The plane bumped against the ground and skittered to a stop. Sitting in the middle seats, we couldn’t see very easily out the window, but beyond the confines of our cabin, a whole new continent awaited. It doesn’t take long to deplane when you’re in business class – just gather your stuff up, stuff the duffel bag, and make your way out – but Elizabeth and I were still briefly separated on the jetbridge. We reconnected and walked into the Incheon Airport. Korea, we were here. 10 things from our first afternoon in South Korea:
- Cartoon characters and quick customs in Incheon
So here’s the thing about Koreans: they love their cartoon characters. Instead of having an actor on an advertisement for the quarantine zones at the airport, why not have a cutesy-looking cartoon guy wearing a mask? They take that to and sometimes past the logical extreme sometimes – do we really need little cartoon cops outside of the police station, guys? – but it was a fun introduction to Korean culture.
Meanwhile, it took almost no time for Elizabeth and myself (aided by Katie, our local guide in Seoul, who met us at the airport) to get through customs and get to our baggage carousel. I would like it if entering a different country were always so easy. Elizabeth probably got sick of me whispering “this is so exciting!” to her.
- A longer-than-expected drive to Seoul
Katie led us out to our driver in a rather ostentatious Mercedes-Benz van (something I’d have to get used to over the course of the trip). Once we left the airport, my initial impression was… slightly underwhelmed? I expected Seoul to be a little bit larger than this.
The reason, of course, was that weren’t in Seoul at all, but rather Incheon, a port town 15 miles to the west. Any question of being slightly underwhelmed was quickly proven false over the next hour and a half of working our way deeper into the city. Outside the car, there were bays, rivers, bridges, giant bear statues, and eventually giant buildings, city neighborhoods, and South Koreans out and about on a Friday afternoon. An object lesson in being patient before rushing to judge a location, perhaps.
- The Four Seasons Seoul
Elizabeth and I arrived in Seoul about 3 hours before Pam, Winston, and Moira. We were the first ones to check into our room block at the Four Seasons where we’d spend the first 3 nights of the trip. It was up on the 20-something-th floor with a great view of the rest of downtown. And when I say great, I mean:
Elizabeth and my room adjoined Pam’s which was nice for direct communication. We had a shower with multiple showerheads, and a full claw bathtub, and blackout curtains at the push of a button. This was the kind of living I could get used to.
- Meeting the bride and groom
I’m pretty sure Elizabeth and I were the very first two extended family members to arrive from America. That meant for two hours, the only people we knew in this entire country were Michael and Irene. Elizabeth had talked with them on the phone at the OKC Airport so they knew we were in town. Michael called Elizabeth (who went with an international data plan, unlike known cheapskate me) and asked if we wanted to meet up with them while they ran some errands. Well sure, why not! The alternative was falling asleep in the Four Seasons and ruining our sleep schedule.
We walked south on the main road south from the palace to City Hall (a route that would become very familiar over the next 10 days) and ended up meeting them right at the neat outdoor library that’s just outside of City Hall. I remember a first few impressions of Seoul: it was incredibly clean, everyone was quiet, and everyone had their head buried in a phone.
Also the flowers and landscaping at the spot we met them were beautiful, but I failed to take a picture.
- Walking Oakley Through Seoul
As it turned out, it was Parents Day in Korea the next day. Michael and Irene were in the process of picking up flowers and a cake for Irene’s parents for brunch the next day and wanted some help. Did we want to join them? Hell yes!
For the next hour and a half, we wandered the city streets of Seoul. The two of them showed us the miracle of Seoul’s underground shopping centers, which started as nuclear bunkers under the city streets and have now evolved into basically a second-level of pedestrian movement through the crowded city whenever you don’t want to stay on the surface level. It’s overwhelming and wild and incredibly cool. They pointed out favorite restaurants and favorite shops and all sorts of local landmarks. Michael taught me how to say “you can pet him” to Korean locals who were obsessed with Oakley (there were not many locals with dogs, I noticed). Afterwards, they pointed us in the right direction back to the hotel where the rest of Elizabeth’s family was arriving. We wouldn’t see Irene again until a full week later, but she said that our walk through the city streets with nobody else having arrived yet was one of their highlights of the entire trip. I was glad to hear that, because it was for me as well.
- My first banana milk, Elizabeth’s first salt bread
Our first foods in a foreign land! Korean food is this weird blend between traditional east Asian cuisine (kimbap, kimchi, etc) and weird syncretic westernized stuff. For example, South Koreans love convenience stores like 7/11 where they can get things such as cups of ice to pour coffee over, or cheap ramen. Banana milk is one of the things that kept popping up on Elizabeth’s research, so we stopped at a Emart24 to get one. It was… ok. I didn’t have another.
However, Elizabeth did become hooked on the thing she was most excited for. While picking up the cake, she ordered salt bread for us to share. Salt bread is sort of like a croissant, but more buttery and sweet. Basically, it’s right up here alley.
We also learned the important lesson that you don’t ever eat a pastry on your own without offering to share, and you never leave leftovers because it’s rude. Got it.
- My big mistake
Elizabeth suggested eating dinner as we walked back at the famed street markets of Myeongdong. I disagreed; it was about 7:00 and her family would be arriving at the hotel within the next 30 minutes, so we could get dinner with them once we met up with them. Wouldn’t it be kind of weird to eat without them? What would we do while they ate?
I should have just gotten the street food. As it was, we didn’t eat until after 9:00 and by then the options near the hotel weren’t appealing. Elizabeth, when you read this: you were right.
- Pam, Winston, Moira arrival
It was kind of a harrowing and a little bit tiring walk back; harrowing because Apple/Google Maps don’t really work in Korea, so I was sight-navigating using a local app called Naver, and tiring because my back kept threatening to seize up from the long flight and 5 miles of Seoul streets we’d just traipsed. But eventually we did make it back to the Four Seasons, just in time to see Elizabeth’s family gathered around the front desk. I tried to keep the noise level down during our reunion because Elizabeth had made a huge point about not being loud in public spaces. I’m sure we failed anyway.
But from here until late in the night on May 17, the five of us would travel together and make some truly wonderful memories.
- Crappy KFC Dinner
Here’s a fun fact: Koreans LOVE fried chicken. Chimaek is their term for fried chicken and beer. They love fast food as well. It was past 9:00 by the time everyone was settled into their hotel rooms and Elizabeth was on the (completely justified) edge of mutiny over my poor planning. So we decided to go with Irene’s favorite fast food chicken brand: Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Yup, you heard me. My first official meal in Korea was KFC. I felt just unbelievably gross about it, like the worst kind of tourist. You had to at least be in a country for like a week before you started doing stuff like that, right? Well, I am happy to report that we got what we deserved. There was absolutely no silverware (or napkins???) anywhere in sight, so everyone got their hot sauce all over themselves. The chicken was mediocre at best. And the restaurant ambience was a C-. Don’t worry, we have plenty of awesome food to discuss in these trip notes, but this was not one of those meals.
- Defeating jet lag once and for all
All of the walking and the late-night chicken worked well. Elizabeth and I went to sleep right when we wanted to and woke up feeling reasonably refreshed and ready to go the next day. It was shocking how easy it was to transition our sleep schedules 14 hours into the future. The blackout curtains definitely helped as there was some sort of rally going on in the streets far below, complete with Korean flags, American flags, and people wearing glow-in-the-dark clothes. We would discover over the next week that Koreans will protest basically anything in the streets and this is just a daily occurrence. What a country!
Next up tomorrow: a trip to the DMZ, and Korean baseball at its finest.
