Mum's the word...
At the end of last week, I found myself catching the midnight bus on a Friday to get to Seoul in time to pick my mum up from the airport. Easy enough - or is it really?
I was just getting ready to go to the pub for a few jars before getting the 5:30am bus to Seoul (well, maybe a little more than a few jars then...) when I thought that I should check what time the old dear was landing...TWO HOURS BEFORE I HAD THOUGHT IT WAS!
The last bus leaves Mokpo at 11:40(ish) and they start to run around 5am. AND I had to meet her at 10am - not enough time to fit in five and a half hours of quality bus time if I caught the first bus and way too much time at various bus terminals and other places for the desperately lonely if I got the last one the night before. Picturing the look on the old dear's face if she walked through the gates to see a load of Koreans and no daughter I decided that I had to bite the bullet and get the first one.
So off I went. I didn't drink anything on the way after the last time when I had to get together all of my Korean phrases and ask urgently when we would be stopping for the toilet break! So we arrived at 4:40am thoroughly in need of some liquid. All was shut in the bus terminal but Korea is always ready with a can vending machine when you need one - I love this country! The airport buses don't start running between the centre of Seoul and Incheon airport (a 50 minute trip) until after five so I put my head down for a while on a bench. Just a short nap as I was woken up by a policeman at 5am as it is apparently OK to look like a homeless tramp before 5am but completely unacceptable after. Sat there groggily for a bit before seeing a driver get on the bus I needed so I ran after him and off we went to the airport.
After my experience at the bus terminal I thought it was safest not to try catching some zzz's at the airport, so I strolled around for about four hours, had pizza for breakfast when the restaurants opened, checked the World Cup store (yes, they are still open all over the country) to see if there was anything at all that I hadn't bought yet, and resisted the temptation to finish the collection. Finally managed to sleep about twenty minutes before the old lady was due to land but was woken up five minutes later by an ajumma. And again five minutes after that and by the third time I just gave up. I can only imagine that I kept falling onto her shoulder as I drifted into sleep as she didn't look too happy at all.
Mum's flight came in early and the one before it came in late so I guess that we caught the best deal - much better than the poor folk coming from Uzbekistan (sic) who all looked a little confused as they finally arrived in the arrivals lounge. Mum had hold ups getting through to me and we had a joyful reunion with the pair of us looking like we hadn't slept for about a week. It worked out that I have left Mokpo for Seoul around the same time that the old dear had left Amsterdam after her stop off there so felt that I had an equal right to flaunt the bags under my eyes. We caught a bus to Itaewon and the Hamilton Hotel - relative luxury after the motels that I usually have bunked down in for the night - six to a room - in Itaewon. The old dear was a little vague and in need of sleep and who was I to argue with that? We both climbed gratefully into bed (though I was the only one who was overexcited that the beds had REAL sheets on them!) and slept until the evening.
The evening was also pretty quiet- just staying in Itaewon and wandering around finding out some tourist info for the next day's adventure. We had had plans to do the evening bus tour of the city on the first night but decided to save it until the next day. I took mum for dinner and quickly realised something- I was pretty much going to be in charge of the menu for the duration of her trip for several reasons- she doesn't know Korean food so she doesn't know what she would like and the main one being that she can't read Korean so the menu was completely incomprehensible to her. Makes sense and it did mean that I managed to fit in more than the usual amount of pizzas while she was there(!)
Sunday was a day of sightseeing. We got on the Seoul City Bus Tour that leaves from Itaewon and goes all around Seoul, stopping at all the major sights. There was a guide on the bus and also headsets that gave information about each of the stops. All in all we considered it to be a good way to get around Seoul. We saw a couple of palaces including the Gyeongbokgung one that I had been to a few weeks before with my mates from Ireland. It was beautiful all over again but a lot more crowded at weekends. Which was a shame as they have hanboks (traditional style dresses) that you can rent and take photos of yourselves poncing around the palace grounds looking like royalty (or something like that) which I had quite fancied doing but there were a few too many other people there to indulge in such silliness. It is a strange thing that I really don't mind being stared at (and in fact lap up the attention like there is no tomorrow) but every so often I get a bit shy, I don't know why that is. We met a girl from Denmark who thought that we were both Scandinavian and later we met an American family in the Seoul Tower who thought that we were Australian- is it any wonder that I get confused??? Of course, all the Koreans we met just assumed that we were American so some of the first words that mum learnt in Korean were those used to correct such assertions.
By the evening we were exhausted and headed to the train station to get the next train back to Mokpo which it turned out would be a two hour wait and standing room only. Very tempting but we decided to try the bus station instead. Another two hour wait but at least at the end of it we were able to relax into the comfort of a Kumho Express bus with its foot rest and reclining almost to horizontal seats. And we were on our way home- well, my home anyway!
