Though very close from Japan, it’s only the second time I travelled to Korea. Until this week, I have always avoided traveling to Korea, in particular to Daejon, where a lot of events in my professional field happen. The reason is simple: our first experience with Korea, back then in 2005 was a very disappointing one. Living in Japan for 1 year, we were not sure about what to expect, but except for two or three very very nice people we met, we found the city dirty, people rude and openly racists, and the infrastructure a pale mimic of Japan and we just decided not to go again. Forced by A.’s work now, 14 years later was a good time to check out on the city again. I had no expectations at all and I got this time a rather better impression. OK I stayed in Gangnam, didn’t go on the north bank and it was a mere 48h… I enjoy the cleanliness of the city, the people that were nice, even if they may have I found me rude as my Korean is even worst than my Chinese, or to put simply, I don’t speak a word of Korean, which I found very embarrassing, but I tried to make up for my rudeness with many smiles! Because like when I was in Beijing last November, the air is really dirty from Chinese industrial pollution I limited my walks outside, or went out with mask and sun glasses, but even though my eyes were on fire… I still enjoyed a bit of the walks in the small streets to go up and down hill all the time, offering view of the city sometimes, or sneak peeks in the beautiful manicured private gardens. I also by chance run into an organic grocery store: Chorocmael (초록마을), packing on a few things I usually cannot find in Japan: organic local pine nuts, many different types of herb teas… and fresh local raspberries, that didn’t look like the ugly giant raspberries usually found in western markets. Actually they were so time and cute, that I wasn’t even sure they were raspberries, because of my inability to read.

Food wise I didn’t got too wild, and didn’t have so much time for it. I liked the small cafes with outdoor seating, but I mainly preferred the indoor seating option because of the pollution. And for the food I didn’t get too adventurous, as I don’t like meaty food, sea food, nor spicy food. My best friend on the menus was always kimchi rice. The most appropriate to my liking was the one from a small cafe/florist 식물원282. Most dishes are served with pickles that are absolutely divine. They are prepared differently than Japanese pickles and are just super delicious too!!!

So… except for the pollution, the overall experience was quite positive and I guess I’ll go again!!! Now I need to start learning Korean a bit!!!