Sitting down a lot - Seoul Trip Day 1

Hello! I don’t use this blog anymore because life has been crazy and also I’ve had no new sage words to share. However, I’ve just embarked on the craziest trip I’ve ever made solo to Seoul, South Korea, which in my mind warrants some documentation. So, here goes.

Before we go any further I need you to understand that I made some, perhaps, foolish decisions while planning this trip, so instead of flying from Edinburgh to Seoul with one stopover I’m doing Edinburgh - London – Paris – Shanghai – Seoul. This was to save a few bucks but if the pain in my back from that first trip down to London is anything to go by I might as well have spent the extra dough…

I'm gonna do this day by day, and the further we go the more likely it is that I'm gonna bunch days together. Glad we have a mutual understanding of my laziness. 

Day 1 – Travelling and more travelling

Arrived at the bus station in Edinburgh 45 minutes early, just in case, and boarded the bus fine. Met my first acquaintance on this trip, a Russian woman on exchange to London. We shared life stories and photos of home, then slept fitfully in seats next to each other. Nothing brings you closer to a stranger than seeing each other conked out with your mouths hanging open at 4am on a bus that smells slightly of pee. Really.

After sleeping regrettably little I was awake from 4.30am onwards, which was almost worth it for seeing the sun rise from 5 o’clock. It was like someone had put a giant golden ball in the sky, and it coloured the pages of my book orange. I guess travelling alone is about finding these little moments of beauty that no one else seems to be paying attention to and appreciating them. That is very poetic but it was honestly a wonderful moment despite my tiredness and the fact I hadn’t eaten in 8 hours (my only snack, a chocolate bar, tragically liquid in my bag).

I arrived in London safely and paid 30p to use the toilet. Very promisingly a mother and her daughter emerged from one of the cubicles shouting about someone shooting up heroine so I got the true coach station experience. Fast forward to me sitting at a table in Pret shedding stupid emotional nervous tears, because for some reason all my stress culminated in slowly and meticulously eating a fruit pot. A few deep breaths and soothing words later (thanks Niall) I decided to get up and start walking to the train station.  Keep in mind, for me to get there an hour before my train leaves I need to be there by 1.20pm. Google maps told me the walk was a bit over an hour so I started walking, hoping to find some cool spots along the way. It’s not exactly walk-friendly to be carrying a bag and two suitcases so I look quite the fool but London is full of tourists so I don’t stick out too badly, yet.

I’m currently writing this sat on a park bench surrounded by trees, trying to gain some semblance of inner peace and control so I don’t freak out again. I think my brain is just trying to get all the stress out now, because the idea of actually being in Seoul doesn’t make me very nervous.

So, now safely at my gate at the airport in Paris. After spending some sweet time reading in the sun and getting ogled by the masses of tourists coming down from Picadilly I set my sights on St. Pancras. I gotta say, walking from the coach station down to St. Pancras with two suitcases and a backpack on a hot day was not my best idea, but it gave me a good wee tour of London as I went on. Again facing the issues of travelling alone where I have to take ALL of my shit with me when I just need to pee. It’s difficult settling anywhere with a small bladder. The Eurostar over to Paris was fine, though the interior of the train looked like it was from the 70’s and there were no sockets for my phone so it died a painful death halfway through. Now reviving it through CPR via my laptop. I didn't speak to the guy next to me at all but that's mostly because he spent the whole time speaking to someone through his phone in a  language I couldn't identify. He was kind enough to help me with my bag though!

The journey from Gare du Nord to the airport was the definition of “livin’ on a prayer” because all I had with me was a dead phone and a ticket bought for the metro as per the info desk lady’s super helpful one word reply of “RER B”. Honey I’ve not been to this station ever and I don’t speak French, I was nervous right down to the moment I stepped on that metro and saw the airport as the final destination. The metro was very retro and also full of people with suitcases and also very hot, so as you can imagine this combo was the best 30 minutes of my life.

Someone once mentioned to me in passing how shit Charles De Gaulle airport is. I was skeptic, thinking how can an airport be bad? I have now been proved wrong. This airport is so weirdly structured I don’t understand the logic at all. And as if one stress-cry wasn’t enough for today, I arrived at my check-in gate at 19.00, over two hours before my flight is scheduled to leave, and the board said “boarding closed”. I have never powerwalked and simultaneously hyperventilated at the same time but now I can cross that off my bucket list.

Anyhow, I’m currently sat on the floor of the airport waiting until my check-in opens because as if a shitty structure wasn’t bad enough there’s also not nearly enough chairs. Seeing as I’m boarding pretty late and my flight is overnight I’ll include those shenanigans in the second post. If I had to summarize today I'd say it has been sweaty, and I hope I'm getting swole from how much I have to carry my suitcases around.

Thank you for reading my travel ramblings, I am slowly becoming less of a nervous wreck!

Cheers,

Becks