The Ghost Town of Chuseok

Koreans take it very literally when I tell them at I go to Seoul during Chuseok because it is empty. Despite what they might tell you, it is empty. You can find a seat in just about any restaurant. You can often walk across roads without a car near you and the highways have huge spaces between cars.

Today I decided to go in to Seoul to get a few things from Yongsan and also to take photos of the sunset from Dongjak Bridge. The sunset was a failure, but I managed to get a few other interesting shot that I might post over the next few weeks. I did get to try out the new subway line though.

Dongjak Station is connected to the new subway Line 9, so I decided to take that line back to Express Bus Terminal. It was interesting indeed. Everything is brand new. The seats are clean. There are no strange smells. All the monitors work and have an interesting display for the upcoming stations. The stations, although very clinical, are nice and the line has a very distinctive chime to indicate a transfer point, but back to the empty Seoul.

Dongjak Station Line 9 platform was EMPTY. I don’t think it is normally the busiest of stations but still. I’m not sure if it was because people are still getting used to using Line 9 or if it was Chuseok’s fault, but it was kind of weird seeing almost no one at a station in Seoul.

White waiting for my train there was a Crazy talking about. I find it interesting how in every big city with decent public transport, you will always encounter crazy people. Today I had a young man sneezing open mouthed in to the air while walking up and down the end section of the platform. He was carrying a crumpled up handkerchief in his left hand that he used to wipe his none. He would use the same handkerchief to wipe imaginary sweat of his forehead and neck. (Shudder)

Twice, on reaching the end of the platform, he looked at himself in the security window, you know the new ones that keep people from jumping in front of a train, and spat on to the glass before strolling away. You can see two such gobs in the photo. He was pacing up and down the carriage as well, but thankfully he wasn’t spitting.

Tomorrow might well be another day in Seoul, but what exactly I will be doing is still up for debate.