Seoul: A city on world stage for second time

SEOUL, South Korea – Getting from point A to point B can sound so, so simple.

That is unless you’re foreign to the country, can’t read the language and praying what’s written on the train ticket is where you will actually end up.

The hope for me and photographer Tanner Siegworth is to get from PyeongChang to Seoul, Olympic city to Olympic city.
It started on the rails with a beautiful view zipping by at nearly 200 miles per hour. A high-speed train through Korea, with a one-way connection to the underground.

Within an hour and a half, we were roaming through Seoul subway.

From staircases, up to staircases, down the impressive labyrinth of tunnels will take you just about anywhere in the city and once you step through those subway doors, well, let me put this in a way we can all understand; It is so jam-packed you can barely take a selfie!

So, off the train and back onto another.

Doors open, doors close and in the end, if you’ve got enough juice to climb that final set of stairs, boy oh boy, what a sight to see! Olympic Park.

The heart and Seoul of the Summer Games now 30 years removed.

A destination for visitors like Canadians Justin and Colwyn Naude. Their daughter, Andi Naude, is a competitor in this year’s women’s downhill moguls skiing event.

“She’s been working towards this for about eight years,” said Justin, “she just missed the last one.”

While she did not make it to the podium, her family got a chance to take in some artistic sites along the way.

“Just breathtaking,” said Colwyn, “But some of the sculptures, I didn’t understand a few of them.”

Olympic Park has also become a giant playground for the locals. Children especially, as many can be found zipping around on their bikes across the acres of concrete.

Every lap they take becomes a lesson in history, in culture and inequality.

Some of those lessons are learned in the nearby Olympic Museum, where the 1988 Summer Games are documented in murals, memorabilia, and video.

In the last 65 years, South Korea has transformed itself from a war-torn country into a world leader in electronics, automotive, and education.

And for the second time, are showcasing their success on a world stage.

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