After having breakfast in a sandwich shop near my place, I went to Insa-Dong, which is one of the few parts of Seoul to retain an atmosphere of the past. The narrow alleys are packed with art galleries, traditional restaurants, teashops and craft shops.

Nearby there is the largest Buddhist shrine in Seoul – it is called Jogyesa. There is a 500 year old tree in front and I also lit an incense stick and made a wish…

Later on I walked in the Tapgol Park which was Seoul’s first Western-style park and is a symbol of Korean resistance to Japanese rule. There is a 12 meter high stone pagoda in the park which was constructed in 1471. At this point I really felt that I am abroad so far away from the comfort of London. I was the only white guy there among thousands of Koreans which was such a strange feeling – I felt like I was being looked at but I obviously didn’t mind, knowing I am such an attention seeker. If you are white they automatically think you are from America. An old man came up to me, he used to be an English teacher and showed me a book he was reading and asked me a few questions about the grammar.

One more thing – an underground journey is always full of surprises! There are quite a few beggars on the trains – mainly blind but then there was a wheel chair user man who randomly started talking and educating people. On my way back suddenly a disabled guy came up to everybody and give them a piece of paper about the Korean sign language. I thought it was a souvenir but obviously he expected money for it cause when I wanted to take it with me he took it back. Finally here is a picture of a busy street with cinemas….

Koreans are mad about gadgets. Internet connection is the fastest here in the world. The new mania is that you can watch TV on your mobile in super quality, so everybody is just staring at their little screen...

I also met a friend (Min) who I’ve been chatting with on MSN for quite a few weeks. We had dinner and then he showed me around in the commercial city centre but unfortunately my pics didn’t turn out to be too good so I won’t upload them now cause they don’t do justice on the things I'd seen.