The Trials of Traveling

This is a rant post. Yesterday, we flew from Glasgow to Izmir, on three separate flights. It was not a fun journey. I broke down crying from thirst and exhaustion twice. JM even got testy with a butter in the longggg customs line. It was a travel day from hell (JM says it wasn't that bad), and we thought we'd summarize what went wrong.

1. Doing two red eyes back to back is never a good idea. It means you won't get sleep for 48 hrs, your brain will be fried, and you might overreact to the normal stresses of travelling.

2. It seems European airports don't post the gate of your flight until a short while before you board. Which means you cannot settle in and snooze at the gate, you have to stay in the busy shopping areas, and there is limited seating. It also means there is a mad rush to the gate when it is posted. In Glasgow, the gate was posted 8 mins before boarding started. No exaggeration.

3. It also seems in Europe that everyone lines up at the gate. There is no organization as to who boards first (ie: the back of the plane) so everyone is chaotically pushing passed each other to get to their seats. It also means boarding takes longer, thus none of our flights left on time.

4. Our red eye flight to Turkey left London at 1am and arrived in Istanbul at 6:35am. Pegasus Air does not offer any included beverages or snacks on this flight. A coke was 6 euro, which is roughly $9 Canadian. Luckily, I had filled a water bottle, but with the flight being so hot, me being a claustrophobe, and having no sleep meant my body was stressed and overheating. I drank through that bottle quickly.

5. In addition, they walked through the cabin at least 5 times to sell stuff and never turned out the lights. On an overnight flight, that is ridiculous. I couldn't sleep at all. And when I tried, my gracious neighbour decided to have a loud catch up session with his friends. No sleep was had, but a panic attack was.

6. Once we landed, JM and I booted it to customs. We were some of the first people off our plane to get in line. There was a flight ahead of us, and two more behind ours that arrived while we were in the queue. We bought our visas online before arriving - DO THIS if you ever go to Turkey. No one was telling the other passengers they had to buy a visa before they got in line, so they would wait the whole queue just to be turned away. And that queue wasn't short. We waited 1h25 mins to get through. There were only 2 agents open for all of us. And things got very tense. Some people started jumping the queue because they had transfer flights to catch, others just thought the meeting they had to get to made them more important than everyone else. It was an interesting way to observe culture clashing (ie: who skipped the line, who spoke out, who ignored the protests of fellow travellers, who thought they were so important they pushed children out of the way, etc.). There was no Turkish security or staff directing people and it got pre-riot-esk.

7. Free wifi is not universal in airports. Enough said.

8. Once we arrived in Izmir we tried to connect to the internet to call our airbnb host. Not possible. So we went to buy a SIM card for my phone, but it would not activate. I have an unlocked iPhone that is fairly new (< a year) and it would not connect to the Turkish network. In fact, it said it could not "activate my sim". I hate Apple. My old Samsung from Korea never had a problem in any country we visited. 

9. Be sure you have good directions to your airbnb. Otherwise you will spend an hour walking up and down stairs with your packs in the hills of Konak.

But we made it. And it's lovely. Now to sleep...

PS. My apple of the last 24 hrs was the cutest Scottish kid who screamed with delight when the airplane took off. He then proceeded to chat with me in his adorable accent all the way to London. He made my day.

Sokcho and Seoraksan National Park

For the Buddha's Birthday and Children's Day long weekend (May 3-6), Team JMS decided we were in need of a vacation. Like a vacation together. We originally tried to plan a trip to Japan, but in February all the planes and ferries were sold out. Yes, in FEBRUARY. Koreans don't get many long weekends and in fact, this is the longest holiday they have in 2014. FOUR DAYS. That's it. So everyone books their vacations early.

As an alternative, we decided to stick around and tour a place we've both wanted to go, the seaside town of Sokcho and the nearby national park, Seoraksan. Seorak is probably the most famous mountain to hike in Korea after Hallasan (see Jeju post).

We had four days, two spent hiking in the park and two spent in Sokcho or on the beach. The weather was incredible. The most perfect spring weather one could ask for. A friend of mine recommended a pension with an ocean view that she'd stayed at before so we booked it and what a view it was! So nice to wake up to the sunrise blasting in the window. It was a very relaxing and refreshing trip.

Day 1 - Walking on the Beach

Saturday was spent walking along the beach, relaxing, and eating food. We even stopped by the heart tree on the pier for some photo ops.

View from our balcony

Day 2 - Hiking up to Geumganggul Cave (Biseondae course)

Our first day in the national park was super busy. We went in the late morning and it was packed. I'm talking circus or amusement park packed. We managed to get through the crowds and hike past Biseondae rock and up to Geumganggul Cave. Lots of stairs were involved in getting to the small cave in the rock face, but it was a very nice view.

