What’s been going on lately? Spring has arrived in Vienna. I’ve recovered from a broken ankle. And a previously unrealized perk of being a stay-at-home loser was just discovered. That is, I was able to tag along with the Attaché on a work-trip. The Attaché was a late fill-in for a one day meeting in Seoul, some brainy nuclear thing going on, and I followed. I’ve never got to tag along on a work trip, unless you count the trip here to Austria, of course. That would have been pretty bad if I didn’t come with her to Austria. But truthfully, the Attaché just doesn’t get work-related travel, so I never get the opportunity to go. You might think it sounds like a drag, flying 12 hours for three days in Seoul, but I’ve never been to Korea, and that’s motivation enough. Remember, my measure of success in life is how many countries you can brag about visiting. After checking my to-do list and seeing blank pages until the end of May, I thought I could manage the time off from the house work. Spring cleaning can wait until summer, I say!

My impression of Seoul: A very good Asian experience. Like Tokyo (which I saw during my Navy diving days), Seoul makes you think you’re in some exotic land, but it’s about as western friendly as a place can get. Food is safe. Streets are clean. There is no visible poverty. Transportation services are on time. They don’t have street peddling or that crazy price bartering thing that so many countries have. The only hardship in Seoul is that the signs are hard to read and they often serve smelly fish as a side dish. But that’s magic of the quasi-exotic destination, it looks just different enough to make you think you’re a daring traveler, but it’s not daring at all. Throw in a few palaces with some funny roofs and put Jackie Chan on every street corner, and you’ve done it, you’ve fooled yourself into thinking you’re in another world.

I really like Seoul for this exact reason. I don’t like traveling to places where poverty is everywhere. I don’t like to spend half my vacation sitting on the toilet. But I do like to see different things. I like to try foods that are different, but not so different that I don’t immediately recognize it as food. Koreans eat rice that looks like rice, meat that looks like meat. They eat vegetables also. Steamed veggies. Sautéed veggies. Excluding that stinky fish stuff they put to the side (anchovies maybe), the most exotic thing we found was kimchi, a dish that might not suit every westerner. It’s pickled vegetables (usually cabbage) with spices, served cold. Doesn’t sound delightful, but at least it’s stuff I’ve heard of. It’s not bat testicles or worm dung like they eat in some countries.

In additional to seeing Seoul, we took a tour of the DMZ, or demilitarized zone, the border between North and South Korea.