Anyway, since we did that instead of getting some much needed sleep, we passed out on the plane to South Korea. We missed the food, the movie, EVERYTHING. Whoops. Guess I'll never know if something exciting happened. Most likely not as the guy a couple seats down from me appeared to be just as surprised we were landing as I was. Kudos to the pilot for a smooth flight I suppose.
Well, we had a 12 hour layover in South Korea and I was just aching to get a new stamp on my passport so we filled out visas and exited the airport for a little day trip. We navigated our way to a bank where I was pleased to find that the exchange rate was 1000 won to the dollar. I checked my bank account...I was a MILLIONAIRE!!!!! This was fun news!
So we hopped on the brand new airport transit. Basically it was a high speed train. We took it from the airport to downtown Seoul. I have to say I was NOT a happy camper at this point. My contacts were bothering me, I was starving, and I was still a tad bit tired. Not really a great way to start out a trip. Some kid took pity on our obvious confusion and led us around until he got us where we needed to be. He was really nice. Lili talked to him a lot but I stayed pretty quiet.
Finally we got to the area where the palace in Seoul is. We decided to stop and get something to eat first (thank god) and quickly discovered that South Korea was not nearly as easy to navigate as Thailand. It's not exactly a country that's based on tourism and therefore very little is translated into English (mindblowing, I know). It took us kind of a while to find a place to eat but we found one that looked pretty harmless and walked in.
They seated us a a table with other people. It was sort of like a picnic where someone is taking your order and then bringing it to you. We diligently studied the pictures chose the prettiest ones and were immediately discouraged from ordering those. As the waiter put it, "That HOT!" So we asked him what we should get. He pointed at two things, we nodded, and off he went.
We didn't have to wait long. He brought out two pots of stew for us. A couple bites in and my mouth was on FIRE. Shoot. I grabbed my cup and went to the water machine. I filled it up and started drinking. Several glasses later my palette had grown a bit more accustomed to the taste (or had stopped working in protest and shock) so we finished up and paid the bill. We left feeling significantly better.
We finally found the old palace we had been looking for. It was a few thousand won to get in but then the tour was free (we got headphones and an MP3 player). We wandered around in search of the Secret Garden. Mostly because I read that book numerous times when I was little and was somewhat fascinated with the idea of a secret garden. But also because there was some funny story about getting drunk there and jumping into the water or some such nonsense. Anyway, when we found it it was somewhat, well, boring. I expected the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, not my backyard.
We explored the grounds a bit more, took some cool pictures of the building and then set off to do what we do best...shop. We bought a few odds and ends. For such an interesting exchange rate nothing is actually cheap in South Korea. It's exactly the same price only multiplied by 1000. No fun!
Eventually we were just tired and wanted to sit down. So we headed back to the airport.
Again, I was hungry (seriously, what is with me?) but I had had it with Korean food. It did not sit nearly as well as Thai food. So I went to the airport directory at Lili's suggestion. We found the American food section and headed off. I have never been so thrilled to see a KFC, Burger King and Dunkin' Donuts in my entire life. Seriously. I went on a food shopping spree. And, let me tell you, it was delicious.
Eventually, we boarded the Korean Air flight back home. WHAT?!?!? There were NO individual televisions!!!!!! Okay, I know that is super spoiled of me, but I get bored and I had paid a LOT for the ticket. And it was a 15 hour flight or something ridiculous like that. Ugh. Me=Not happy. Luckily Lil and I had three seats for just the two of us. We created quite a comfy little cove between the blankets, pillows, socks, and eye covers they gave us. Then we busted out our books and started reading. I managed to finished the beast of a book I had bought in Bangkok. I handed it over to Lili who had been eagerly awaiting my finish and we traded books.
I slept a little, though nothing to speak of. We ate. The food was okay. It was time to be home.
FINALLY we landed in Los Angeles. What a MESS!!! Seriously, for an airport that traffics that many people through each day you would think they would have their shit pulled together. Not so much. We got through customs after the longest wait in the history of waits (okay, exaggeration) and then went to get a shuttle to Burbank. So, this was by far and away the cheapest option but the shuttle kept doing laps around the airport looking for people to pick up...and our flight was leaving in two hours...during rush hour. CRAP!!
The shuttle eventually got us to the Burbank airport where we raced through the ticketing entrance to find our counter. Only to find it had been abandoned. Okay, think! We still had 15 minutes before our plane stopped boarding and we had checked in online in Seoul (thank god). We opened our suitcases and ripped out everything liquid we could find. We probably threw away over $75 worth of stuff but it was better than missing the plane...
We rushed through security, ran down the terminal and were the last ones to board the plane. We made it by two minutes. Oh. My. God. Ahh, breathe.
So we made it home to Columbus. Amazingly enough.
But I have a free ticket from Delta and I'm thinking that I might want to spend the end of the summer in Europe...who knows!?!?!
