Day 1: Flights and Recovery

I'm back for my annual overseas holiday. This year, I'm on an adventure with Sophie, a fellow competitor in the 2nd AUAP English Speaking Competition who HAS NEVER BEEN OVERSEAS BEFORE IN HER LIFE.

So let's hope I don't scare her off travel all together.

This trip is only short, mostly focused around the competition and a leadership conference in Daegu, but we are having a few days in Seoul both before and after the conference to see a few of the sights - very exciting.

I left Sydney late last night after attending Uni. The first thing Sophie and I (who were seated next to each other despite checking in half an hour apart from one another) noticed was that the cabin area smelt like vomit. We should have taken that as a warning it turned out. The flight went smoothly enough - watched movies, picked at some food (which was a bit underwhelming this time, to be honest) and slept as much as possible - despite the lady sitting next to us freaking out in the middle of the "night" and repeatedly shining a flashlight in our faces whilst we were trying to sleep.

Bye bye Australia

 However, just before we descended towards Hong Kong, one of the children in front of us threw up. And he didn't get any of it in the sick bag. It splattered all over floor, spraying onto my bag and Sophie's. And it wasn't cleaned up before landing. So Sophie and I had to sit and clear our nasal cavities with the stench of vomit. A scent which followed us around because of our bags - and despite our best cleaning efforts.

The second flight was uneventful. The wait at immigration was very long though - there was a surprisingly large number of tourists - particularly from Middle Eastern nations. I found that to be very interesting given that I was told when looking for things to do here that South Korea was only just beginning to become a tourist destination. I can't imagine the immigration system coping if it ever becomes popular.

We bought our public transport cards - although I'm not sure I've put enough on there, might need to top up at a 7-eleven or something. We also managed to get hold of SIM Cards and so far, no problems with communication. The bus ride itself was lovely - our large luggage was put beneath the bus (checked in in fact) and we enjoyed a leisurely drive into the city. The biggest challenge was not falling asleep.

I'm glad we didn't have anything booked for this afternoon because it is very humid, quite warm - has been raining on and off all afternoon. Sophie and I have booked into our traditional Hanok, which is quite pretty and all I have eaten so far is a doughnut from Dunkin' Doughnuts down the street.

So this is my home...

Traditional style Hanok. The room is very small - Sophie and I are sharing a double mattress

Sophie picked out a dinner spot. It was a small Korean restaurant place. Fortunately the menu was written in both english and Korean, so with the magic of pointing we were able to order what we wanted. It came with a side of various foods - included pickled radishes, tofu (we think? Unsure - tasted like tofu, but was hard and white. I'm not a connoisseur of tofu so I couldn't be sure), spiced bean sprouts  and of course Kim Chi - which I did not try, because I am not that brave and it didn't smell great (still better than our vomit bags though). Dinner itself was fine - I had crumbled pork with a mystery sauce which fortunately wasn't spicy - in fact it tasted like BBQ sauce.

They had dumplings. I didn't get those.

I like food...mostly.

After dinner we had a bit of a wander and are now spending the evening in our Hanok reading over our speeches and deciding when to go to bed so we can rest up because tomorrow we head north to the Demilitarised Zone.  Fingers crossed I don't cause a diplomatic incident and that Kim is nice.