Day 467
My alarm went off at 9 and I packed my things. I was a bit sad to be leaving, but my time was done here. After one last bagel I took the bus to the airport.
Checkin and security were easy. I spent the last of my won on a mocha and a donut. Before the plane was boarded every passanger had their tempature checked. The flight was shrot and we landed in Beijing in just over an hour. Some people came on board to check everyones tempatures again. They had a problem with one guy and called someone to come and look at him further. We were all held on the plane for about an hour while this happened. It was quite annoying.
Immigration wasn't a problem and soon I had my things and was in a cab on the way to the hostel. After checking in I headed right back out to the internet cafe. I managed to type a bit but mostly just watched tv online.
When it grew dark I headed back to the hostel. I was really nervous about missing my train and didn't sleep well. I was invited out to a club but I declined. I think I woke up and checked the time every time someone walked in the door. I didn't sleep very well.
Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Korea. Show all posts
Monday, June 22, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Seoul Town
Day 466
Today was my last day in Seoul and I still had town things on my list. After breakfast I checked my email, Kamiel and I had planned to meet up. I didn't want to wait too long though and ended up just sending him a message about where I would be going.
My first stop was the Namsangol Hanok Village. This was a collection of traditional homes from around the country. I walked around some of it, it was very much like everything I had seen in China and I was soon board.
I then went to the History Museum. This museum had something I had never seen before, a fancy toilet. There was a seat warmer and all sorts of fun buttons to explore. As for the museum itself, it was ok. I'm just so tired of Asian things, it is really time for me to move along from this part of the world.
After the museum I returned to the hostel and got an email from Kamiel about when he would be stopping by. We called his couchsurf host and invited her to join us for dinner. The first thing I noticed about Yeon was how American her accent was. It turned out that she had lived in New York for 7 years. We spent a lot of the evening arguing about who made the best bagels and chatting about our favorite places in the city.
I know that I was never meant to be here, but I'm so glad that it happened.
Today was my last day in Seoul and I still had town things on my list. After breakfast I checked my email, Kamiel and I had planned to meet up. I didn't want to wait too long though and ended up just sending him a message about where I would be going.
I then went to the History Museum. This museum had something I had never seen before, a fancy toilet. There was a seat warmer and all sorts of fun buttons to explore. As for the museum itself, it was ok. I'm just so tired of Asian things, it is really time for me to move along from this part of the world.
After the museum I returned to the hostel and got an email from Kamiel about when he would be stopping by. We called his couchsurf host and invited her to join us for dinner. The first thing I noticed about Yeon was how American her accent was. It turned out that she had lived in New York for 7 years. We spent a lot of the evening arguing about who made the best bagels and chatting about our favorite places in the city.
I know that I was never meant to be here, but I'm so glad that it happened.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Serendipity
Day 465
It was pouring rain when I woke up. This motivated me to do nothing for a while. By the time I got myself up showered and fed it was about noon.
I contemplated going to the history museum, but there wasn't much time. Two days ago I had gotten an email from Kamiel, a Dutch guy that I had met in Poland 10 months ago. We both were going to be in Seoul at the same time, neither of us had any idea that the other was going to be there. Kameil told me that he would be at my hostel at 3pm. I read for a while waiting for him. I had just about given up when he showed up at about 4pm.
It was really nice to see someone familiar that I had spent so much time emailing. We went to a coffee shop and caught up for several hours, making him unfortunately late to meet his Couchsurfing host.
Kamiel left around 10 and I headed to a nearby bar to write for a bit. The people there were super friendly and kept buying me drinks despite my protests. Eventually I told them that I had curfew and headed back to my hostel to sleep.
It was pouring rain when I woke up. This motivated me to do nothing for a while. By the time I got myself up showered and fed it was about noon.
It was really nice to see someone familiar that I had spent so much time emailing. We went to a coffee shop and caught up for several hours, making him unfortunately late to meet his Couchsurfing host.
Kamiel left around 10 and I headed to a nearby bar to write for a bit. The people there were super friendly and kept buying me drinks despite my protests. Eventually I told them that I had curfew and headed back to my hostel to sleep.
Friday, June 19, 2009
A lot of Nothing
Day 464
I overslept, well I slept late because of those stupid girls. I was able to dodge a spicy breakfast and went to Dunkin Donuts instead. Even though I had ended up here on accident I still knew that visiting the DMZ was the main tourist attraction. I had seen in on a Globetrekker episode. There were two types of tours. One takes you to the base and the meeting room where soldiers stare each other down, the other to the road that goes to North Korea. The first wasn't available and the later seemed dumb, I've been on roads all over the world. I decided to just skip the tour and spend the day writing in my journal.
I wrote and wrote until my hand hurt. When I went back to the hostel I tried to work on the blog, but I was tired of working and ended up just goofing around on the internet for a while.Before bed I watched some movies and called it an early night. Luckily the girls didn't play strobe light all night long.
