Today, a new chapter of our journey begins. After two weeks in Russia we finally arrived in South Korea. After a short night in which we skipped a few hours we got our first impressions of this new chapter. The major part of this was determined by the airport. We landed at Seoul Incheon airport. Compared to the airports in Russia it is a very modern and fancy airport, so let’s hope this is a good indication of the state of the rest of the country. The airport is served by several trains, including a maglev (magnetic levitation) train, and carts playing very happy-sounding jingles to transport people around the place. These jingles, which could mostly be recognised from video games, seem to be a general trend in the country for several purposes.
After we arrived at the airport we took the train to Busan, where we will spend our first few days in South Korea. The train had very nice seats and happy jingles every time we arrived at a train station, when something was announced, when the doors were opened or sometimes simply at random times. I had hoped to get a good impression of the countryside, but the heavy fog, rain and the urge to close my eyes from tiredness did not help. The general impression is that South Korea is like America, but instead of Americans there are Koreans walking around.
After a three hour train ride we took the metro to our hostel. The metro also followed the general trend of using happy jingles for everything. Even when the metro is departing from the station a happy sound plays, maybe to comfort someone who has just missed the metro. Besides the happy sounds, the metro was way more quiet than the ones in Russia. Our hostel is located only a two-minute walk from a metro station, which is very convenient. It was very hot and damp outside, so we were happy to get inside where the air-conditioning sustained a cool and dry climate. Each room has its own air-conditioning unit and the bathrooms are very nice as well. The showers here provide a constant flow of water, in contrast to the bathrooms in Russia.
After everyone had settled, some of us decided to go to the beach to cool down a bit and stay awake during the day (and hopefully minimise our jetlag). Although the sun was not able to shine fully through the clouds, it was still quite hot outside (about 33 degrees) and the water of the sea was a welcome refreshment. At around six o’clock a whistle sounded and everyone had to leave to beach. We decided to walk back to the metro through the shopping street and look for something to eat. Again, our first impressions of the city were very good.
We found a nice Korean barbecue place at which we could eat with the whole group. When we arrived it looked like all the staff was gathered to help us as fast as possible. As tables were rapidly put together we took a look at the menu. We were not sure what to order so we just choose a variety of different dishes. Within a few minutes several waiters completely filled our tables with small dishes containing all kinds of food. Even when we thought the table was completely full, some more dishes were added. We were not sure what it all was, but we just let it happen. The meat was placed on the barbecues and we could already try some of the other food with chopsticks. I am still not sure what everything was, but most of it tasted very good. We also tried the typical Korean drink, Soju, which can best be described as a 20% version of gin or vodka, based on rice.
After everyone had finished struggling with chopsticks and shoving food in their mouths we got back to the hostel. Since everyone was exhausted from all the traveling, we went to bed immediately.
– Niels Valckx
