It's Daejeon
There are cities that demand your attention immediately. Cities that overwhelm you with scale, history, or spectacle. And then there are cities that reveal themselves slowly over time until one day you realize they have quietly become part of your life. For me, Daejeon has always been that kind of city. Nobody writes songs about Daejeon. Tourists rarely place it at the top of their travel lists. Foreigners passing through Korea often speak dreamily about Seoul, Busan, or Jeju Island while Daejeon remains somewhere in the background, sitting quietly in the center of the country like a city content with simply existing. Yet perhaps that is exactly what I have come to appreciate about it over the years. Daejeon feels lived in. It is a city of ordinary mornings and late-night walks. A city of coffee shops filled with students studying quietly for exams while soft music drifts through the air. A city where subway stations, side streets, restaurants, and convenience stores s...