I overslept, well I slept late because of those stupid girls. I was able to dodge a spicy breakfast and went to Dunkin Donuts instead. Even though I had ended up here on accident I still knew that visiting the DMZ was the main tourist attraction. I had seen in on a Globetrekker episode. There were two types of tours. One takes you to the base and the meeting room where soldiers stare each other down, the other to the road that goes to North Korea. The first wasn't available and the later seemed dumb, I've been on roads all over the world. I decided to just skip the tour and spend the day writing in my journal.
I wrote and wrote until my hand hurt. When I went back to the hostel I tried to work on the blog, but I was tired of working and ended up just goofing around on the internet for a while.Before bed I watched some movies and called it an early night. Luckily the girls didn't play strobe light all night long.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Forgotten
Day 463
When I woke up Mr. Sea was in the kitchen making breakfast. I do like to try local food, but I have a real problem with getting down noodles in the morning, I just can't face it. They were also really spicy and came with a side of soup. I really don't know how I got it all down.
I then took the extremely efficient subway system to the War Memorial of Korea. I got a bit confused though and accidentally entered thru the side entrance and not the front. If I had gone the right way I would have missed the memorial to Americans that died during the Korean War. Each state was listed with the people it lost.
This was less a memorial and more of a museum. The bottom floor was about Korea's early history. I think that every child under 7 in the country was there. The first room was filled with busts of famous military leaders, or just a room full of people holding a funny hat contest. I couldn't really tell. The rest of the floor was on various periods in history and the weapons of each. I wasn't terribly interested in this so I moved quickly thru.
The reason I came here was to learn about the Korean War. It's often referred to as the Forgotten War because we just don't learn about it. I hardly remember anything about it myself that didn't come from MASH. After WWII Japan lost control of Korea and it became it's own country, and stumbled into the cold war. Both the USSR and the US wanted control. The USSR ended up with the north and the US with the south. In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea and took the capital, Seoul in just three days. With the help of UN forces a counter attack was prepared. The combined forces took back Seoul and advanced all the way to the Chinese boarder. This annoyed the communist Chinese and they helped to push the front back to the 38th parallel. In 1954 a cease fire was signed and the DMZ fixed at the 38th parallel. The border is still set here.
The second floor consisted of information on UN involvement. The first room had a section dedicated to each country that helped. There were statistics as well as a mannequin meant to look like someone from each country. There was also a picture of a war monument for each country, but oddly nothing said where these were located. The British monument was actually dedicated to the Commonwealth. This includes Australia, New Zealand and Canada, each of those countries had their own monument. I guess it was just a bit odd.
There as a rather interesting movie on the war assets that each country had in 1950 prior to the North's invasion. In almost every category, including weapons, food and people, the South had more, and not just a bit more, a whole lot more. It's amazing to me that the North managed anything at all.
The museum then moved into information on the refugees and then to about the different divisions of the Korean army. The top floor had a submarine and a bunch of different large weapons to be checked out. I had been wondering for some time where all of the kids had gone off to. At the end I found them all in a giant play area. I don't blame them really, the ball pit did look like more fun than learning about war.
After the museum I headed to a shopping area for some lunch. I was pretty famished and happy to see that Dunkin Donuts had bagels! I then went back to the hostel to work on my journal.
That evening pretty much everyone at the hostel went out for an amazing seafood dinner. I don't even like the types of things that we had. I wouldn't have tried it if it wasn't a communal thing. Everything was just amazing. I can't believe that I stay away from seafood so often! We didn't get back to the hostel until after midnight and I climbed right into bed. Unfortunately the two girls from Hong Kong in my room were in and out for the next few hours and they kept turning on the lights. It took me ages to fall asleep.
When I woke up Mr. Sea was in the kitchen making breakfast. I do like to try local food, but I have a real problem with getting down noodles in the morning, I just can't face it. They were also really spicy and came with a side of soup. I really don't know how I got it all down.
This was less a memorial and more of a museum. The bottom floor was about Korea's early history. I think that every child under 7 in the country was there. The first room was filled with busts of famous military leaders, or just a room full of people holding a funny hat contest. I couldn't really tell. The rest of the floor was on various periods in history and the weapons of each. I wasn't terribly interested in this so I moved quickly thru.
The reason I came here was to learn about the Korean War. It's often referred to as the Forgotten War because we just don't learn about it. I hardly remember anything about it myself that didn't come from MASH. After WWII Japan lost control of Korea and it became it's own country, and stumbled into the cold war. Both the USSR and the US wanted control. The USSR ended up with the north and the US with the south. In 1950 North Korea invaded South Korea and took the capital, Seoul in just three days. With the help of UN forces a counter attack was prepared. The combined forces took back Seoul and advanced all the way to the Chinese boarder. This annoyed the communist Chinese and they helped to push the front back to the 38th parallel. In 1954 a cease fire was signed and the DMZ fixed at the 38th parallel. The border is still set here.
The second floor consisted of information on UN involvement. The first room had a section dedicated to each country that helped. There were statistics as well as a mannequin meant to look like someone from each country. There was also a picture of a war monument for each country, but oddly nothing said where these were located. The British monument was actually dedicated to the Commonwealth. This includes Australia, New Zealand and Canada, each of those countries had their own monument. I guess it was just a bit odd.
