New house means new neighborhood. New neighborhood means new things. It’s not that far from the old neighborhood and the old things or any of the previous Gyeongju things (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII).
I’ve passed this smokestack before and forgotten it. I tried to take a picture of it once and gave up when it turned phooey. The images above aren’t even close to getting it right, but I really like the B & W hero image (top). I plan on taking more pictures of it as we go through the end of the year and into the winter. I think once the wet summer air finishes and things get drier and the skies cooler it’ll be more contrasty and I’ll get better shots.
It appears I can get my Apple products fixed nearby. Just the gadgets, not the computers. Our iPad may need this as the years wear on. Then there’s the laundry (right); it’s looks like they do blankets and towels, but those driers have me thinking bigger things and plotting a little.
As always with Gyeongju, there is a bulk of colors and patterns about. Sometimes I think all this was in Seoul and I was too busy to see it or I just didn’t notice. Then I think Seoul really didn’t have this much color. Some splotches here and there, some glam in this neighborhood or that one, but on the whole the city was/is rather drab. It’s not Seoul’s fault that it has no pizazz, that it’s downscaled houses, some of which are upscaled and made to be more, still sit, positioned against the stacks and clusters of clutch upon clutch of people. No, Seoul missed something in its rush to become larger than life, a hub of Asia, as it were.
I would never go far, near the edge of tacky and say that Seoul has no soul, but, I do think Gyeongju has a bit more than Seoul could ever have hoped to have, in the past, the present, and likely the future as well.
