Welcome back! after leaving off in Berlin in my last post it’s time to jump right in to the next stage of my trip, Seoul! I hope you enjoy it!
The flight from Berlin was a freaking hoot let me tell you. Not only was it delayed by a few hours due to bad weather but they told me I’d not ordered a meal (how?) and I had to pay out for Aeroflots top tier ‘potatoes’ and ‘meat’. Anyway, I was trying to be strategic with my seating across this trip, always trying to sit where most people wouldn’t or where I could at least get an aisle seat. Unfortunately I was stuck with a window seat and cursing myself. This flight was a connecting flight to Moscow and apparently Russians love Berlin huh? I found myself next to an older Russian gentleman who didn’t say much until an hour into the journey where he assumed I was from Germany and began speaking to me.
I told him in broken English (through my own ignorance and in typical British fashion) that I was English and he immediately switched to speaking English, complete with a great but stereotypical accent. This guy was fantastic, I usually never speak to random people on flights because I tend to try and get some sleep but this guy (Andrei!) and me just talked for hours about travel, the world and so much more. He was even nice enough to buy me some ‘good’ vodka for the flight because “the UK doesn’t have the good stuff really”.
He did laugh when I told him I was actually connecting flights at Moscow and heading to Seoul. ‘Why? Is that really the kind of place British people go to? I thought you guys liked Spain, especially in the winter time!’. We both laughed about it but in a way, he was right. I had never known of any British people going to South Korea other than to teach English. I never really had an interest in South Korea either other than what I knew through history classes about the Korean War but I think a part of me just thought that I’d been to China and I’d been to Japan so why not see what Korea is like? I’ll tell you now that I really enjoyed my time there but I wish I’d put more time in and would love to come back.
After landing in Moscow for my connection I remember It was exceptionally cold, but there was no wind at all. I certainly wasn’t dressed warm enough but I was in the terminal pretty quickly and with a 3 hour lay over I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. The airport was very busy and I didn’t fancy wasting my Kindle or phone battery in case the next flight didn’t have anywhere to charge them (Why is that so hit and miss these days?). I began to just wonder around blindly and then just watched the TV in the terminal which would constantly flick to adverts featuring a Trump impersonator saying something or other over and over.
I was pretty tired by this point but eventually I got on the flight to Seoul. I am usually AWFUL at sleeping on flights so much so that I used to take sleeping tablets on any long haul (to little effect). It was only after this flight that I decided I needed to buy one of those neck pillows you see people wearing like an accessory in any terminal. I really did plan to sleep on this particular flight but it just never happened, no matter how tied I was. So I just watched some movies and at some point food arrived, I closed my eyes and didn’t sleep but suddenly we were landing and it was 6AM in South Korea.
The airport is located in Incheon which is honestly a bit far from the main city of Seoul so the train took a while to get me close to where I needed to be, or did it just feel longer because I was so exhausted. I was staying in a hilly area that I’ve honestly forgotten the name of and being that it was the start of January I was freezing cold, Snow had fallen the night before and had already frozen over, walking already felt difficult but I lugged my suitcase and backpack up these hills to get to my Hostel.
This almost insurmountable task was over as I reached what seemed to almost be the summit of a concrete mountain. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, sweating buckets in the icy air. I remember this air had an almost odd and thick ‘taste’ to it, which people I met in Seoul would describe to me as the pollution from China coming over, however it didn’t seem to affect me so much at the time. I located my Hostel a little weary that it didn’t quite look like I imagined but, in my fatigue, I wondered in to the building and spoke with the only staff member, who looked like they wanted to be anywhere else. I headed to my dorm, desperate for a shower and a sleep so I could be refreshed and begin enjoying my time in Seoul. The Hostel was well kept but much smaller and run down than the adverts online would have had me believe.
I remember being so tired I just wanted to go to my room and sleep but first I desperately needed to shower, after being in two airplanes with stale air circulating through them and then climbing a bunch of hills. As I asked the staff where the showers were located I was told ‘oh the shower may be cold but not because of water’ with an almost audible smile. I was so delirious at the time that I really didn’t care what that meant but I soon found out what they were referring to. I got in to the shower and it was pretty grotty, the water was scolding hot but there was a broken tiny window right next to the shower head that was letting in the frozen January air at the same time.
‘OK it’s fine’ I thought to myself ‘Hostels are not exactly 5 star hotels after all and none of the hostels I had stayed at previously were the perfect places to stay’. I thought I’d just go to bed but when I got to my dorm room it was exceptionally tiny, with 6 beds and only four lockers, I had nowhere to put my belongings and was told by staff that ‘it’s fine we trust who we let stay here’ in response to worrying about the safety of my belongings.
Again, I thought ‘it’s fine’ but after trying to sleep for 1 hour and getting nowhere, constantly being woken up by the others in the room coming and going I decided enough was enough and booked a hotel closer to the city centre, needless to say I left pretty quickly.