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I was just getting ready to go to the pub for a few jars before getting the 5:30am bus to Seoul (well, maybe a little more than a few jars then...) when I thought that I should check what time the old dear was landing...TWO HOURS BEFORE I HAD THOUGHT IT WAS!
The last bus leaves Mokpo at 11:40(ish) and they start to run around 5am. AND I had to meet her at 10am - not enough time to fit in five and a half hours of quality bus time if I caught the first bus and way too much time at various bus terminals and other places for the desperately lonely if I got the last one the night before. Picturing the look on the old dear's face if she walked through the gates to see a load of Koreans and no daughter I decided that I had to bite the bullet and get the first one.
So off I went. I didn't drink anything on the way after the last time when I had to get together all of my Korean phrases and ask urgently when we would be stopping for the toilet break! So we arrived at 4:40am thoroughly in need of some liquid. All was shut in the bus terminal but Korea is always ready with a can vending machine when you need one - I love this country! The airport buses don't start running between the centre of Seoul and Incheon airport (a 50 minute trip) until after five so I put my head down for a while on a bench. Just a short nap as I was woken up by a policeman at 5am as it is apparently OK to look like a homeless tramp before 5am but completely unacceptable after. Sat there groggily for a bit before seeing a driver get on the bus I needed so I ran after him and off we went to the airport.
After my experience at the bus terminal I thought it was safest not to try catching some zzz's at the airport, so I strolled around for about four hours, had pizza for breakfast when the restaurants opened, checked the World Cup store (yes, they are still open all over the country) to see if there was anything at all that I hadn't bought yet, and resisted the temptation to finish the collection. Finally managed to sleep about twenty minutes before the old lady was due to land but was woken up five minutes later by an ajumma. And again five minutes after that and by the third time I just gave up. I can only imagine that I kept falling onto her shoulder as I drifted into sleep as she didn't look too happy at all.
Mum's flight came in early and the one before it came in late so I guess that we caught the best deal - much better than the poor folk coming from Uzbekistan (sic) who all looked a little confused as they finally arrived in the arrivals lounge. Mum had hold ups getting through to me and we had a joyful reunion with the pair of us looking like we hadn't slept for about a week. It worked out that I have left Mokpo for Seoul around the same time that the old dear had left Amsterdam after her stop off there so felt that I had an equal right to flaunt the bags under my eyes. We caught a bus to Itaewon and the Hamilton Hotel - relative luxury after the motels that I usually have bunked down in for the night - six to a room - in Itaewon. The old dear was a little vague and in need of sleep and who was I to argue with that? We both climbed gratefully into bed (though I was the only one who was overexcited that the beds had REAL sheets on them!) and slept until the evening.
The evening was also pretty quiet- just staying in Itaewon and wandering around finding out some tourist info for the next day's adventure. We had had plans to do the evening bus tour of the city on the first night but decided to save it until the next day. I took mum for dinner and quickly realised something- I was pretty much going to be in charge of the menu for the duration of her trip for several reasons- she doesn't know Korean food so she doesn't know what she would like and the main one being that she can't read Korean so the menu was completely incomprehensible to her. Makes sense and it did mean that I managed to fit in more than the usual amount of pizzas while she was there(!)
Sunday was a day of sightseeing. We got on the Seoul City Bus Tour that leaves from Itaewon and goes all around Seoul, stopping at all the major sights. There was a guide on the bus and also headsets that gave information about each of the stops. All in all we considered it to be a good way to get around Seoul. We saw a couple of palaces including the Gyeongbokgung one that I had been to a few weeks before with my mates from Ireland. It was beautiful all over again but a lot more crowded at weekends. Which was a shame as they have hanboks (traditional style dresses) that you can rent and take photos of yourselves poncing around the palace grounds looking like royalty (or something like that) which I had quite fancied doing but there were a few too many other people there to indulge in such silliness. It is a strange thing that I really don't mind being stared at (and in fact lap up the attention like there is no tomorrow) but every so often I get a bit shy, I don't know why that is. We met a girl from Denmark who thought that we were both Scandinavian and later we met an American family in the Seoul Tower who thought that we were Australian- is it any wonder that I get confused??? Of course, all the Koreans we met just assumed that we were American so some of the first words that mum learnt in Korean were those used to correct such assertions.
By the evening we were exhausted and headed to the train station to get the next train back to Mokpo which it turned out would be a two hour wait and standing room only. Very tempting but we decided to try the bus station instead. Another two hour wait but at least at the end of it we were able to relax into the comfort of a Kumho Express bus with its foot rest and reclining almost to horizontal seats. And we were on our way home- well, my home anyway!
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posted by Helen @ 5:23 PM
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