Springtime hits Korea

The best thing about Korea is the great comparison of things both 'yes'-inducing and 'hell no'-inducing, side-by-side. For instance, I found myself in Seoul on Saturday, with really naught to do but wander around Seoul Station, where there are some bums, some large buildings, some street vendors, and a palace or two. Seeing that it cost a measly 1,000 to enter, I chose one of the palaces, D-somethingorother. And it was lovely to wander the grounds, have faces made at me by some Southeast Asian tourists, and take in the cherry blossoms. Typical moseyings. I enjoyed also the hastily tacked on Western-style garden and fountain, added a little under a century ago. It seemed as though the ruler at the time decided that causasian folk were pretty cool, so he built four weirdly-proportioned otter/seal hybrids, looking angry and spouting water into a bright blue pool. The garden consisted of some grass and a shrub. Pretty good.

Also, nothing says 'springtime' like the fresh blooms on a cherry blossom tree, covered in the yellow dust of international pollution. Now I wanna see some oil-slick-covered penguins mate, or similar.