The Streets of Seoul
I’ve come to think that the places you remember most in Korea are rarely the ones you set out to see. Not the palaces. Not the museums. Not even the places that make their way into the guidebooks—though those have their place. What stays with you, what returns to you years later without warning, are the small streets you found by accident. The ones you didn’t plan. I remember one in particular, though I couldn’t tell you exactly where it was now. Somewhere in Seoul, early on, before I knew the city in any real sense. Before smartphones. Before you could pull yourself out of uncertainty with a blue dot on a screen. Back then, you walked. And sometimes you got lost. The street was narrow, the kind that forces you to slow down without asking. Low buildings on either side. Wires overhead. A slight dip in the pavement where water must have gathered when it rained. It was late afternoon or early evening—I remember that soft, in-between light Korea does so well, esp...
