#TravelBlogPost

[mybeautifulpoland]

Podlachia, Poland by agsobczak

[andrijaimages]

Uvac river in Serbia ©Andrija Ilic

[marielenaloves]

Cebu, Philippines 2017

[stavlog]

[diazmays]

POV: Amalfi Coast, Italy 🇮🇹❤️

[elementsof-emily]

📍 G O L D C O A S T, Q L D

[alpha-tire]

Safdarjung

[lexi-maurer-adventures]

The Trip to South Korea!

Wow, I can hardly believe it’s already nearly been a month... wild. Anyway! I’ve got quite a bit to share, starting with how my trip to the country went. So buckle up, because it was quite the ride and there’s a lot to tell!

As y’all already know, my dad worked for Delta airlines for a long time and thanks to his employment there we got to partake in certain flight benefits. Although I got to fly free as a kid, I can still fly for quite cheap thanks to him. The catch though is I fly standby, which means I only get on the plane if there’s an extra seat AND I’m high enough on the waiting list. 

Well, despite the difficulties that I knew flying standby can have, I still wanted to give it a shot for my flight to Korea in February. I bought my cheap yield fare ticket (only $200!!) and my dad watched the flights to see how my chances were looking. Things seemed to be promising up until the week before my flight, but then one of the planes that makes the *nonstop* flight from Atlanta to Incheon BROKE DOWN and caused two departing and return flights to be canceled. Needless to say, the flights for the next week were packed, and despite my parents taking me to the airport for the 12:05am flight two nights in a row, not a single person on the waiting list could get on (I was over halfway down the list to make it worse). 

My parents and I were teetering at our wit’s end, and in a rushed decision decided to buy a positive seat ticket on a different airline with a short layover in Texas (the nonstop flight had doubled in price since just two days prior). Well, the Lord’s providence became so evident as the rest of my trip fell into place. Finally I was able to leave the airport on the plane instead of returning home, and my journey had begun!

The flight from Atlanta to Dallas was only about 2 hours, but then the flight from Dallas to Incheon was 15 hours... aha. However! I had in-seat entertainment, episodes of shows downloaded to my laptop, and the window seat so I could try to sleep some of the flight. To make it even better, my seat was in the Premium Economy section (which I hadn’t planned for but ended up being a nice surprise when I bought my ticket). I had lots of leg space and a wide seat, plus three meals and an unlimited supply of snacks and water that we could leave our seat to get whenever we liked. I was still relieved when we finally landed though, and was more than ready to get to my Airbnb and sleep. However, it took about 2 hours for me to get through customs, get my bags, exchange some US cash for the Korean currency (”won”), get a Korean SIM card, and find the subway to take me the 45 minute trip into Seoul. 

The adventure was not over when I got to the subway though, because I learned exactly why my family was so skeptical when they saw how much stuff I was bringing. I had two large rolling suitcases weighing about 50lbs each, plus a 20lb backpack and another 20lb duffle bag (WHO DID I THINK I WAS??), so it was just a *tad* difficult maneuvering all those bags onto the subway cars and through the stations. There were a couple times where I’d be visibly struggling with them, and some sympathetic passerby would stop and help me get my bags through a door, onto an elevator, off the escalator, etc. I’ve never felt so like a hopeless American tourist until those moments. 

I had just managed to get off the subway with the help of two sweet old Korean men who insisted on getting my bags for me (I wasn’t worried about anyone stealing from me because trust me that those 140lbs of bags weren’t going ANYWHERE very quickly), and they asked me in Korean where I was headed. I answered them, but to my dismay they stopped and shook their heads, pointing back in the direction we had just come and repeating the name of the stop that I *SHOULD* have gotten off at :’). After I thanked them and lugged my bags back down through the elevator to the station, another kind Korean lady helped me get back on the subway and sat down beside me. She had to have been sent by God, because after she asked me where I was going, she took it upon herself to help me get to where I needed to go. One of my bags in tow, she led me off at the correct station, called me a taxi and waited with me by the street until they arrived and helped me get my bags into the car. She also gave me her number telling me she teaches Korean at one of the universities, and if I ever had any questions that I could text her. 

For a little added context: I had been up since 3:30am Friday morning, my flight landed at 5:30pm Saturday evening, and I finally arrived at my Airbnb around 9pm (nearly 28 hours, excluding the 14 hour time difference). By that point I was ready to crash, so I was grateful I hadn’t attempted to take a bus instead of a taxi. When I got to the Airbnb, the owner who I’d been texting with was waiting outside the building for me. He helped me carry my bags up three flights of stairs to my room (I tried to pay him for his time but he adamantly refused), reviewed the housekeeping rules and gave me my key, and left me to get settled in. The room I paid for is in a hostel, so the space is quite small and most often rented by students due to its affordability. The room was quite clean though, plus I had a bathroom to myself, so I couldn’t ask for much more. 

Despite the time difference being so large, not surprisingly I was able to sleep most of the night with no trouble-- and that was how my first night in Seoul, South Korea went!

[darines]

[mybeautifulpoland]

Rzeszów, Poland by Krzysztof Cisło

[marielenaloves]

Batanes, Philippines 2020

[stavlog]

So I finally got to See the ruckes Makers today 😆 #horses #nay I say #hay 😍

[besttravelbd]

At Nepal Airport