maps

When I'm down in the subway station, waiting to take the short, two-stop ride from Daechi to Daecheong, I often find myself staring at an enormous map of Seoul that clearly shows all the subway stations, but also clearly shows many other salient geographic features. My eyes trace the paths I've walked, and the map, somewhat therapeutically, takes me on a journey of the imagination. It's also a resource for scouting out new potential walking routes. Over time, it dawned on me that I wanted a map like this for myself. And since I can get over 90% of what I want via Coupang, I snapped a photo of the subway-station map and typed the map's title into Coupang's search window.

Bingo:

This map is a bit smaller than the one in the subway station.

When the above map arrived, it came with a free bonus map—physically smaller but showing a larger area: a map of South Korea. The map below is titled an "all-country administrative road map," whatever that means. Its contents are so scrunched together that it's hard to see even prominent geographic features like the Nakdong River. I can trace the Four Rivers route at only the grossest level of detail by connecting the dots between cities. But finding and following the Nakdong is frustratingly difficult.

frustratingly hard to read, especially as my eyes worsen

The big map is held in place with staples (it's a pressboard wall). The smaller map is held in place by double-sided tape. I tried to use double-sided tape with the big map, but that one's both huge and laminated, making it rather heavy. The boss suggested just stapling it to the wall. Now, I can stare at my maps to my heart's content.