Seoul: Never make a plan. Never.

Lindie Grace had an appointment at the tattoo artist on Saturday afternoon so we made a plan.  We were going to leave Saturday late morning, get there in plenty of time to get to the tattoo place and then get tickets home after she was finished.  We had both had about enough of Seoul and just spending the day seemed like the best idea.  She was supposed to get several hours of work done, so she didn't think she would really feel like going out too much and neither of us really wanted to spend the money on a night on the town and another hotel.  So, after work Friday night we took a bus to the KTX station thinking that for sure they would have tickets for the morning on a Saturday, our only bad luck had been trying to get a ticket for Friday and then Sunday night.  We walked into the KTX station, got to the front of the line and found out something only a little distressing, but certainly not the end of the world: the only tickets we could get that would get us there in time were for 7:50 in the morning AND they were first class.  Bummer.  So we bought them.  We were trying to decide if it would be a good idea to go ahead and get our return tickets but we really didn't know what time she was going to be finished (last time we had to wait four hours before he even got started, and she was supposed to get four hours or so of work done) and we really didn't have the money with us at the time, so we decided it would be a better idea to get the tickets in Seoul, since getting home on Saturday since everyone really wants to get home late Sunday night.

That was the plan.

We wanted to take the bus back home in order to save a bunch on a taxi home.  We were waiting for the last bus home (since we get out of work so late, that put us at the station after 10, the bus runs home every 30 minutes) and while we were out there we met the nicest cab driver ever who told us that the bus was going to leave at I 11:30 (it might have been 11:50) so we had a while to wait.  

The cab driver was really nice, and we stood outside and talked to him for a while.  He learned his English from watching CNN.  He said that he had learned it in school but that it was mostly grammar and stuff.  Anyway, he showed us how to read the bus schedule and asked us about his English.  He said that he really wanted to go to America, but that America didn't want guys like him, cab drivers in their 50's, but we stood there for quite a while talking to him about that, about Korea, about a lot of things.  He was a very gentle soul.  Lindie went inside for a little bit and after she was gone he started telling me about this pen pal that he used to have.  He said that she was American, and that she was from Grand Rapids.  Apparently they wrote to each other a lot and he was really very fond of her.  He told me that he had to move and somehow he lost the address.  He remembered it except for the zipcode, and even though he looked it up he could never figure out just which one it was.  Her name is Patricia Kuhn, she really liked cats, she was Catholic, and apparently she looked like me.  He was so happy until he started talking about her.  He told me that he was in love with her.  I asked him how long it had been since he'd spoken to her and he said 20 years.  20 years and he still thought about her all the time.  It was the sweetest and saddest thing.  I told him that I bet if he got on facebook he could find her.  But, I don't know if he'll do that.  When Lindie came back he left to go stand by his cab and wait for a fare.  He didn't tell us his name, but Lindie and I decided to call him Jeremiah.  He was the sweetest little guy.  I wonder if he'll make it to America.  I wonder if he'll ever find Patricia again.  I hope you do, Jeremiah!

Anyway, he helped us pass most of the time that we were waiting for the bus, after he left we decided to go ahead and get on and sit in the heat for a while.  

It's important to point out something.  This was Friday.  Every Friday morning we have Korean class.  This particular Friday we had stayed up almost the entire night studying for our lessons because we were both determined not to let our teachers down again.  I thought mine was about at his wit's end, so we worked hard all night.  Sure, we could do a little everyday and save ourselves from cramming like this, but what's the fun in that?  The ironic thing was that my teacher didn't even come to my lesson after all that work.  :-)  Oh well.  But here's the thing, Thursday night we didn't sleep and now we had to be back at this KTX station at about 7:30 the next morning, which meant that we weren't sleeping much again.  That didn't stop us from getting lovely chicken on the way back home, but we did eventually sleep.  A little.   

I got back to my apartment at. . .well, late, and set my alarm for 5:30, because the plan was to get down to the bus stop at 7 to catch the bus that runs every 30 minutes, which would save us some more money on a cab fare out there.  So, I got up and showered so that I would at least be a little awake and ran over to Lindie's place.  

