Hello Seoul

This post is very much time delayed, I have been super busy and haven't had reliable internet

Despite our hotel being right next to the train track the owner was really friendly and allowed us to stay in our room until 4:30pm when we caught a shuttle bus from our hotel to the airport. This was really great because it had been snowing all day and was really cold and we didn’t want to have to spend the afternoon in a kebap shop trying to stay warm and buying things periodically so that the owners wouldn’t kick us out.

When the shuttle bus driver showed up, he honked his horn and then banged on the door. I opened the door and he started motioning that we needed to hurry up. When we got in the bus it was empty but the driver quickly sped around to pick up other passengers and gave them all the same “hurry up” treatment. With all the snow on the ground you would think that the driver would take it easy, but he didn’t seem to care and floored it at every chance that he got.

Our flight from Istanbul to Seoul was delayed by over three hours because Istanbul only has one de-icer and there was a big queue in front of us. We had to wait on the plane and by the end of the flight my bum was really sore from all of the sitting around. From what I could tell Janelle and I were the only non Korean or Turkish people on the plane.

Once we landed in Seoul the airport was massive and nearly empty. There were a bunch of really friendly airport hired personal around to help and we found a bus to take us to our hotel.

I thought the room in Istanbul was small but the room in Seoul is TINY, there is room for a bed and to stand up.

For dinner we wandered the streets and found a restaurant with a bunch of people in front if it waiting to be seated so we decided that it must be good and joined the queue. When we got into the restaurant they had us sit on the floor and put a large partially cooked chicken into a pot of boiling water in front of us. We sat there while the chicken kept boiling and then a woman who worked there came to our table and cut up the chicken with giant scissors. In a bowl the woman who worked there mixed chilli paste, mustard, vinegar and something else in a bowl to add spice to the chicken. It all seemed so strange and simple and yet it was a really good meal and a great introduction to Seoul.

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Food Day is a Good Day

Yesterday we went Hagia Sophia, a former basilica turned mosque that is now a museum, in the morning and went to a giant shopping mall in the afternoon. The shopping mall was enormous, with 7 floors of shops, a movie theatre and a food court.

Today started out terribly wrong when we woke up too late for our free hotel breakfast. I love eating and I love free, so missing out on that can’t ever be a good sign. The day quickly got better when we found a nice little corner restaurant that was making ham and cheese sandwiches and fresh squeezed orange juice. We were going to the old gates today to the Chora Church and as such were walking a long way across old Istanbul. We passed a candy shop and went inside to look around and bought some Turkish delights and chocolate covered chestnuts and were given a generous portion of this hazelnut fudge like stuff for free. All three were amazing.

A little further on we saw a shop selling honey coated churros and stopped to eat those also. Of all of the days in Istanbul today was the warmest, least windy and sunniest, and it felt really nice walking all over town.

The Chora Church was really beautiful inside with some of the most impressive mosaic work I’ve ever seen and then we made our way to the Süleymaniye Mosque where I was able to record a video of the evening call to prayer.

The last time I was in Istanbul, I stayed at a hostel with a really friendly owner that took me to a cool place for smoking Sheesha and so Janelle and I went there tonight and met a nice Turkish guy who had lived in the UK the last couple of years and we had a nice chat with him about Istanbul.

On the way out of the Sheesha place we bought some sesame seed bread that was warm and delicious and a nice appetiser before we went to get dinner. I love days that are filled with walking, sunshine and food.

Tonight the wind has really picked up and it has even started to flurry, hopefully it doesn’t snow too much as we are supposed to fly to Seoul tomorrow night and I doubt they have snowplows and de-icing machines at the Istanbul airport.

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