English 
Deutsch On November 3rd, a sunny but cool Friday in Seoul, I walk into the Chinese Visa Processing Centre. It’s located in an office building in Jongno, one of the business districts of the South Korean capital. I am not sure if I am even going to be admitted to the centre, as I have no appointment. The lobby is quiet and the many elevators are waiting for people to transport. I reach the floor of the Visa Centre, whose door is open. As I walk in, I find myself in the most storybook office you could imagine: Gray carpet, white walls, a suspended ceiling interspersed with white neon light tubes. There is a reception in front of me and many counters to talk to a visa officer. A pane of glass sits between you and the officer. While there are some customers, it’s not very busy.
My plan is to go home from Japan to Switzerland without flying, only using ferries, trains and buses. That means I will cross China (towards Kazakhstan), and the visa process is pretty complicated. (It was simplified for many European citizens just weeks later but at the time I had to do the full thing). First, you do a soul-strip in a loooong online questionnaire where you need to give your personal details, family details, what jobs you did in the last 5 years including the telephone number of your supervisor and so on. Then, you are asked to make an appointment at the nearest Visa Centre and bring copies of your hotel bookings. Did that, planned my entire itinerary for 30 days, tried to book a ferry and failed, and printed it all out. Unfortunately for me, the button to book an appointment didn’t work (it was grey and unclickable). Haha, funny! All for nothing? It made me want to laugh and scream simultaneously. After an angry walk outside, I decided to just go to the Visa Centre the next day and see what happens.
So there I am. “You don’t need an appointment; you can directly go to a counter. Do you have the hotel bookings?”, says the reception staff. Oh! A surprise, but a welcome one. I’m led to counter 3 where a lady is ready to interview me. She checks my bookings and the questionnaire. “Thank you, but we need a bit more. Please fill out this form.” It’s a paper where I’m asked to list every activity I plan for every day – e.g. “On day 1 I’ll visit museum A and market B, on day 2 I take a daytrip to town C” etc. etc. I ask her: “OK, but do I need to buy tickets for all of these activities in advance?”. “We understand that you cannot book everything, but the more the better”. Which was a polite way of saying “we want to be sure that you’ll do whatever you put in this form”.
That’s the exact moment where the idea of a trip to China dies inside me. A detailed itinerary for 30 days, tickets for every single activity, sometimes multiple per day? Even if it were possible to cancel everything once I am inside, it would be insane work (try to book some activities or a train in China. Very fast you’re gonna land on a Chinese-only website riddled with broken links and errors. Not that it’s better in other countries, but there you don’t have to book stuff just for the visa and can therefore do it on the go. With local help). I understand that they need to see proof of hotel bookings and outbound travel. But EVERY GODDAMN STEP? No fucking thanks.
So that failed. And with it, the opportunity to get home by train. For the next few days, I’ll be ruminating about what to do next. Finally, I’ll decide to blend into the partying backpacker masses and go to Southeast Asia.
My visit to Korea left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the people I met in the hostels were all strong, interesting personalities. On the other hand, I found Korea to be less accessible than Japan to a traveler. I’m quite experienced by now, and usually have no trouble finding interesting things to do, but somehow in Korea I failed. For example, when walking Tokyo or Osaka, there were interesting sights, shops, restaurants or distinct neighborhoods (e.g. Akihabara in Tokyo) a dime a dozen. I perceived Seoul as less vibrant. Also, the streets were more populated in Tokyo. Of course, there were some happening places like Itaewon, but the overall city had a relatively cold atmosphere. Maybe it’s the weather? The omnipresent apartment towers that the Koreans love so much? I love skyscrapers and it was the first time in my life that I felt oppressed by them because of their sheer monotonicity.
That doesn’t mean that I regret going there. It’s also good to realize that not every country is for you. Other people had a blast in South Korea, were visiting the second time or considering moving there. I don’t want to suggest “South Korea = bad”. Just that for me, it didn’t work out.
Nevertheless, there are some stories to tell of course. I stayed in the Time Travelers Hostel in Hongdae (advertised as a party hostel but no, not really). And the people I met there were incredible. From a lawyer defending minor drug offenders in Paris to a Colorado-based Apple hardware engineer who’s also good at tricking (yes, that’s a sport, gosh you didn’t know that?) to a guy who cycled all across China. What made these people inspiring is that they all did interesting stuff outside of work.
One evening, two Americans are giving a little concert (just guitar and singing) in the hostel basement/bar. The duo met at work in Alaska. What did they do there? Well, they both worked as software developers, but struggled to find meaning and fulfilment in the field. After some painful years spent in a cycle of incessant rumination, boredom, low self-esteem, and “well actually it’s not that bad is it”, they quit their jobs and went on to work in the US National Park Service. Every season, they stay in one of the numerous national parks for about eight months, with little contact to the outside world. (They even speak of “the realm” and “the real world” in the parks). I think this is a pretty cool career change, even if it might not be forever. They’re entertaining everyone with their stories of what happens when a bunch of people spend a season in a remote area. Apparently, it’s a pretty active dating scene over there and everybody knows who did what with whom the last night :D
Later, we’re going out in Seoul. The bouncers don’t want to let us in at first. I don’t think we are that drunk yet. Or are we? In any case, they relentlessly insist that we behave in there and that we shouldn’t bother Koreans, “especially women” with a glance towards the men in our group. We’re all a bit stunned by this because we’re really not out of control at all… Probably they had bad experiences in the past with foreigners. We’re admitted, but it’s super empty and after one hour we leave again.
By now, it is raining like crazy. A few blocks down the road, bouncers carry an out-of-his-mind drunk guy out of a door and dump him at the side of the road, in the rain. The guy is lying on his back – oops. In case he vomits he may suffocate. The bouncers seem clueless, unsure whether they should leave him in the rain or not. After about two minutes, they disappear without further action. I’m not going to let him lie like that. After checking that he's breathing, I roll him into the recovery position, and soon after he begins to vomit. Another one of our group calls an ambulance that swiftly arrives. If no bystanders had been present that might have ended badly… (well it kind of still did, I bet this guy had the hangover of his life the next morning).
Also, I was invited to eat at the restaurant of the parents of my friend Ayoung, and that was really, really nice and wholesome. I was served rice. And kimchi. And teriyaki. And more. And still more even when I indicated that it’s enough. I was unable to stop the food flow and ate well over my limits. Afterwards, I felt terrible. But it was absolutely worth it. Thank you!
A few extra pictures and videos:
Military parade? No, that's an apple festival Korean style.