Sopa de massa / Noodle soup: Korea

After Tokyo (the largest metropolis in the known world) I stopped for 4 days in Seoul (the second largest one). I didn't know much more about Korea than what we see in the news. Let me tell you something, those news are not news, those are a spectacularisation of what happens here. In reality nobody here is afraid of a war! Life goes on in Seoul, as it would go on in any megacity.

The statue of a national hero, a navy general that beat the Japanese in a major naval battle, with modern Seoul in the background

Korea was artificially divided by foreign superpowers, USA and Soviet Union and South Korea was (and still is) supported by the US. The impact on South Korea was a really quick economical development in the last decades. From war, misery and hunger in the 50's to one of the most modern countries in the world. The other side of the coin: complete and integral adoption of American culture (and I stress American, rather than general Western culture - a slight detail, but interesting), as opposed to what happens in Japan, where the Western culture was integrated in a quirky and even exotic way with the Japanese culture. Seoul is probably the most American city I've been outside the US... I know, it's a bold statement.... The music (K-pop, for example) sounds exactly like American music, cinema looks and feels like Hollywood cinema, as do the clothes, nightlife, etc. But, still, Korea is not the USA. It is definitely not Japan either! The social protocol between people is way less noticeable than in Japan... It is a more relaxed place in that sense.

Both North and South Korea have massive armies, some of the biggest in the world. It is not uncommon to see a Korean military in the metro or shopping. There are American military bases there as well (in Itawan, for example), so one can also see American GIs in the streets.

Seoul is a big party town! Clubs all over the place that go into the wee hours, people drinking in the street, lots of street artists and a massive cult of the image (specially women). In Gangnam, the super-rich neighbourhood that the stupid song 'Gangnam style' makes fun of, the most common advertisement is about plastic surgery clinics, and you can actually see the plastic faces all over the place. Psy is a national hero and appears on all the rest of advertisement.

Their language sounds very different and they have their own alphabet, the Hangul. The Hangul is phonetic (like our Latin one - in which each letter represents some sound) and it is quite recent - created in the 1400s.

The food is generally very spicy, but probably less varied than in the surrounding neighbours (it is small country after all). Kimchi (fermented and pickled napa cabbage) is, like the alphabet, one of the symbols of national identity and served with almost everything as a side dish.

Korean girls are very pretty, but one never knows if there was any plastic surgery or not.... most likely there was.

People don't know much about North Korea. For example a South Korean girl was amazed when she saw some pictures from an american guy who went there a few weeks ago. She didn't expect to see tall buildings there, and she was surprised with how colourless the clothes of the people there wear - something that usually we've seen at a certain point on TV or the internet.

Seoul ended up being more interesting than I thought but for reasons I was not expecting. That's why we travel, right?