A trip planned for months, with an endless list of places to visit and which I talked about with everyone, full of enthusiasm and affection, arousing incredulous looks. Why Korea?
It's difficult to explain the feelings and emotions that bind me to the language, culture, traditions and respect that I learned to know: first with a family I met when I lived abroad and then, when I discovered Korean dramas. I felt like I had come home. I saw the attitudes of my friends, the words they had taught us. Well… those words were no longer enough: I began to study theHangul and I became more and more passionate about it.
September 2022, 11 thousand km between Bologna-Paris-Incheon and I arrived… I was finally where I wanted to be!
I take the subway from Incheon airport towards Seoul to Myeongdong, the neighborhood where I stayed for the first part of the trip. I go up the escalators and, after a few steps, I see her standing out in the now almost dark sky: there Namsan Tower. I, immobile on the spot watching it stand in front of me with the colors alternating blue, yellow, green and red… I was ecstatic and in disbelief!
Also called Seoul Tower, it was built in 1969 as a radio tower and transmits radio and television signals. Since 1980 it has also become a tourist destination. 236 m high and located at 245 m, with its 123 floors it stands out over the city of Seoul and is the highest observation point in the country.
There are various possibilities to get there:
- walk along a path, through Namsan park, not to be missed during cherry blossom or in autumn for the changing colors of the foliage;
- with the funicular;
- with a regular bus.
In the following days I went to visit her by going up the hill by bus. You are fascinated by the padlocks hanging everywhere, a symbol of the love that reigns supreme and of the magic of the place.
But where does this custom come from and why? The first references are found in Serbia during the First World War: a woman dies of a broken heart when she is left by her boyfriend who, during a military mission in Greece, falls in love with another woman. The girls of that country therefore begin to write the names of their loved ones on the padlocks to protect their love.
But it is from Italy that this trend started: about fifty years ago in Florence, the officers, upon leaving, tied the padlock of their locker to a metal bar on the Ponte Vecchio. Over the years it has become an international phenomenon.
Also on site are restaurants, games rooms and ideal places to take truly unique photos.
Take the lift up to the observatory and then fall silent because the panorama of the city stands out from the glass that surrounds the entire floor of the tower: incredible to be able to admire the vastness of the capital that extends to the horizon. Skyscrapers and buildings with hills and mountains surrounding them, the gentle meandering of the Han River. Ancient, modern and nature merged together in a harmonious and breathtaking view.
The stickers on the glass that can be seen in this photo show the direction and distance as the crow flies from the various cities. Was I really that far from home?
So many emotions and it was only the beginning of the journey!
L-Onnie
All rights reserved