Today was the day I planned to buy some fabric as a souvenir of our trip in Korea. I had, of course, researched the whole thing and understood how the system worked – you found a fabric you liked, you asked the stallholder to get it for you and, because the fabric is kept off-site, you came back several hours to pick it up. So far, so straightforward.
I knew there were four linked buildings and an awful lot of stalls but I was undaunted – until we arrived. There must have been thousands and thousands of stalls, each specialising in different fabrics, each with swatches with hundreds of colours:
I walked up and down the aisles thinking I would relax into it – and Sue, bless her, said she would sit on some steps and wait for me (I was terrified of losing her amongst all the stalls):
So I tried again – and I was more and more overwhelmed:
On and on and on it went with more and more beautiful and unique fabrics – and less and less chance I would buy anything.
In the end I decided buttons were safest (and smallest and easiest), so a kind woman gave us directions to the button floor. We never even made it there, thank goodness – we found one stall on the way which was enough choice for me:
So here’s what I ended up buying for the total cost of 13,000 Won or £7.19. You should know that I can’t buy a single button in the UK for under 75 pence:
I guess the question is – how many buttons does a girl need?
This afternoon’s beautiful walk along the Cheonggyecheon Stream for several kilmetres was much more rewarding. The stream (which had been built over) had been uncovered a while ago and we found a poem commemorating this:
We found some wonderful tiles commemorating the event as well – first in close-up and then, to give you a sense of how many there were, some across the river:
The place was super-clean but we discovered a brigade cleaning the stream with brooms!
Various signs caught our eye (now there’s a surprise, if you’re a regular blog reader) but this one definitely made the cut:
As did this one (translated for you):
We saw very healthy-looking fish:
and lots of herons and egrets.
To get from one side to the other, one had to cross on stepping stones which we avoided initially until we saw people much older than us leaping across – so we weren’t to be defeated:
It’s hard to convey the peace and quiet of this walk right in the heart of Seoul – you see the remnants of the previous structure in the picture below but now they are just ghosts of the past:
And of course it’s autumn and all the colours are so beautiful (there’ll be more tomorrow):
Oh Mimi! Fabric overwhelm, I can feel it.
Did you know, button phobia is quite common?
So impressed with Korea. And with you both, of course.
FO ( fabric overwhelm) unknown in my experience of M but I put it down to a) she really wasn’t well and b) the whole system for choosing and buying was f—king ridiculous – too much stuff, nothing labelled and then hundreds ( yes, literally hundreds) of chic designer stalls with exquisite swatches of gorgeous fabric. Button phobia? Yes, I did know about this – hard to imagine how you’d live with such a thing but at least you wouldn’t find them suddenly scuttling across the floor..
A whole floor of buttons! That would be overwhelming in itself without the endless avenues of fabric stalls. ! Still glad to see Miriam managed to get a nice haul (very beautifully arranged in the photograph) without having to brave an entire floor dedicated to them. The stepping stones look a touch scary so well done for getting to the other side – must have felt like an achievement!
M very disappointed not to have managed to buy any fabric – system too stressful and she really wasn’t well enough to manage it. You’re quite right about the stepping stones – we’d watched old ladies with tiny dogs skipping across them but actually we both found the gaps between the stones just that bit too wide! So much dithering and hand holding – not a bit heroic..