The thing about our trips (especially if they're planned) is that someone's alarm ALWAYS fails to go off.  If there are five people going, three alarms fail, for example, but someone's alarm always messes things up.  This time it was poor Lindie's.  So, after we rushed to get her ready there wasn't a chance we were going to be able to make it on the bus so we desperately looked for a cab.  Cabs are NEVER wandering around where we live, especially at that time of the morning, but amazingly, one found us.  And he was so nice.  I think he could tell that we were in a huge hurry, and since we told him to go to the KTX he literally floored it to get us there.  Record time.  Amazing.

So, we made it.  Got on our train, and we were on our way.

We made it!!  Leaving the Ulsan Station.

 The thing about pretty much any public transportation in Korea is that people travel in silence.  And when I say silence I mean absolute, total, and complete silence.  Usually we don't notice it too much because we have energy and we're talking or whatever.  But this time we were beat, so we were overwhelmed by the perfect silence.  We brought books, we read, we set an alarm, and we slept.  Usually if you're in first class you get a movie.  But apparently we were too early, so no movie.  So, books and a nap did the trick.  But, here were a couple of lovely sights that we saw on the way:

A park.  With snow!!

Snow, snow, snow!!

Lindie Grace had never seen snow!  How about that???

Look at those mountains, huh?? :-)

Gorgeous.

No snow in Ulsan.  No snow in Seoul.  But at least we got a little sneak of a peak on the train :-)

We woke up.  We were there.  It was freezing.  And we had a ton and a half of time to kill before her appointment.  So, we started out by looking around at the shops in the station.

This is a place that loves their cell phone charms.  These two bears have birthdays on them, mine and Lindie's, right next to each other, so of course, we had to get them.  Mine is currently on my Christmas tree.

We made it!  Cold, cold Seoul.  No snow.  Oh well.  It was still really cold.  Thanks for the hat, Grandma!!  :-)

 We ate, we wasted a lot of time, shopped a bit for a couple of things, and tried to recharge our MyB cards so that we wouldn't have to waste tons of time buying subway tickets every time we needed to ride it.  It's SOOO much easier just to swipe it and figure things out as you go.  The subway system in Seoul is amazing.  Really.  No sarcasm.  It literally is the easiest thing to use.  Even for me.

We made it in plenty of time to the tattoo parlor, and here's a clip, just in case you don't feel up-to-speed enough!

He let her do her tattoo upstairs this time, which was nice because it was a lot more private (and pretty warm, she had her own personal heater) and I curled up on the couch for a bit, read a bit, bothered her a bit, and the like for the next several hours.  Her artist, Kim, worked REALLY fast.  And I have to say, I would not have handled that sort of intense work with as much grace as Grace did.  But he did a beautiful job.

Working hard.

 And here is the end result of the day's work.  Sorry it's sideways, I tried to edit it, but for some reason it didn't take.  This is a little less than one quarter of the detailed wings.  He still has a lot more work to do.  He told her that she would need at least three more sessions.  Oh joy, at least three more trips to Seoul.  But it's beautiful, right??

Wow.  Lindie was so funny.  I showed her this picture, because obviously she can't see her own back and she says "wow.  It's going to be so big, I'm just realizing right this second."  whoops.  :-)

