We arrived at the Incheon airport around 4:45 am. I remember waking for a moment or two during our flight from Manila to Incheon and noticing that we had been served food. The next time I woke up, the food had been removed and a little sticky notes was left on my seat to show that I had been served and if I needed something to let the flight attendants know. So tired. Must sleep. This was one of my favorite pictures: my girls sleeping on the floor of the terminal in Incheon as Chris tried to get things squared away for our tour to Seoul and to make sure that we were okay to spend more time in the Rest and Relax lounge for Asiana. It was 5 am and the terminal was close to empty.
It was so hot when we left Manila and not so hot in Korea. In fact, many of the outside workers were wearing heavy jackets. We had tried to plan for this, but you know, the best laid plans... The warmer clothes I had pulled out of Kristen's suitcase had been put right back in Kristen's suitcase, and she was only wearing her newly purchased dress with flip flops. All but Chris were wearing flip flips. I think his words were, "I believe I warned you..." It was not warm in the slightest, and I believe I had noticed while Chris was still in the Philippines that he looked pretty goofy wearing his Keens with socks. Kristen had a t-shirt. She wore a pair of my capris with the tie belt cinched as tight as it would go (the capris just happened to make it into the carry on) and Chris' sweatshirt. Unfortuntately, that meant that Chris went without, but he had socks. We looked quickly at the airport for something to purchase, but when all the stores were called Fendi or Prada, you pretty much thought you could make do.
Asiana was a class act. Not once did they question the size of our group. We arrived at the lounge with some pretty tired girls in tow. I think we had all been able to sleep on the flight from Manila; we were getting so that we could nod off pretty much anywhere and any time. I can now say, as well as Chris, that I have showered in Korea.
We stayed in the lounge until our tour was to start and made our way through Customs and Immigration. We now have some pretty cool stamps in our passports. We had to wait for about thirty minutes and watched some crazy Korean dating game show to pass the time.
Gotta love my capris on my 7-year old.
We boarded the bus with our tour group of 31 led by a cute Korean girl named Ina. The ride to Seoul was about an hour long, so she only talked for a few minutes and then let us enjoy the scenery--if that's what you want to call it--I thought it hilarious that we had a tour bus full of people and many were sleeping.
Kristen, in fact, announced that she didn't sleep a bit. I had proof otherwise.
I actually did stay awake for some of the trip and was impressed that the landscape didn't look all that much different than Colorado--brown.
Our first stop was at a small museum and welcome center--Cheongwadae Sarangchae. We learned facts about Korea and enjoyed our first moments in Korea. It was obviously an attraction many tour buses stopped at. We snapped pictures of the rollerblading police, the bike police, and the architecture.
Our next stop was a five-minute walk to the Blue Palace. Though the members of our family were the only Americans on the tour, our guide referenced and compared to the US throughout the tour. The Blue Palace was similar to our White House, though much smaller. Ina took a few pictures of our family and instructed us in saying "Kimchee" instead of "Cheese". It worked.
The tour was scheduled down to the minute. Our third stop was a Buddhist temple. Instructions were given to take pictures outside the building only, to remove our shoes if we entered the building, and to be respectful. I watched as the ladies standing at the entrance noticed Chris' camera around his neck as he exited the temple. He hadn't taken any pictures, but they were quite concerned. A worship service was in progress. I don't know the protocol for such services, but this particular service was filled with women--little, older women to be exact. Talk about pushy. We were standing on the stairs when the service let out. These ladies had no problem grabbing on to us, moving us out of their way, using us to balance as they put on their shoes. I have never seen a pushier bunch of ladies, but they were cute, and we were obviously in their way. We loved the colorful lanterns strung about the temple.
Before reaching the temple, we passed a memorial Post Office. Lo and behold, it had this cool sign of Psy outside its entrance. Misha half-heartedly danced "Gangnam Style", but Amy was more than happy to oblige. In fact, she had been waiting for just the right moment. One couldn't have been more appropriate than this moment.
Driving in Korea was nothing like driving in the Philippines. It was quieter, less noisy, and ordered.
An authentic Korean lunch had been planned for us at a local restaurant. We weren't given a lot of instruction concerning our meal at the Korean restaurant. I think I was the only one to order the vegetarian option with no eggs. The rest had BBQ. Our table was covered in small bowls and plates. Our girls tried a few; Chris and I tried them all, kimchee included. I'm sure there were a few muffled snickers at our expense.
Our last stop gave us the opportunity to shop for souvenirs. I think I would have liked more time. We only had half an hour, and with Kristen's urgent need to use the restroom, we were all limited. Amy and Misha were a little sad (read mad) that Kristen was the only one who found a memento.
Still, we were the last ones to arrive back at the bus. We boarded the bus for our hour drive back to the airport. I think we all slept. We got another stamp in our passports and had a short time to wait back at the lounge before boarding at 4:30 pm.
I would have to say, watching the boarding process for our flight was humorous. Almost the ENTIRE flight was filled with a senior group of some sort traveling to San Francisco. They were up and down and chatting and changing seats. We had a lot of fun just watching them. They would pop up out of their seats even as we taxied.
Chris and Misha lucked out with one of the few empty seats on the plane between them. Amy, Kristen, and I sat together. I really tried to work on my blog and think I was successful in typing only one day. I was exhausted, and I had Kristen sleeping all over me and food piling on my tray because the other two were sleeping. I finally got up and sat beside Misha, but she and Chris were both sleeping as well. Somewhere close to the International Date Line, Chris' stomach started to feel somewhat queasy. Let's do Wednesday all over again.