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Published: February 5th 2014
Well Incheon airport was deserted this morning compared to when we left to fly to Japan back in September for our Chuseok holiday. I had left the house early as I was using public transport instead of the airport bus, as it is a lot cheaper, but takes a bit longer. I was amazed when I rocked up to the airport around 9:30 and it was empty. It only took me twenty minutes to check-in, change my currency, go through security and passport control. Winning! Also because I was flying Asiana I was leaving from the main part of the terminal and didn't have to take the annoying shuttle train.
Since I had a tonne of time and I was starving, I headed to Starbucks for some breakfast. I got an ice coffee, yes, despite it being winter, Incheon airport is boiling hot. I didn't need my thick inter coat and my fleece on. I also got a breakfast bagel, you would think it would of been nice, but it wasn't a patch on the ones Dunkin' Donuts do. It was a case of too much stuff ruining it. It would of been fine if it had just been bacon
egg, and cheese, but no they had to add honey mustard and garlic cream cheese. Not the greatest breakfast in the world.
We boarded around midday. The plane was quite big, two seats then three or four and then two. Our take off was really smooth, not jerky at all. The flight was about two hours long. Looking at the route map, it would of been a lot quicker if we could of flown in a straight line right through North Korean airspace, but obviously that's a no go. So we took the longer route skirting the DPRK. The plane was far too hot, I was sitting in a long sleeved t-shirt, some people still had their big thick winter coats on, I dunno how they do it. Lunch was served, just my luck that we get decent food, when I'm not hungry. I left the salad appetizer and most of the rice from my main meal, but the main meal itself was lush, sweet and sour king prawns and fish. The sauce was a bit too sweet, and deffo could of been a bit more sour, I love really tangy sweet and sour, but it was enjoyable. I
ate about half of the chocolate orange cake, that looked better than it tasted and washed it down with aloe juice and coffee. Started to get a headache on the plane.
We landed, I think, on time and we were off the plane pretty quickly. The terminal was tiny, and we queued up for immigration. Loads of commie looking officials about. Some people were obviously too good to queue and they just went through to a random waiting room, one bloke I think must of bee neither a criminal or a celeb the way he ran through with his hood covering his face. I got through fairly quickly and my bag soon came out on the carousel. The arrivals area was tiny and crammed full of people waiting for others to arrive. I headed straight outside for a fag and to chill for a bit.
The wind was bitter cold. I smoked my fag and then legged it back inside to buy a ticket for the shuttle bus. I had read on the hostel info that I was meant to get a certain bus, but there only seemed to be one. I got on and the driver was
talking to me, I think he was trying to ask me where I was going, but I couldn't respond. Finally after waiting ages for the bus to fill up, we left. We drove to another terminal, which was a lot bigger and more people got on. I think I should of changed to a different bus, but never mind. The drive to the city took about 40 minutes. We drove through the countryside. It was so different to Korea, small one storey houses, with chimneys puffing out smoke. There was a bit of snow on the ground and the houses but not as much as I had expected.
I got off the bus at the train station and took a taxi to my hostel. I'm glad I had printed out the address in Chinese characters. I was freezing waiting for the taxi, my head was now killing and I felt nauseous. Not a great combination. The taxi ride was pretty quick, about ten minutes and the driver dropped me at the hostel gate. The hostel was lush and warm. I got checked in and headed up to my room. The most impressive thing about the room was the mould
on the walls and ceiling! Then I crashed in my bed for a couple of hours. Thank god I was on the bottom bunk.
I woke up a couple of hours later still feeling a bit rough. Not the greatest sleep the noise from outside was unreal at times, it sounded like I was in downtown Beirut, with bombs going off. At least it was nice and warm though. But I decided to get myself pulled together and head out for a bit. I got wrapped up ready to brave the cold. I headed out of the hostel and down a side street before getting on to the main street. There were loads of fire crackers going off and people had lit small fires on the sides of the streets. The main street I was now on was Zhongyang Dajie. It's a pedestrian street and so pretty, the architecture is western style and you can see the Russian influence there. The street was dead and it was only about half seven. All the shops were closed and there were very few people about. There were lots of big western brand name shops on the street. There were small ice
sculptures along the edges of the street so I spent a lot of time looking at them and taking a million photos. The lampposts were also cutely decorated with cute little multi-coloured lights in different Christmassy shapes.
I walked all the way up the street looking at the sculptures and architecture. It was hard to believe I was in China, at times, until I saw some Chinese script on buildings and stalls. The sculptures were really cool and they lit up and changed colour. They weren't very big, but they were cute. There was one evil kid that had a set of plastic golf clubs and was running up to all the sculptures and battering them with the golf clubs. The noise! It was shattering my skull, not good for my headache, at least she was getting bollocked off her parents for doing it. I also saw a big ice sculpture off one of the side streets, I ventured down to take a better look. It looked like a mini one from the ice festival. I think it was the entrance to a park, but it was shut.
I walked through the pedestrian tunnel and came out near
the monument by the river. I didn't realise it was a river as it was dark and all frozen over. There were more fireworks going off, which were nice to watch. I took some photos of the monument, and then headed back. I stopped at Maccy Ds for some dinner, spicy chicken burger and chips, as only this and Costa were open. I couldn't believe how everything was shut. They must observe Lunar New Year a lot more traditionally than Korea, where it is pretty much business as usual for all the shops and restaurants. I headed back down the street and headed over the crossroad to the other side of the pedestrian street, it was a bit busier at the crossroad, but the other side was very quiet, too. This side was shorter and didn't have as many sculptures to look at. I had got progressively colder on my walk. I had my gloves and hat on, but as I only had my jeans on and no leggings underneath, my legs were getting really cold. So I headed back to the hostel. There was a dumpling party going on in reception for New Year, but it was too busy
Cute Lamppost
Zhongyang Dajieand I couldn't be bothered, so I headed up to my room for an early night.
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