Take my breath away

The standard of driving in Seoul is not quite as hair-raising as that of Beijing (where taxi drivers seem to be on a perpetual mission to drive people to pray - well every taxi journey I took certainly drove me to pray... for safety!!)
But the driving style of Seoulites can still leave you a bit breathless when you are but a passenger, especially if your driver has a habit of accelerating as fast as possible towards clearly-red traffic lights and the obviously stationary vehicles up front, or when he/she chooses to career violently from one lane to another through seemingly impossible/invisible spaces.
(It reminded me a little of the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Disney's MGM Studios... but maybe even hairier! Although I remember as we went round the first 'bend' of that particular ride my specs flew sideways off my face. Amazingly, I caught them in my right hand.)
Anyway, back to car journeys through Seoul...
Worst experience of all was when my taxi driver decided to do a high speed illegal U-turn against a red-light into 6 lanes of oncoming traffic, then (in the space of a few yards) dart from the outside lane right across to the pavement in order to stop outside my hotel!!
As a guest, of course, you feel that you can say nothing- you just quietly grip the edge of your seat and try to take in the scenery as you are propelled along.
Having said that, much of the time that you spend on Seoul's roads you are going nowhere!
Since Seoul is the second most populated metropolitan area in the world (Tokyo having the dubious privilege of topping the list) one thing the city is rarely short of is the traffic jam!
But even the ironically-named "rush hour" can have its compensations.
I was stuck in one such traffic jam and my eye was drawn upwards to the elegant street lamps bathed in the late afternoon sunshine. They seemed to me to be like a flock of migrating geese (albeit the ones on the left only seem have one wing!)


Sometimes in our everyday lives we may feel we are being propelled at breakneck speed by events beyond our control, but occasionally you get the chance to stop... and look up and find beauty in everyday things.
Try it some time.
It might take your breath away in a different way altogether.