Home Safe and Sound

Wow, the last 30+ hours were quite the whirlwind. We left Bangkok at 1:40am on Korean Air ( a WONDERFUL airline by the way) and arrived in Seoul around 8:45 am which includes a two hour time change. We were there and even though feeling horrible, still forced ourselves to get out in the city to experience Seoul. We checked our luggage, bought our bus tickets and headed out.Seoul is very clean, progressive and orderly, yet also eclectic and colorful. We really enjoyed looking around.

We stepped off the bus to meet large snow flakes flowing freely. We are now having chills from lack of sleep and not feeling good from the flight before, tired, cold and wet. Yet we went on. We walked the streets some and then came to an area that a friend of mine recommended. Insadong. It’s a quaint little area with artists and vendors lining the streets. There were smaller side streets coming off this side street. We wanted to venture out and see if there was something on it. The road was very short and winded back. It had a few little restaurants on it. We went in one and walked right back out due to the smell.

Then we saw what we were looking for this adorable little restaurant that looked like a cross between a little European cafe and a Korean kitchen. It was so little with three tables. All were a blonde color with shutters opening up to the little street and showing the snow. It gets interesting here because, even though we knew some Thai, we knew NO Korean. Ordering food was a little bit of an ordeal. We really wanted to just have them give us anything at that point. We were so wet and cold anything would have been fine. (I say that, but some Korean food scares me.) My friend had emailed me something to eat. I LUCKILY had my laptop with me and pulled it out and showed her the email. We wanted Bulgogi. It’s beef marinated in pear juice. Finally we had communication. Our sweet Korean waitress reminded me of a caring mom and she wanted to take care of us. She was even wiping our camera off from the snow that had melted on it.

Once we were able to order we were relived and she was equally excited. We ate and were content with our warm broth, meat and rice. It could not have been more picturesque. We then walked back to the bus stop and went to the airport.

The ride from Seoul to Atlanta was on Delta and we went over the Pacific Ocean this time. It was a good flight for that length, and we were able to pass the time away with many movies. We are now nursing our jet lag, and Chris is off running errands and picking up Asia. It’s wonderful to be home, but we are still dealing with some reverse culture shock. Here is a picture for you of me taking a break from the snow. Note the KT. : ) I was all over that country.Here is the view out our little lunch stop.