Excited to be in Seoraksan National Park!

 A beautiful stream                                  The cave! Yes, it's on the side of a mountain face.

Inside the cave, looking out.

Day 3 - Tandem Biking Around Sokcho

On Monday, we rented a tandem bicycle and rode around town. It was nice to have the freedom to create our own itinerary. Armed with a local map of tourist attractions and things to do, we headed out to the Jungang Market for our first experience of a real Korean market. JM even got his first 'ajumma elbow'. We had to pick up a box of Sokcho's most famous fried chicken, called Dakgangjeong, for which we waited in line about 40 minutes! It was crazy popular.

Making chicken

Insane line up waiting for chicken.

Finally! It arrived.

Next, we headed out to Yeongnangho Lake, a quiet lagoon just north of town with a lovely path around it. We stopped at an archery experience and learned how to shoot a bow and arrow, then stopped at Bombawi, a rock that apparently looks like a crouching tiger. Here we ate our fried chicken for lunch with a beautiful view of the mountains and lake.

Our view for lunch. Notice the mountains!

 

 Shadow play!

After eating, we headed back to Sokcho and passed the Seokbong Ceramic Museum. Even though it was closing soon, they let us come in and see all the beautiful art.

Finally, we returned our bike and grabbed some local tofu soup, sundubu, for dinner. All in all it was a fantastic day.

Day 4 - Our last day was also our departure day, so we had to be efficient with our time. Waking up to the most beautiful sunrise, team JMS headed out to Seoraksan park early (like 6:30am early). We wanted to get a head start on the Ulsanbawi trail. This is one of the most famous hiking trails and it was sure to get busy. That early in the morning, however, we only saw a few other people. It was really nice to have moments in the nature alone. The weather was chilly and windy, so the waygooks in shorts looked a little out of place, but we managed. The view from the top was worth it. You felt like you were on top of the world! In true Korean fashion, we had 4G at the top and decided to Skype some family members.

Heundeulbawi - the oddly placed rock that no one can push over.

Our first real view of Ulsanbawi - yup, we went all the way to the top!

 

View from the top. It was a beautiful day - you could see all the way to the ocean!

After returning to our pension, we showered and hit the beach for an hour before our bus ride home. Sokcho was a beautiful town that we highly recommend. It was probably the most perfect weekend we've ever had in Korea.

Team JMS

A decision has been made ...

I'm going to Dalhousie!!!! That's right. I was offered first round admission into their speech and language pathology thesis track program, and I have accepted, so TeamJMS is moving back to Halifax at the end of August. It's going to be a whole other adventure, one that we are looking forward to.

Thanks to everyone who was supportive and encouraging throughout the application and decision process. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in the *near* future!

Canada, here we come!

Jennika

Living Room Decor à la trash

A few months ago Jean-Marc and I found a beautiful hand painted Chinese calligraphy room divider in the throw away pile of our apartment. Not ones to pass up a stunning piece of art, we took it into our home and cleaned it up. Just recently, we added it as a backdrop for our couch (the wall was super ugly and plain). Now it looks cultured! What do you think?

Seriously, Koreans are so quick to throw away perfectly usable things. All the furniture you see in this picture is preloved.

Date Night in Seoul - Our First Concert Together!

A couple weeks ago JM and I found a website that lists upcoming gigs in Seoul, mostly live music, and decided that we should plan a date night. We had never been to a concert together, despite both being fans of live music. We listened to the various artists, none of whom we had ever heard of, and settled on a British band that struck our fancy called White Lies. They had a sort of 80s rock vibe and we both liked their sound.

So last night, after JM got off work, we headed to Seoul for dinner and the concert. It was so nice to get out of Cheonan and see some of the club/bar culture in Seoul. We really haven't experienced any of the Korean night life scene so it was a welcome change of pace. The concert was a tad pricey, but the venue, Yes24 MUVHall, included a few free drinks and the sound quality was awesome. All in all, the show was great and JM spent the entire next day listening to White Lies. We are both loving this band!

Here is a video of their live performance in studio at a radio station.

                  Waiting for the train                                            At the concert waiting for the band to start!

The Inexplicable World of Korea #12 - Mopping the Train Station Floors

This isn't even everywhere in Korea. In fact, this was the first time JM and I had seen this, but it was just plain strange. And dangerous!! (Frickin' dangerous - right Mom?) - This woman was literally pushing around a garbage pail full of water and baptizing the floor. Like showering it. She even asked people to move out of the way so that she could chuck water in their direction. It was so bizarre. 

Of note, there was a man driving around on one of those zamboni floor buffers.  But he was no where in sight when I was taking these pictures. The floor was very slippery.

Wet Floors! No caution sign.

Chuckin' water.