In the middle of…Seoul
(Illustration: Marc Herold)
Life in South Korea is so dominated by the smartphone that it sometimes seems as if people and devices have grown together. Like that gentleman on the subway. His head hangs powerlessly over his massive body. The elbow is supported on the thigh. The smartphone rests in the open hand. It looks like a sculpture entitled Sleeping Man with Cell Phone Hand. But then the ride suddenly becomes restless. The smartphone falls down when it shakes. The gentleman? Just keep sleeping. A young man sees the empty hand, the smartphone on the floor. He can’t leave it like that. He lovingly places the smartphone back in the sleeping gentleman’s hand. Before he gets out, he looks back briefly. South Koreans and smartphones in blissful harmony. Everything OK. Thomas Hahn
In the middle of … St. Jakob
(Illustration: Marc Herold)
After a four-hour drive, the Munich residents, who are plagued by the big city, have arrived at the mountain farm in St. Jakob in the South Tyrolean Ahrntal. Open the car door and breathe in the incredibly clear mountain air. In the afternoon, a hike with a view of larch forests, whose rust-brown needles glow in the autumn sun. In the evening the children in the stable feed a lamb with a milk bottle, a cat nestles up against our legs. The stars twinkle, an almost untouched idyll. On the fourth day, the farmer’s family leaves the scene and sets off on vacation themselves; on the seventh day, just before we leave for home, she is back. After a four hour drive. It was wonderful, they say. Lots of shopping, good food, impressive museums. Where they were? In Munich. We close the car doors. Vacation is just a matter of perspective. Lisa Sunday
In the middle of… Rome
(Illustration: Marc Herold)
Before our vacation in Rome we received all sorts of tips – the district of Trastevere, the Villa Borghese, definitely also Trastevere, eating ice cream at Giolitti behind the Pantheon, Trastevere again – only nobody prepared us for the queue thing. It’s like this: If you want to eat in Rome, you have to wait in line. And waits. It doesn’t matter whether it’s midday or in the evening. In front of the Osteria da Fortunata on Campo de’ Fiori, travelers sometimes hang around in a thirty-meter long queue. It’s a nice place too. And the noodles look amazing. So what to do when we definitely don’t want to wait in line before eating? We’ll be back the next day before the store opens. At 11:59 a.m. In fact: free choice of seat. The spaghetti is really great. We would even line up for that next time. Dominik Furst
You can find more episodes of the “In the middle of …” column here.