Okay, so this is when things really got interesting.  We were thinking about going home but it was only maybe 4:30 in the afternoon it was even that late, so Lindie thought that we could try to find some fun.  There was a guy that she knew through a friend that was in Seoul at the time and seemed like a real sweet guy, so she thought she would give him a call and see what was going on.  Turned out he was going to a rock movie festival.  Not a rock music festival mind you, a rock climbing festival.  But we decided, what the heck, we could give it a shot, at least it would be something different and if we hated it we could always bail because we were planning on going back that night anyway.  So, we got on the subway again to try and find this guy that neither of us had ever met.  We found him and met all of his friends who herded us quickly onto a nightmarishly crowded bus for what seemed like an actual eternity.  He was really nice, his name is Hawie (pronounced Haavie, another South African, can you believe it??) and his friends were pretty cool too.  There was another South African guy named Harry (and it was his birthday, ironically enough) and the rest of his friends were all American, I'm pretty sure Lindsay, Navid, Sarah, and. . .totally can't believe I can't remember her name, I think it was Jane?  I'm sorry.  Anyway, we were on the bus forever and then we had to get onto a subway.  And then we were lost.  We went to this North Face gym where the convention of Korea's foreign mountain climbers were all excitedly gathered to watch rock climbing movies, talk about rock climbing, look at rock climbing gear, etc.  Lindie, Hawie and I went outside to have some not rock-related conversation and out there we met a lot of different people (most of them South African, and I think one Canadian) and had a pretty nice time.  When the movie started we watched it for a bit, they were little short films about, you guessed it, rocks.  We got our hand stamped, we got a raffle ticket, and then we got a little anxious to get back to our beloved Ulsan so we said our goodbyes and tried to figure out where in the world we were.

We made it back to the station (on the subway, on heated seats, lovely) and it was only 8 at night.  We stood in line.  The farthest thing from our sweet, little minds was that we would have some trouble.  We were freezing, we were tired, we were ready to go home and we were told that there was no way because the trains were no longer running to Ulsan.   They were running literally right past Ulsan, it just wasn't stopping there anymore.  We had just missed the last one.  So, we went to Burger King, because we were also starving, to think of something.  We couldn't think of anything.  Nothing.  So, it was time to get some sleep.  Where were we going to find a hotel late Saturday night?  Especially so close to the station?  Remember the last time we tried to do this?

We started walking.  In Seoul you can't really cross the street, there are underground tunnels, kind of like the one I blogged about near my apartment here in Ulsan, that run under the street.  We saw a hotel in the distance across the street and thought that we would give it a try before we got back on the subway and blindly searched for something.  Anyway, between every single pillar the whole length of the tunnel were little homeless houses.  Some were total cardboard caves, some were just beds made out of tons of plastic wrap.  It was the saddest thing.  It was a freezing cold night, and there were probably thirty men in there curled up on the cold floor.  It made out little cheap hotel look like a Hilton.

We found one, first one, no problems.  It was a little on the cheap side but it had a bed and heat and that's all we needed.  We were just going to sleep and then go to the station first thing in the morning and get out of Seoul for a long, long time.  Which is exactly what we did.  The next morning we got up, got out, went to the station got our tickets, no muss no fuss, got some KFC and Burger King delights and got on our train.  Now, we were finally on our way back home.

Something about the way home made me really homesick.  Christmastime, and all.  I started to feel really, really guilty about not being home.  Lindie promised that she would make Christmas great.  I knew that she would.  And we sat reading quietly for a few hours pretending that it wasn't almost Christmas on the other side of the world from our families.

These were the stamps we HAD to get in order to get into the rock convention.  I think it stands for King of the Rocks.  Or something.

The thing about the KTX is that it's fast.  Really fast.  And when it stops, it stops for about 45 seconds.  If you miss the stop then you have to wait for the next one,which usually takes a while.  The stop for Ulsan FINALLY came.  We got up.  We went to the door.  There were two old women standing there waiting to get on.  We were at a bit of an impass.  They were blind and they were being assisted by a woman who worked on the train.  Long story short, because they were there, there was no way that we could get out of the train.  The doors closed.  The train started.  And we panicked.  The lady tried to talk to the conductor but there was nothing that could be done.  We had to go to Busan.  And then turn around and come back.  Busan was only 20 minutes down the line, but that meant another 20 minutes back plus the wait time for the train to leave and that was something we were just not in the mood for.  The lady changed our tickets and told us what to do.  And 20 minutes later we arrived in busy, beautiful Busan.

From Seoul to the ocean in 3 hours.

It says "Busan"  whoops.

We finally, finally, finally got on the train (we had to have standing tickets because obviously it wasn't our train) so we stood there until the train pulled back into to Ulsan station, and I'm telling you right now, we would have elbowed our way through anything to get off that time.

Ulsan, Ulsan, home sweet Korea home.

We went home, decompressed, and that was that.

Oh, Seoul, you crazy little place.