The tour leader kept singing as the gondola-banana boat glided past us, his frustrations filling Venice s canals with Korean language. We both laughed. Another aspect of travelling with a Korean is to see what sites caught her interest. For Westerners, a historic site should be authentic. An old wall is only interesting if it was really built by the Romans, and a painting is only valuable if it was really painted by Van Gogh.
Replicas only have a fraction of the value of the real thing.
Koreans in general, however, have a different attitude. Museums exhibited items which, in many cases, the guide did not even bother to distinguish between as being authentic or a replica. During our travels through Europe we visited Korean restaurants on a few occasions, in the larger, capital cities. I thought she would be pleased and I also fancied a kimchi pokum-pap once in a while. She said that she did not.