Sorting through what is not 3000+ photos from 6 different sources (so many, many duplicates that I need to choose from) is tedious, so I keep postponing.
On the second half of the first day, we went and visited the Arch of Triumph,
the Pyongyang metro,
and Moran Hill.
The Arch of Triumph was pretty grandiose in and by itself, in fact, it is slightly large than the one in Paris. Unfortunately, the difference (60mx50m compared to 50mx45m) is mitigated by the fact that you can not go on top, and that it is not surrounded by the breathtaking view of the place Charles deGaulle and traffic circle.
It was interesting for me, as I had been to Paris only 3 years earlier and had visited the Arche de Triomphe de l'Étoile there. Also interesting is the need North Korea felt to try and emulate and surpass the West/Allies, as displayed by the Arch.
We then took a walk around the surrounding area, passing near Kim il Sung stadium, the Pyongyang cinema, and finished by going up the hill itself, which was a nice little park. Despite the growing tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world... People were going about their daily lives as normal, children laughing while on their way back from school, etc. In this context the mounting tensions appeared forced. The terms "Pyongyang wants..." and "North Korea decides to..." are everywhere in the media, and its easy to forget that this is not a democracy (though many North Koreans purportedly believe otherwise) and that normal people therefore have no say in what is being decided. on top of that, most of them do not even know what is happening in other regions of North Korea, let alone the world, their only source of information being government-sanctioned news and broadcasts.
People seemed relaxed around Moran Hill, and some old ladies even bantered with some of the younger German guys.
Afterwards we were to go to the DMZ (This time, the North Korean side), The Fruit Farm(tm) and Kaesong Hotel.
