Museums

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In keeping with the idea this was a cultural visit rather than a holiday, wet days offered an opportunity to go and see some museums whilst also exploring other neighbourhoods. This post briefly covers museums visited. I don't try and provided huge detail because that's all available on line for those interested. Rather I touch on some small or other notable points that caught my attention for whatever reason. Palaces Museum Having ventured out in spite of what turned out to be 3 days of pretty constant rain, The Palaces Museum, adjacent to Gyeongbokgung, was my first museum stop.  Sadly an entire floor of permanent exhibits was closed. However, amongst other things, I came across an excellent digital immersive rendition of a very famous exploratory narrative from the 16th Century, captured in a folding screen landscape painting of the 19th Century.  Follow the link to look at the picture more closely. Of interest, although I may be making a connection that doesn't exist, ...
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Drama Points

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The Road Trip deliberately included a couple of nature based drama locations down at the southern most part of the country we were aiming for, and there was one other close to the airport in the North East which I felt I could manage whilst dropping Manu at Incheon on the Saturday. However, something I've come to realise is that their drama industry is so prolific that many of the most iconic tourist locations do feature in many dramas. For that reason I know I've been to many locations without specifying them as one from a drama I've seen. In other words, that aspect is now a little less important, although I still have some in mind

That said, I have shared 3 specifics from the road trip with my Essential Korean colleagues since I'd been rather neglecting my Drama Cub leader efforts. So, in order to provide something here before I find time to summarise the other highlights from the road trip, I thought I'd duplicate what I posted to EK. And then add something extra at the end.

About Time

I feel I have rather been neglecting K Drama Club recently, but I have been busy. Having shared the last two weeks with my wife on location here in South Korea, including just about driving the length and breadth of the country over the last 5 days, I thought I’d just share three location wins for now:

The Ahopsan bamboo forest, used in a number of dramas but, most significantly for me, in The King, Eternal Monarch















Second is the hackberry tree made famous by Park Eun Bin in the Extraordinary Attorney Woo















And third the building used as the business base of Mr Gu in My Liberation Notes.















Finding the teleport gates in the bamboo forest was pretty cool (but no sign of the telephone box), but the bamboo groves themselves were simply amazing. Likewise the Paradise City Chroma building, and the others that make up this building complex close to Incheon Airport, was a happy find. As for the Hackberry Tree - I can say I’ve walked the path of my favourite K Drama actress at least once!

And a fresh update from 7 May activities

I'm still keeping my days full, which has made me realise something else which is obvious really, and that is we all like established habits. Well, maybe we don't like all the everyday things that we do to get through each day, like cooking and shopping, but once we establish a way of doing those things it becomes comfortable routine, and we can take it for granted. Being out in Korea for longer than a typical holiday might in theory mean beginning to establish some of those routines but I've not found that to be the case. Today, after an unexpected change to my day, I came across by pure chance a place selling cheap and good looking fruit and veg. However, I would need much longer to learn how to cook effectively with them, so I chose to pass. I also bought my first instant coffee sachets. Although dramas are awash with them they do produce very ordinary cups of coffee; however, since I was tired of going without or having to go out, I bought some for an easier caffeine fix. Likewise, I haven't managed to normalise bakery products. Or anything really, because that would take so much more time than is available. On the positive side I think of these mundane things as challenges rather than as something missed from home; I just won't be able to resolve all of them on this visit.

That aside, what I really wanted to throw in was a brief mention of last night's (Tuesday 7 MAy) Korean equivalent of the Oscars - the Baeksang Arts Awards. I did go over to the Coex exhibition hall D, which was hosting them, to see if there were any ticket returns and also in case there was any celebrity spotting opportunity. But things were fairly tight so I thought I'd have to make do with the live streaming back at my Airbnb location. Streaming, because the apartment doesn't have live TV! Streaming proved troublesome as the first recommended approach needed a Korean phone number with texting, which I don't have. Giving up on that I found a much more straight forward solution. Although in the end I only really had it running in the background, the two actresses mentioned above both featured, one for winning best actress award for the film Exhuma (Kim Go-Eun) and one presenting an award (Park Eun-Bin of Extraordinary Attorney Woo, and a previous winner for that performance). So my tree related locations had award spin offs so to speak, and you get to see another photo montage.



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