Leaving Seoul...and arriving home
How did I spend my very last day in Seoul?
The plan was to get some breakfast from a street stall for the very last time, head back to the hotel, leave by noon, go to the airport, leave my stuff there and travel back into the city for a bit since I had like seven hours.
But instead, I spent most of the morning packing up. There was more stuff than I'd imagined, and I barely fit everything into my suitcase despite wearing my newly bought coat. I decided it might be better to just go to the airport early and leave my stuff there so I'd have more time to explore. So I checked out like around 10 or 11am, took the subway to the airport, found the luggage storage area, then bought a donut for breakfast.
It was a toss of the coin between staying at the airport and heading back to the city. The subway ride was so long, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through it again. But then I thought, I'm only here once anyway, so I headed back to Seoul station.
I wanted that spicy meat on a stick, but found only one place with it, and it didn't have the spicy type, so I didn't get it. Instead, I had a fast food meal at a Lotte outlet. That was accompanied by a bit of walking around, and just to be safe, I decided to head back to the airport sooner rather than later.
I walked around the airport for so long I felt like a terrorist, what with the baseball cap and the coat. Because I had so much time, I could afford to choose which bathroom I went to for a number two (wanted the most deserted one), walked back to the other side of the airport to look for a donut shop to sit down and eat. Found one and had a long black and two donuts there. Then went to get my luggage, checked in and sat down for a long time playing with my phone.
The plane was delayed by about 30 minutes, so there was even more waiting there. I felt sad leaving. Not sure if I was sad leaving Seoul, or just because my holiday had come to an end. To be honest, I did consider using my spare time earlier to go back to Jin's place and dropping a letter in the mailbox, basically exposing her, but I didn't. I couldn't do it to her mum. Not after I'd seen her.
Anyway, boarding the plane, I was once again curious to see who I'd sit next to. There was a young blonde girl sitting at the window seat. We both nodded and smiled as I approached. Then later on an older Korean woman sat in between us. The three of us chatted a bit. Turns out the blonde is from England, stopping over in Seoul and going to Australia to study photography. The Korean lady has a family in Australia and was in Seoul for business for three days.
I couldn't really sleep, though did doze off for a few hours. For some reason during the flight I became convinced that I would come back for a quick trip and drop off the letter in her mailbox.
What really gave me the shits was the person in front had their seat reclined for most of the trip. The only time they put it back was when the stewardesses asked them to during meals.
This return flight seemed to go quicker than the first flight, but there was the lack of excitement of going to a new place.
When we landed, I didn't have too much trouble getting out the airport. At customs, there was one guy and one girl in my lane doing the checking. The girl looked up at me as she was checking another woman's luggage, and then told the woman she could go. She asked me to put my carry bag onto the table and to take my hat off. She asked what I had to declare and I said ginseng. She opened my bag, and she curiously asked what the plush toy was. I cheerfully said it was Poporo, a famous Korean cartoon character, and she laughed and said "each to their own". I added "well it's for a friend" and thought, if I ever decide to traffick drugs, I'm going to put something in like that as a diversion.
I found my dad without much difficulty, and we drove to Brighton le Sands for him to pick something up before we went home. I was excited to open everything and give them the presents, before taking a quick nap until I was woken up to eat.
I went back to sleep and then woke up to meet the guys for dinner. I picked up Malay, and met Shuing, G and Brain in Chinksford. We went to a Chinese restaurant and I gave them all their presents. Even though Shuing had returned from Beijing, most of the talk was about my trip, with the occasional comment from him comparing it to Beijing.
After that we went to Macca's for coffee, which turned out to be ice cream for most of us. Then Malay bought 20 chicken nuggets to share, and I then matched him with another 20 lol. We stayed till close to midnight before going home.
The plan was to get some breakfast from a street stall for the very last time, head back to the hotel, leave by noon, go to the airport, leave my stuff there and travel back into the city for a bit since I had like seven hours.
But instead, I spent most of the morning packing up. There was more stuff than I'd imagined, and I barely fit everything into my suitcase despite wearing my newly bought coat. I decided it might be better to just go to the airport early and leave my stuff there so I'd have more time to explore. So I checked out like around 10 or 11am, took the subway to the airport, found the luggage storage area, then bought a donut for breakfast.
It was a toss of the coin between staying at the airport and heading back to the city. The subway ride was so long, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go through it again. But then I thought, I'm only here once anyway, so I headed back to Seoul station.
I wanted that spicy meat on a stick, but found only one place with it, and it didn't have the spicy type, so I didn't get it. Instead, I had a fast food meal at a Lotte outlet. That was accompanied by a bit of walking around, and just to be safe, I decided to head back to the airport sooner rather than later.
I walked around the airport for so long I felt like a terrorist, what with the baseball cap and the coat. Because I had so much time, I could afford to choose which bathroom I went to for a number two (wanted the most deserted one), walked back to the other side of the airport to look for a donut shop to sit down and eat. Found one and had a long black and two donuts there. Then went to get my luggage, checked in and sat down for a long time playing with my phone.
The plane was delayed by about 30 minutes, so there was even more waiting there. I felt sad leaving. Not sure if I was sad leaving Seoul, or just because my holiday had come to an end. To be honest, I did consider using my spare time earlier to go back to Jin's place and dropping a letter in the mailbox, basically exposing her, but I didn't. I couldn't do it to her mum. Not after I'd seen her.
Anyway, boarding the plane, I was once again curious to see who I'd sit next to. There was a young blonde girl sitting at the window seat. We both nodded and smiled as I approached. Then later on an older Korean woman sat in between us. The three of us chatted a bit. Turns out the blonde is from England, stopping over in Seoul and going to Australia to study photography. The Korean lady has a family in Australia and was in Seoul for business for three days.
I couldn't really sleep, though did doze off for a few hours. For some reason during the flight I became convinced that I would come back for a quick trip and drop off the letter in her mailbox.
What really gave me the shits was the person in front had their seat reclined for most of the trip. The only time they put it back was when the stewardesses asked them to during meals.
This return flight seemed to go quicker than the first flight, but there was the lack of excitement of going to a new place.
When we landed, I didn't have too much trouble getting out the airport. At customs, there was one guy and one girl in my lane doing the checking. The girl looked up at me as she was checking another woman's luggage, and then told the woman she could go. She asked me to put my carry bag onto the table and to take my hat off. She asked what I had to declare and I said ginseng. She opened my bag, and she curiously asked what the plush toy was. I cheerfully said it was Poporo, a famous Korean cartoon character, and she laughed and said "each to their own". I added "well it's for a friend" and thought, if I ever decide to traffick drugs, I'm going to put something in like that as a diversion.
I found my dad without much difficulty, and we drove to Brighton le Sands for him to pick something up before we went home. I was excited to open everything and give them the presents, before taking a quick nap until I was woken up to eat.
I went back to sleep and then woke up to meet the guys for dinner. I picked up Malay, and met Shuing, G and Brain in Chinksford. We went to a Chinese restaurant and I gave them all their presents. Even though Shuing had returned from Beijing, most of the talk was about my trip, with the occasional comment from him comparing it to Beijing.
After that we went to Macca's for coffee, which turned out to be ice cream for most of us. Then Malay bought 20 chicken nuggets to share, and I then matched him with another 20 lol. We stayed till close to midnight before going home.
posted by toey | 22:28
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home