Back to Korea, Day 1
As I stated at Chuseok, the event of my brother-in-law's wedding led to the occasion for us to return to Korea for the first time in about four and a half years. I'm retro posting here, to the dates that the pictures relate to, just to organize them a bit better. While this blog had always been the more personal of the ones I've done, I still hesitate to post the dates of my absence from home on the world wide web, just in case the wrong eyes read them. We're back now and some of you have already seen some of the shots of Yeji and I on Facebook. I've split up my photos so that ones of people will appear there, while the ones that are primarily of the country will be posted here.
Now, Yeji actually left a couple of weeks earlier than I did. I could only manage a week off work, what with the new job and all. So, she was waiting for me in Busan when I left Toronto's Pearson airport around midnight on Sunday, September 28th. It was about a 14-hour flight to Seoul, via Incheon airport, however this would get me in during the middle of night and I'd have another seven hours or so before I could catch the first domestic flight of the day to Busan, via Kimhae airport. By the end of my flight, it'd be Tuesday morning in Korea.
Incheon Airport is quote the place. It's a lot different from Gimpo Airport which was my first taste of Korea. Nonetheless, I spent most of the stop-over lying flat on a hard, wooden bench and reading a couple of the Giles Milton books I'd brought on the flight. Around 6:30, a coffee shop kiosk opened and I could get something to wake me up. At 7am, I think it was, they started issuing boarding passes at the Korean Air domestic desk (my flight was at 9am) but security didn't open until 8:30.
Finally aboard my second and final flight of that leg, we took off and made our way across Korea. Again, I was entranced by how orderly plots of farmland land look from above, and how the condo towns sprout out in the countryside like the backs of pipe organs. The morning mist was still filling the valleys so once we ascended and got past the more populated reaches of Seoul, it was mostly mountains springing up out of the clouds that filled the view. The flight wasn't long at all though -- only an hour -- and we arrived at Kimhae. Kimhae's a good deal smaller, and you still have to take a bus from where your plane ends its taxi to the terminal. The washrooms seem to have been completely renovated since I last flew there, though. That was nice.
My in-laws live on Young Do, a large island in Busan Harbour. Yeji met me at the airport and we cabbed it back to find the first of many meals awaiting. I'd hoped to get out into the city a bit but after eating, I took an extended nap to recover from the flight. Shortly after I woke and showered, Yeji's aunt and uncle arrive with armloads of hweh for supper (sliced raw fish.)
Busan is the best place in Korea for fresh seafood and even after moving to Toronto this summer, hweh is one of the dishes we stil can't get here. In addition, we had beef ribs (bulgalbi), abalone, lotus root, sliced tuna, and a tonne of other side dishes. Every day was set to be filled with lots of eating. We would have one full day in Busan, after this, and on Thursday, we'd be taking the KTX for Seoul. The wedding was scheduled for Friday and since we were stuck in Canada prior to this, we still hadn't met our future sister-in-law.
However, the next day would be spent around town. I had some errands to run and I wanted to stretch my legs.
Labels: Korea Trip 2008
