And here we are at long last - the FINAL post of the Korea Trip 2010 series - the last leg of my journey. I got a little tired of lugging a camera around so towards the end of my trip so my picture taking got sporadic.... In any case, by this time I was back in Seoul and visited some actual tourist attractions ^_^:
The pic on the left is the Chosun Ilbo newspaper building. They have an English version of their paper in America if you're curious, though quite frankly, the quality of their journalism leaves a lot to be desired.
The pic in the middle is quite a famous tourist attraction in Gwanghwamun Plaza: a statue of Admiral Yi Sun Shin, a well-loved Joseon era military commander. His claim to fame is inventing turtle ships :D If you want to learn more about this segment of Korean history in a fairly amusing way, you can watch the kdrama Immortal Admiral Yi Sun. I didn't watch it, but my dad loved it >_> Anyway, you can't tell from the picture but this statue is located right between two roads (here's a better pic from Little Bow). It's not that hard to cross though it is intimidating having cars speeding past you in two directions. It's worth the journey though, especially during the summer, because the statue is surrounded by fountains you cool yourself in ^_^
I forgot what the little building on the right is called. However, I will say that I loved seeing all those traditional buildings sandwiched between all the high rises... I want to say something poetic about cultural tradition holding fast against the relentless forward thrust of modernism, but some things you just have to see for yourself to understand :)
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To start from the beginning: Part 1: Flying to Tokyo