Day 23: Back to Seoul (Gangnam)

I woke up at 9 am in order to get to the airport on time, quickly packed my bag and was out the door in half an hour. I had no idea what bus route to take because the bus arrival times weren’t showing up on my map so I hopped on the first bus that came to my stop that could get me to the main Jeju terminal (which is close to the airport). The bus ride was stressful because I kept refreshing my map trying to figure out if there was a better place to get off so I could be at the airport as early as possible. I ended up getting off the bus in the middle of what seemed like nowhere and all I could think was yikes I really hope this next bus shows up… It did, fortunately! It was an airport bus too which meant there was a place underneath where I could put my luggage.

I arrived at the airport on time and got checked in. Both times I’ve flown Jeju Air they take my luggage and then do some kind of scan or check. I then come back 15 minutes after dropping it off to make sure there is nothing wrong with it. It seems that that’s normal though and I saw several people have to go behind these huge doors because there was something wrong with their bag.

I grabbed a quick snack (a bagel and scone) near my terminal and waited for about 20 minutes before we were able to board. I hadn’t been able to chose my seat because of who I booked the flight through. I typically choose an aisle seat but ended up with a window one and it was fun to be able to look outside while we took off. The sky was super cloudy but it was still nice out. The picture I took out the window of the plane makes it look likes its stormy but that’s just because the window was pretty scratched up.

The flight went smoothly and I waited until the end to get off the plane. I have been to the Seoul Gimpo airport so many times now that I thought I knew where to go but I walked out of the arrival gates at a different area than before and got very turned around. I ended up stopping in the middle of the airport to try and figure out where the heck I was.

I was actually very close to the escalator I needed to take to the subway I just hadn’t noticed. I made it on the subway no problem and got to my stop. I was a little earlier than I thought because I took an express subway rather than the normal one (didn't realize those were a thing until today). I emailed the hostel person to see if I could check in early and he replied about 20 minutes later saying that I could. I found several Jimin birthday ads in the subway and another one on a bus stop which was fun!

Some of the subway stations have elevators and fortunately this was one of them. However, once out of the subway I had to walk a fair distance to get to my new hostel and it was uphill on a super bumpy sidewalk, which made it a pain in the butt to push my suitcase around.

I moved into my new room and unpacked all my stuff. Unfortunately, I wasn’t feeling too excited about the area I was staying in. I had just come from super quiet countryside Jeju island to very busy and high end Gangnam and I was kind of wishing I could go back to the countryside. For dinner I went to a small restaurant near my house called Savour and ordered bibimbap. It was super spicy, but very yummy.

After unpacking and dinner I went out onto the balcony that was attached to my room. I took a big blanket with me and my laptop and sat outside writing a blog post. It was so relaxing and nice and it was really cool to see the city all lit up. The area I am staying in is a more expensive section in the lower part of Seoul, considered to be ‘new Seoul’. There are a lot of restaurants, coffee shops, home decor stores, and art galleries near my place. It is also about a 20 minute walk from Apgujeongrodeo area which is filled with brand name stores. I didn’t realize it when I booked the room but I found out that it is actually super close to Big Hit’s (BTS’ entertainment company) old and new building as well as a restaurant and park that they frequented often during their debut days (lots of places to check out)!

It is my first time staying at someone's apartment rather than a hostel (it's the top floor of an apartment building). The couple owns the place on the top floor, which includes a small kind of penthouse room above it. The room has a bathroom and it's own balcony that I am excited to use. The couple also has a younger child who seems super cute.

I found out later that I got absolutely bitten alive while I was outside. I woke up the next morning with tons of mosquito bites. When I had come back into my room that night there were a couple mosquitos and I had to chase around my room for awhile before I thought I had killed them all. Even after that, I wore a long sleeve and pants to bed and tucked the blankets all the way up to my face. The result was several mosquito bites on my face as well as wrists and hands… I will have to find bug spray somewhere because this is only night one and I am already suffering.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

(October 18, 2018)

Distance walked: 11.1 km

P.S here is a map of Seoul. The pink highlighted part is Gangnam. I am staying near the top left near Hakdong subway station.