There as a rather interesting movie on the war assets that each country had in 1950 prior to the North's invasion. In almost every category, including weapons, food and people, the South had more, and not just a bit more, a whole lot more. It's amazing to me that the North managed anything at all.
The museum then moved into information on the refugees and then to about the different divisions of the Korean army. The top floor had a submarine and a bunch of different large weapons to be checked out. I had been wondering for some time where all of the kids had gone off to. At the end I found them all in a giant play area. I don't blame them really, the ball pit did look like more fun than learning about war.
After the museum I headed to a shopping area for some lunch. I was pretty famished and happy to see that Dunkin Donuts had bagels! I then went back to the hostel to work on my journal.
That evening pretty much everyone at the hostel went out for an amazing seafood dinner. I don't even like the types of things that we had. I wouldn't have tried it if it wasn't a communal thing. Everything was just amazing. I can't believe that I stay away from seafood so often! We didn't get back to the hostel until after midnight and I climbed right into bed. Unfortunately the two girls from Hong Kong in my room were in and out for the next few hours and they kept turning on the lights. It took me ages to fall asleep.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
For the First Time
Day 462
I woke up at 7:30 with a start, my train left in 15 minutes. There was no way I could get to the train station and thru security in that amount of time. I went into a panic that hasn't happened yet on this trip. At first it was the money and the second was that I had never missed anything like this before. The third part was visa panic, there was only one day left on my visa.
I had a very strong desire to talk to someone from home. After a lot of emailing and calls I finally got in touch with Rose. Talking to her helped me get over my panic attack. Rose assured me that this had happened for a reason. I wonder if I panic because of homesickness and not just because of the ticket. After hanging up with Rose I called my parents. I'd left them a panicky voicemail earlier and I was sure that they were worried and had to let them know that everything was fine.
Now calm and rational I called the ticket office to find out my options. There weren't any trains for another 5 days, but I could get my money back. I hopped in a cab and went right to the office. Once I was there I found out what all of my options were. I could 1. get a partial refund and fly to Mongolia in the morning, 2. overstay my Chinese via (not a hot one), or 3. fly elsewhere for a few days and change my ticket for the following week. From the begining 2 was out so it was dependent on how much 1 and 3 cost, three was the cheapest. I changed my ticket and then bought another plane ticket.
I then had to head back to the hostel to eat and get my things together. I had about 2 hours to wait until I went to the airport. At the airport I ran into the Texan school group I had met on the Great Wall. They were on a flight to Newark, I was still feeling rather homesick and was sorley tempted to get on it myself. I resisted the urge and waited for my own flight.
The flight was only 2 hours and the food was actually edible. Immigration was easy, in just minutes I was stamped in. I had randomly come to a country that I had never even thought of visiting before, I was in Seoul, Korea. After gathering up my things I waiting a bit for my bus. The guy at the bus stop made sure that I got on the right one and then the bus driver made sure that I got off at the right stop. I know that I was right next to my hostel but I couldn't find it. Finally I popped into an internet cafe and one of the men working there took me to the hostel, it was just a minutes walk away. Once there I dropped off my things and went to grab something to eat. I eat. I ended up with dumplings that were so good that they must have been sent down from heaven.
That night I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. I was still in a bit of shock over missing my train as well as my snap decision to come to Korea. I just couldn't believe that I was there.
I woke up at 7:30 with a start, my train left in 15 minutes. There was no way I could get to the train station and thru security in that amount of time. I went into a panic that hasn't happened yet on this trip. At first it was the money and the second was that I had never missed anything like this before. The third part was visa panic, there was only one day left on my visa.
Now calm and rational I called the ticket office to find out my options. There weren't any trains for another 5 days, but I could get my money back. I hopped in a cab and went right to the office. Once I was there I found out what all of my options were. I could 1. get a partial refund and fly to Mongolia in the morning, 2. overstay my Chinese via (not a hot one), or 3. fly elsewhere for a few days and change my ticket for the following week. From the begining 2 was out so it was dependent on how much 1 and 3 cost, three was the cheapest. I changed my ticket and then bought another plane ticket.
I then had to head back to the hostel to eat and get my things together. I had about 2 hours to wait until I went to the airport. At the airport I ran into the Texan school group I had met on the Great Wall. They were on a flight to Newark, I was still feeling rather homesick and was sorley tempted to get on it myself. I resisted the urge and waited for my own flight.
The flight was only 2 hours and the food was actually edible. Immigration was easy, in just minutes I was stamped in. I had randomly come to a country that I had never even thought of visiting before, I was in Seoul, Korea. After gathering up my things I waiting a bit for my bus. The guy at the bus stop made sure that I got on the right one and then the bus driver made sure that I got off at the right stop. I know that I was right next to my hostel but I couldn't find it. Finally I popped into an internet cafe and one of the men working there took me to the hostel, it was just a minutes walk away. Once there I dropped off my things and went to grab something to eat. I eat. I ended up with dumplings that were so good that they must have been sent down from heaven.
That night I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. I was still in a bit of shock over missing my train as well as my snap decision to come to Korea. I just couldn't believe that I was there.
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