Seoul palaces, museums, lectures and rice wine

There's a kind of sensory overload about visiting any country for the first time, especially in the Far East and where the language is in brush-stroke characters.. but Seoul is so different that I'm accumulating images and impressions before the brain has time to process and the memory to reflect.

The first evening, after finding the very central hostel, I was out in the Sunday evening crowds of the street markets and late night shops.. with a Korean barbeque restaurant for sustenance.

By the end of Monday, I had been expertly guided round the Royal Palace, visited the new Children's Science Museum and given a lecture to the students and professors at the Korean National University of Education.

The only way to begin to communicate the eclectic thousands of first impressions is to post photographs.. so with apologies that the blog may appear rather too western tourist for some readers liking.. here are some images from the first three days.