Golden Week - South Korea

The week commencing October 1st is a National Holiday in China (Called Golden Week!) Therefore I have the week off work, after working the Saturday and Sunday beforehand. This wasnt too bad, Saturday was Sports day, which was pretty bizzare, the sports included the children racing against eachother to set a table and then clear it relay style and running to the end of the track, catching LIVE eel like fish and running back to deposit them in a bowl!Remebering that the oldest children are 5... even the adults had trouble holding on to hte wriggling fish, after a minute or 2 the track was covered in slimey fish! I was happy to see that everyone took great care not to stand on them and luckily none of them were squished. However they were served to us for lunch once Sports day was over (This is China!!)... I dont think I need to tell you that I gave lunch a miss!!
Monday morning I was up bright and early to catch my flight to Seol the capital of South Korea. I then had only an hour or two before another flight to JeJoe, an island off the south coast of Korea. When I arrived it was getting late and after finding somewhere to stay I headed out to get some food. In Korea alot of the resteraunts dont have chairs as they sit cross legged on the floor like the Japanese, its not as comfortable as it looks!! I had korean barbecue, where you choose your salad and veg and you have your own little hotplate on your table where you cook your own meat. The food was really good, similar to chinese, just a bit more spicey. The waiter spoke a little English and I was chatting to him throughout, but when I finished eating he sat with me for a while. Now I have learnt not to bother asking what I'm eating... as long as it tastes good, thats all I need to know! But as we were talking I made the mistake of asking what the meat was I had just taken a mouthful of and he answered 'dog', I knew immediatly he wasnt joking! There is mention of people eating dog in China, but it is more common in South Korea, and although I had joked about trying it It's probably one of the few things that I wouldnt try. If it hadn't been so tasty I would have spat it out, but I did spend the rest of the evening feeling terrible. But then again, if I hadn't eaten it someone else would have!! The whole time there was a group of Koreans kicking off over the street and after an hour or so the police turned up.. this only seemed to make it worse. I watched until they all started fighting then decided to call it a night. During the short walk from the resteraunt to my motel I saw 3 lads running off with a womans handbag the womans husband/boyfriend went chasing after them and she wasnt hurt so I decided to walk a little quicker!!
Back in the comfort of my room (which was like something out of a bad movie with a video player, a huge collection of porn and a seedy red light along with a condom machine right outside the door!) I had the pleasure of listening to yet another brawl in the alley below my window until the early hours.
Je Joe Island was beautiful, and after only a day of exploring (and another charming evening in the 'Love' Motel!!!) it was time to get on another plane to Busan (South East). Busan has a famous beach called Haeundae which is incredibly beautiful. The weather was amazing so it was easy to relax on the beach engrossed in my book! Busan International Film Festival was kicking off the next day and was quite interesting to see everything being set up!! Now I dont carry around alot of cash or any travellers cheques (They are so much more hassle than their worth!) and had been sensible enough to check out the ATM situation in S Korea online, and as I could use my credit card in most ATM's I thought I would be ok! Things really are never that simple though and my credit card stopped working on the third day! I was in Busan and had to get a train to Seol (The Capital in the North West) in order to get my flight home. Luckily I had enough in my purse for my train ticket... but that was about it!! I had to spend the remaining nights in an Internet cafe and the train station! Needless to say I didnt get much sleep!!!
However I tried to remain positive and got my train to Seol where I had arranged to meet up with 2 Korean girls I had met in Beijing, where they had been studying, a few weeks earlier. Jinsol and Aram are both the same age as me and took me to a Korean resteraunt where we had the most amazing food! They ordered and like china everything comes and you all share. We spent a couple of hours chatting and drinking but before long I had to leave to get the last bus to the airport, ready for my flight home at 9am. I arrived at the airport around 11pm and found a comfy spot to snooze until it was time to check in. Now, I'm really not quite sure how this happened as I didn't sleep, but the worse thing that could have possibly happened... happened! I missed my flight back to China. After 3 sleepless nights, 3 days without a shower, no money, no possible way of getting money
and the thought of being stranded in South Korea I wanted to cry!
However, somehow managing to keep it together I tried to sort something out and was told that I could get another plane at 3pm, but it would cost me 50 quid.... I tried to see if there was a way around this as I had NO MONEY... but nearly ended up kneeing the arrogant and unhelpful manager in the balls. So I decided to give my credit card another go. It didn't work (Surprise Surprise!!) I decided to que anyway to see I I could pay on my card. Its impossible to put into words how relieved I was when my payment was accepted and I wasn't going to be forced to sell my belongings in order to get home!!
I have gone over it a hundred times and I still have no idea how I managed to be at the airport 10 hours before my flight and still managed to miss my plane. It probably had something to do with the lack of sleep, but whatever it was this time, for a change, I had no one to balme but myself!!

Golden Week - South Korea

Seoul, South Korea