At this point it was snowing heavily and I was freezing again while I lugged around my bags. I began to think ‘Have I really thought enough about this trip’. This really taught me to research where I was staying more, don’t get me wrong Hostels like this are fine but It wasn’t what I thought it was and honestly didn’t make me feel too safe, the only regret was I didn’t get any kind of refund and ‘signed in’ early which meant essentially that I was staying for the full week.
In retrospect this also taught me that things won’t always go the way you think and that I should be a bit more thankful, not everyone could’ve dropped everything and afforded a last minute hotel like I did.
I got to my hotel and crashed immediately, sleeping until at least late-afternoon. I awoke but didn’t really know what to do with my time. In Berlin my room mates advised I used apps like Meetup and Couchsurfer in order to see what others in the area were doing as well as any events I could join but I was a bit hesitant on my first day so I began to walk around the area of my hotel, which was near a number of palaces and temples such as Daehanmun and Gyeongbokgung.
I walked around with my headphones in taking in the cityscapes and neon lights that were slowly turning on as the night sky began to appear in the horizon. I wanted to save the palace, Gyeongbokgung until I was well rested by decided to head to Daehanmun as the sun began setting and took some really beautiful pictures as I read about the history of the area. When I left through the main entrance, I noticed that there were a number of people stopping passers by and talking to them while holding pictures of Donald Trump who at the time was in the infancy of his presidency and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
As soon as I walked by one of the elderly women stopped me and correctly assumed I spoke English. Being cornered by what seemed like a sweet old lady I decided to let her talk to me, she kept telling me how great it was that my president was trying to unite Korea again and that I should be proud to be a free American citizen. As soon as I told her I was British she looked dejected, but then began asking me what I thought about Trump.
She didn’t really like my answer and muttered something about being ‘not free’, with that I went about my day a little blindsided by the whole ordeal, I wish I’d been able to get one of her custom ‘love Trump’ badges though. After this I found myself quite hungry and remembered the hotel concierge advised me to check out Namdaemun Market down the street if I wanted to see how ‘locals do business’.
It’s hard not to describe this place as a ‘bustling’ market even later in the day, with people going grabbing vegetables and other produce quickly, budging past those that were still browsing and almost knocking the foreigner off his feet a few times. The market was cramped but I loved the atmosphere, I’d been to a few in Japan but this felt different in some way that I cannot really explain.
I remember the aroma of food permeating from a stall nearby and immediately wondered towards it, in broken English the stall owner informed me they were doing fish based dishes kind of like ‘seafood sticks’ you’d get in Tesco but fried, at least that was my understanding. I don’t know if it was because I hadn’t eaten until the day before on the flight or that it was genuinely super tasty but I ordered three ‘fish sticks’ and though they were amazing.
I headed back to the hotel after this, logging in to Meetup and seeing there was a kind of ‘language exchange’ happening in Itaewon, one of the ‘clubbing’ areas. I was a bit hesitant but thought why not and decided to put myself down as joining. I wondered into the club everyone was due to meet at, found the table and introduced myself to a bunch of people from all over the globe, some fellow Brits but mostly Americans and Koreans who wanted to practice English.
It was a nice atmosphere to be honest and took me out of my comfort zone. I’m not big on the club scene because I worked in it throughout University but it was nice to cut loose a little. I made friends with a few people who were impressed that I was traveling around the globe but I’ve since lost contact with them all which is a shame.
Having used apps to meet people I felt I was on a role and managed to meet up with a number of people throughout my trip. Again, I’ve since lost contact because it’s hard to keep in touch when you met during such a specific time of your life where you were between places. I’d say I felt confident enough to do the whole ‘holiday romance’ thing too however I won’t go into that here! BUT it helped me with my self-confidence for sure!
One of my most standout moments of this trip was getting up early and walking to Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was a really frosty morning but lovely clear skies and the sun was shining. I believe there was some event on because most of the visitors were in Army gear but I wondered in and due to the frozen air the lake the palace was on had solidified and I got one of my favorite photos from my travels.
This part of my trip really solidified my outlook on travel where I would go to a number of places that were stereotypical ‘tourist’ spots or landmarks but that I’d just pick a direction and walk for miles. I really enjoy just being in my own head and listen to music while seeing how society moves around me. I saw so many great things during this trip, far too much to share in this post but I’d really love to return some day.
One of my closest friends who I met after this trip is from Seoul so I really want to see more of where they are from and learn about their experiences more! I’ll leave you with a funny story before I sign off.
I remember being starving and walking into a restaurant near my hotel. I thought being in the hotel district they may have some English menus but they didn’t and me being too embarrassed to leave I just ordered whatever the picture was on the menu. They kept saying ‘very a lot ok?’ so I thought it was just a big meal, but being hungry I ordered it. Well it was a set menu for I think around 4 people that all came at once and it was SPICY. I ate pretty much all of it but didn’t eat for most of the next day, with my wallet also hurting.
With the end of this trip I felt a bit refreshed and like I was finally starting to be much more like the person I wanted to be confidence wise. My next stop would be Japan, a place I’ve visited twice before this trip. This would only be a short trip however as I visited a friend and went somewhere totally new that tourists wouldn’t really know about.
Interviews With You! By Lewis Jane 