Lost Seouls

Sometimes you can’t help but wonder, how in the world did I end up here? My brother and I found ourselves in just such a situation yesterday, let me explain.

Wax Angelina Jolie

The day’s plan started simple; walk from our hostile about 2 miles to a park, then rent some bikes and head to the iconic 63 Building for a birds eye view of Seoul and an underground SeaWorld exhibit. Instead we found no bikes, walked about 10 miles, accidentally stumbled upon the world’s largest megachurch, and spent 30 minutes looking for a SeaWorld in the underground mall below a financial building, that needless to say was not 63 Building. After finally reaching 63 building, we found that their cramped SeaWorld exhibits would bring an animals rights activist to tears, and their wax museum was, well, laughable. At least we were able to enjoy the view from the 60th story art gallery before realizing that we didn’t know what to do for the rest of the day besides rest our exhausted legs.

Bongeunsa Buddhist Temple

As we started to make our way back home via the subway, we couldn’t help but notice a sign for a sports complex in the subway. Without any further investigation, a quick game of “odds are” found us on the orange line, headed away from our hostile, towards the mysterious sports complex. After realizing that the sports complex was just a sports stadium and the stop before it was coincidentally a Buddhist temple we had considered visiting, we decided to compromise by hopping off a stop early and heading back to the hostile after getting back in touch with our Buddhist roots. After accidentally circumnavigating the Buddhist temple and exploring a Korean high school instead, we were rewarded by the beauty and antiquity of the 1200 year old temple. We couldn’t help but laugh at the randomness of the situation when we realized that the massive structure opposite of the temple was the largest underground mall in all of Korea, which we had heard was a must see. It also has an underground aquarium.

Although it was not at all what we had planned or expected for the day, the emotional rollercoaster of yesterday’s adventure made me realize one singular fact about traveling and living in the 21st century. It is really hard to function in a foreign city without wifi.

– Alex Yeagle