So, we’re 2 weeks in, that’s halfway through our stay in South Korea. Here are some thoughts on Seoul…

This shit is big.
I mean, obviously I knew Seoul was big, but it is much bigger than Google maps would have you think. Possibly because of the hills everywhere – you can’t always just go straight to where you want to go. Plus, Korea doesn’t really fuck with Google so their mapping is limited which is unhelpful.

Cars doin their thang.
Cars are very patient with pedestrians, you can just walk along the road (small roads, of course) and they will crawl along behind you. But they will also just stop wherever they damn want. On this corner, yep. In front of this driveway? Sure, why not. Right in the way of traffic, okey dokey. I’m just gonna block this road, but it’s okay cos I have my hazard lights on. What ever works for you, Seoul. Oh, and motorbikes – do the road rules not apply? They go straight through red lights when the green man is on!

Toilet paper – to flush or not to flush?
I started noticing some signs in toilets – at first all in Korean, then some with bad translations, then finally one with enough English I could work out what they meant: “don’t flush your used toilet paper”. WTF. Then I noticed bins next to toilets… ewwww. Apparently when Seoul upgraded to Western style toilets for the 1988 Olympics they couldn’t handle all the loo paper, low water pressure, yadda yadda yadda, and now it’s a continuing myth (possibly) that you can’t flush toilet paper. Some nicer toilets like in malls will have signs specifically saying flush – so I don’t know. I’m just gonna flush it and I’m sorry if I break your sewer system Seoul.

South Korea vs Japan?
We keep comparing Korea to Japan; they are similar but very different at the same time. It would be interesting to see what my first impressions would have been if we hadn’t been to Japan first, but time travel doesn’t exist so, y’know, that’s a no-go. I also wonder how comfortable we would feel here without our prior travel experience. There’s minimal English and we don’t know any Korean (“hello” and “thank you” is it, and I barely say them), and Korean is often anglicised in varying ways, but we are managing fine without it.

Free WIFI for everyone!
The internet here is great. I don’t know why people buy sim cards or portable wifi thingees when they are here: you can get free wifi almost everywhere. Malls, restaurants, cafes, just out in the street! Of course, there are some spots you can’t get it, but google maps is shit here anyway, so just find a real life map and you’re good to go!