Fighting the weekend hordes

Outside the new museum
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This weekend I was in the mood for a trip to Seoul. A couple of weeks ago there had been a report on the reopening of the National Museum of Korea. It had been moved from it's old location by Gyeongbokgung Palace, to a newly constructed building in Yongsan Park, still in central Seoul, but closer to the river. I like museums. I have to admit. Wherever I go I more often than not find myself in some kind of museum, usually the Natural History variety or the big art museums, so I was interested to see this one. I may have mentioned before that there is huge government subsidy for museums and monuments, so you will find that the entrance fees are minimal. The new National Museum will cost 2000W (1UKP)entrance fee from the beginning of next year, but until then there is no cost. Perhaps it was due to this, or perhaps it was the brand newness of the place that made it seem like Seoul's entire population and some more, were there for the weekend. I remember thinking to myself, as I was queuing at the entrance, how encouraging it was to see all kinds of people there... Families with small children, older Koreans, big groups of teenagers, foreigners. Every demographic was represented it seems, coming to see Seoul's latest cultural attraction. When I got in though I wasn't feeling so charitable and share-the-wealth selfless. I wish they'd all stayed at home... There aren't very many bad traits that Koreans possess but, not pushing into other peoples personal space is one of them...especially when there's not much of it available in the first place.

The queue to get in....
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The museum inside was very impressive, spacious and airy and well organised. I hired an Mp3 player audio guide as in a lot of places there tends not to be much in the way of English translation, and that was a snip at just 1000W plus id. Very sophisticated too as the sensors in each room or cabinet detect when you approach and the commentary kicks in on the headphones. I could hear a description, my powers of imagination were going to have to be put to the test to figure out what the things looked like.... I did manage to push my way to the front to catch a few things and they were certainly very impressive. Historical artifacts from the Three Kingdoms period. Mostly jewellery and crowns and items excavated from funeral mounds. Some of the pieces have been designated as national treasures, items such as a Baekje dynasty incense burner and a Silla kingdom gold crown and belt, complete with attached ornaments. Considering these works were as early as 558AD they were really impressive, very detailed, delicate and intricate. I'd managed to hustle my way into the Unified Kingdom gallery when my Mp3 gave out and refused to tell me about anything except the "fabulous find" of the Baekje incense burner. I was feeling a bit frazzled myself by now and in failing to find a gallery that wasn't heaving with people, promised myself I would come back on a quiet week day and decided to call it quits. The right decision as it turned out. As I was leaving and walking back to the subway the queue waiting to enter stretched all the way back to the road, must be about 400-500 metres. I fled to the mall and bought myself a travel book to console myself....