Southkorea 2022 with Leon

I would like to write a post here from time to time.

This trip was very emotional for me and for my son Leon. It was a long-awaited wish of both of us to go on this trip. We actually wanted to indulge in this dream back in 2020, but unfortunately Covid got in the way.

When wishes and dreams come true, it triggers incredible feelings. Special moments of happiness that are unique. That cannot be repeated.

Leon

So it is not only emotionally difficult to write this blog, but also because Leon is no longer with us... I can no longer indulge in these memories with him. These are the unique experiences of such a journey.

I am now alone with this memory of this trip.

There is no one around who might remember something else. Who can think of some detail or who thought something else was great. “Can you still remember...”

These are now just my memories that I can recount here.

It will be difficult for me, but it is all the more important for me to write down these memories, to share them, not to let them be forgotten.

That is very important to me.

So bear with me.

Join me on this journey of remembrance, sometimes more often and sometimes less often.

I'm also not sure if I can write this blog in a chronological order, I just hope it doesn't get too chaotic!!!

And where do I start writing?

Maybe with the idea of why it's South Korea of all places....

Some will throw their hands up in disbelief. It all started with BTS. Today, many people know who BTS is. It's a now incredibly well-known and very successful K-pop boy group.

They've been around since 2013.

The first person in our family to start listening to BTS was my son Elias. I still don't know exactly how he came across this group. But we ordered a merch sweater for him back in March 2016. At that time, almost nobody in Germany knew about BTS. It was therefore difficult to buy a sweater. I didn't know BTS until then either. But well, I ordered him the sweater, why not. But then he lost a bit of interest in this boy band.

I can't remember the exact timeline, but in any case, the topic didn't really die down for us. Then there was my daughter Melina, who was also in this K-pop fever, even watching Korean entertainment shows, K-dramas (Korean drama series) and music shows...

Honestly, I thought, what in the world is not going right in our family?

And it came as it had to, Leon also caught the K-pop virus. How could he pass it by when his two older siblings were so crazy?

By this point, of course, I already knew a few of their songs - after all, I'd been forced to listen to them long enough, hahaaaaa

Yes, and then I saw Leon watching a show completely emotional, with tears in his eyes and completely moved. OMG, what is happening here that a teenage boy is reacting like this?

I watched one of his favorite K-dramas with him...

and then I was suddenly infected too!

I was impressed by the completely different nature of the series, simple stories but very, very profound dialogs, the way people treat each other in this culture, the respect shown to their elders and the polite way of dealing with other people. I was also fascinated by the profound lyrics of these K-pop songs. And so it came about that I also wanted to travel to this country.

Leon finished school in 2020 and it was actually a good plan to plan a long vacation right afterwards. We definitely wanted to take 3 weeks to go on this trip.

But as I mentioned, Covid didn't make it possible and so we postponed the trip from one year to the next.

Ateez

As South Korea had not allowed any tourists to enter the country for a long time, we quenched our thirst for K-pop and Korea by going to the Ateez concert in Berlin with Melina in February. Another very popular boy band. There was also a K-pop festival in Frankfurt in May. Of course, Leon and I couldn't miss that either! We saw more (for us, of course) world stars up close, we stood in the 2nd row and looked our idols straight in the eye!

Monsta X

We hadn't expected to be so close to them. It was an extremely emotional moment for us through and through, we both cried... everything was just perfect! We spent a completely relaxed weekend there, where everything just worked out. A great hotel, right next to the Deutsche Bank Park where the festival was taking place. Arrival and departure, everything was so relaxed.

And then came Leon's 18th birthday and I fulfilled another very big wish for him! A ticket for the Billie Eilish concert. It took place the day before we left for Korea. It was an obvious choice, as it was also in Frankfurt and our plane was leaving from there.

As you can see, there were some very emotional highlights for us, and we hadn't even left yet!

The entry for tourists to South Korea came as a bit of a surprise to us. We hadn't expected it, as South Korea has taken a very strict approach in the covidvirus era, much more so and for longer than Germany.

We booked our flight tickets on the same day that South Korea officially announced that they were letting tourists back in. That was in March and we left in the middle/end of June.

There wasn't much time to plan. But because no tourists were allowed to enter the country, it was no problem to book Airbnbs and hotels.

We definitely wanted to spend most of our time in Seoul, a city of superlatives. Another destination was Busan, the second largest city in southern Korea, right by the sea. We only made a short stopover in the small but very well-known town of Jeonju. It is known for its many traditional Korean houses. It was on the way from Seoul to Busan and was therefore a good idea.

We traveled everything by public transport, totally hassle-free and cheap. And most importantly, every train, bus and subway here is very punctual! It was easy to travel across the whole country.

Yes, and then we packed up and off we went...