazing
modern and cosmopolitan city which retains its history but seems
to embrace the modern, electronic, plugged in world… every
single person I met was as friendly and welcoming as they could
have been and I could not recommend it more strongly as a
vacation destination….
A
Trip to Seoul September 23 to 25, 2011
I
traveled
from the intricate
branches of an oak tree
etched
against a rainy blue/gray sky,
to an auditorium filled
with Picasso and his
millions of
children
I walked on old cobblestones
and rode on shiny steel rails
everyone was polite
enough not to laugh
at
a fat old American
with
artistic pretensions… I had no use
for the condom on the dresser,
but it did
remind me that love
is everywhere
and
can take many
forms
|
