We are home again from our wonderful adventures in Seoul and I am feeling human again after a much needed long night of sleep. It was such a lovely holiday full of beautiful sights, experiences and people as well as the most glorious warm and sunny weather. I have just had a browse through all of my photos and there are just so many beautiful pictures that I think I will have to separate this into two long posts. In this first post I am going to focus on what I love most about Korea, what I love most about all of the Asian countries I have visited - COLOUR!
We were lucky enough to have unknowingly timed our visit exactly in the Spring "Hi Seoul" festival week. We have learned that this is a seasonal festival held four times a year which celebrates different themes of Korean culture and history. There are events held at many different venues and the Spring festival also times in with 3 special Korean holidays/celebrations; Buddha's birthday, Children's Day and Parent's day. We did not attend a lot of the set programs/events as the queues were hours long but rather followed our noses and just took it all in. One of the most beautiful things about this festival was that all of the streets in Seoul were decorated with strings of colorful lanterns - it was so beautiful.
Korea's historic and present culture is full of the importance of colour and pattern. When you visit historical palaces and temples you can see so much color and beauty in every detail. You could look at the roofs, ceilings and walls forever and keep finding new details and designs, I am sure that each and every one has a symbolic meaning.
There are also daily "Changing of the Guard" ceremonies held at a number of the city palaces which is always a delicious display of colour.
Korean drums play a large role in their history, traditional music, and religious beliefs. I just love the dragon painted on this one!
It is not just the traditional that is full of colour and if you take the time to wander about the city there are beautiful sculptures, murals and oasis' everywhere. Here is a particularly cute park bench in my favorite street in Insadong.
And while we are talking about Insadong, here are the kids in their usual position out the front of a store in the shade while I browsed through the beautiful craft shops and galleries which they all deemed "boring!!!!!". We did end up cutting this trip short for their sake but I went back on my own later to enjoy it all with no time restrictions - heaven!
In the centre of Seoul, at City Hall, was one of the venues for a lot of the festivities. This was a close walk from our apartment so we walked through this area a lot. The festival had a pink theme which symbolised "love and hope" and these beautiful pink ribbons were draped across a small river traveling through this area.
Another colourful thing in Korea that holds a lot of interest for me is "Pojagi". Pojagi is a traditional patchwork-like art form and pojagi cloths were historically used in the home as wrapping,covering and carrying cloths. Today Pojagi is made solely for decoration and as an art form and I just had to buy myself a hand sewn piece of work to frame. This cloth is only about 30cm square in total size which may give you an indication of how small the hand sewn pieces are. Another amazing thing about Pojagi is that is is translucent and has the neatest back seams you have even seen (a necessity due to no backing). It looks amazing hung up in a window and gives the cutest stain glass window vibe.
And if I haven't convinced you yet that everything is more colourful in Korea then just check out these Korean crabs that we saw at the aquarium! Aren't they the coolest?
Well I think that will have to end part 1 of our Korean adventures. Next post I will share some of the beautiful scenery, nature, and romance with you. I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little bit of what we saw and I cant wait to share some more with you soon.
May the floss be with you!
Melly.
