All things korea

Honestly, I've always considered myself a relatively competent human being. I can assemble IKEA furniture with only *some* tears, I can parallel park on a good day, and I once successfully navigated a particularly aggressive pigeon in Trafalgar Square without losing an eye. So, naturally, when I first planned my trip to Korea, I thought, "Public transport? Pffft. I got this." Oh, my sweet, naive summer child. My initial confidence lasted about as long as a free sample at a department store - gone in a flash, leaving me vaguely dissatisfied and wondering what just happened. Look, Korea's public transport system is, objectively, a marvel. It's efficient, clean, often ridiculously fast, and puts many other developed nations to shame. But for a first-timer, especially one whose internal compass is permanently set to "mildly confused," it can feel less like a well-oiled machine and more like a high-stakes game of Twister played inside a pinball machine. With ...