This weekend has been the perfect combination of fun and relaxing. I love when that happens. I am only going to dedicate this post to one aspect of the weekend, however, and that aspect would be my trip to the War Memorial Museum. I have a list of museums I want to see while in Korea (yes, I am pretty much the biggest dork I know and I actually enjoy museums...) and this was at the top of the list. I have only heard good things about it so I was excited to go on Saturday afternoon. The museum is massive in size and took three hours to get through! I probably could have spend many more hours there but I was starting to get tired and hungry.
We started outside of the museum first. The grounds are covered with tanks, planes, submarines, and missiles! Also, there are nice monuments in honor of the fallen soldiers and victims of the Korean War. Whenever I go to a place with historical documents or items I always get lost in my own thoughts. I try to imagine what life must have been like for the person (or people) writing the document or reading the manual. For the soldier wearing the uniform. The mother trying to find food for her starving children.
The museums in Korea help with this visualization as they like to show life-size models to depict the story. It is really interesting to see. During one point of the museum I walked through a "village" that was torn to shreds because of the war. There is even sound effects to help with the visuals. It is impacting, to say the least.
It was also interesting to see a model of the soldiers preparing for battle on the palace grounds. Since I had recently visited the palaces I was able to better picture what it must have looked like. Another great connection I had was when I read about some of the men dying in the prison I had recently visited. I was able to put a face and story to the site.
This was another step in helping me understand the history behind the people living here. It was an interesting experience and if anyone is ever in the ROK, I highly recommend this. Also, the fact that such an amazing and interesting place is FREE makes it top on my list of recommendations.
We started outside of the museum first. The grounds are covered with tanks, planes, submarines, and missiles! Also, there are nice monuments in honor of the fallen soldiers and victims of the Korean War. Whenever I go to a place with historical documents or items I always get lost in my own thoughts. I try to imagine what life must have been like for the person (or people) writing the document or reading the manual. For the soldier wearing the uniform. The mother trying to find food for her starving children.
The museums in Korea help with this visualization as they like to show life-size models to depict the story. It is really interesting to see. During one point of the museum I walked through a "village" that was torn to shreds because of the war. There is even sound effects to help with the visuals. It is impacting, to say the least.
It was also interesting to see a model of the soldiers preparing for battle on the palace grounds. Since I had recently visited the palaces I was able to better picture what it must have looked like. Another great connection I had was when I read about some of the men dying in the prison I had recently visited. I was able to put a face and story to the site.
This was another step in helping me understand the history behind the people living here. It was an interesting experience and if anyone is ever in the ROK, I highly recommend this. Also, the fact that such an amazing and interesting place is FREE makes it top on my list of recommendations.
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 Outside the museum. |
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| It would really suck to be the soldier that dropped the live grenade... |
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| It was really cool to read about the history of people that fought in different wars. For instance, this man was honored for saving the lives of many under his command by throwing himself on a live grenade during the Vietnam War. |
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