Quick

This city moves so fast that sometimes I think it can't even keep up with itself. Today I took a bike ride, which I'll describe in more detail below. Many of the streets I was on were constructed so recently they're not even on internet maps yet (in English or Korean) and I happened upon a nature preserve/park that's shown on Google Maps and Naver Maps--and listed on Korea's own tourism website (under "Noeul Park")--as a golf course.

More on the bike ride: It was probably my most eventful bike ride ever. I took a bridge across the Han River that I'd never ridden on before, hoping to get to the bike path that runs along the side of the river opposite where I live. As it turns out, the bridge passes over that path, but gives no way of getting to it. So I rode down the other side of the bridge planning to find a way to get back to the river. I ended up getting shunted into a left turn along with a bunch of traffic as the bike path I was on ended and we entered a construction zone. I figured that was probably fine, because we were pointed at what looked like a new development of high-rises and, in my experience, new developments here usually have well-marked bike lanes, so it'd just be a few minutes of riding through the construction before I'd get to enjoy the smooth pavement of a new bike lane.

Not so. The road bypassed the new development and took me past a sign that said "Motorway 500m," and then I was on a highway. I couldn't really turn around and ride back, because the shoulder was small, there was lots of traffic, and it was, well, a highway. So I rode on the shoulder until the next exit, got off the highway, and ended up on a local road. I didn't really know where I was, but I had a pretty good idea of where I came from, so I turned left at the bottom of the off-ramp and started riding through a flat-ish area of farms and greenhouses. The road alternated between dirt and pavement as I rode between farms. Then suddenly I was being chased by dogs. Maybe they just wanted to say hello and get a nuzzle, but I didn't slow down to find out. Instead I sped up, waving to people who stood by the side of the road looking puzzled as to why I was pedaling madly while being chased by loudly barking dogs. Eventually the dogs gave up the chase, and I turned onto a bigger road that led back to the main road that I had originally been forced off of by the construction. Later I found a park. Then I biked home and ate what felt like a well-deserved dinner.