Seoul is a crazy place!
People will push you out of their way, men spit on the street, burping, farting, slurping your food, sneezing without covering your mouth, it is all allowed - and almost expected - to be done at the table or anywhere you feel like it.
Motorbikes drive on the footpath, against the traffic and the rider will seldom clap his hands to let you know he is coming through (beeping is even less popular), so better get out of the way. Women are naturally gracious and the children are mostly very cute. Every where you look there are teddy bears telling you to buy stuff with lots of sparkles and funny music - annoying music. The newest fad cartoon is 'happy panda' who claims to be 'your alter ego' and talks about 'challenges' even though I didn't quite get what the challenge was all about other than to understand whatever the creators of the panda meant. A happy panda t-shirt read: "Happy Panda. I am your Alter Ego. Follow me. Conquer. Challenge - (some Chinese characters) Let's have happy day" I didn't buy it but I really wanted it, alas! the bloody Koreans are soooooooooo petite I looked big and fat next to them (!!).
The smell of the city was a horrible mix of Kimchi, pickled vegetables, rotten fruits, human waste and sweat.
It is a nice city despite all of my initial shock as I didn't expect it to be so crowded and dirty. Lovely temples, palaces and parks, with lots of museums and things to do if you feel like doing stuff - I didn't, I was tired and the humid heat doesn't help (about 38C) but I have walked a lot and seen temples and palaces and sat in lovely parks and I even managed to master the greetings and thank you, and how to get a subway ticket and order food without an English menu, if I ate dog only time will tell, I hope I didn't...
