It was a pretty comfortable flight up too. I'd mentally prepared myself to be smack bang in the middle of large people with odour problems but instead found myself on the window seat with no-one else in my row of three. Combine that with a fully-charged iPod and the flight was about as gentle an introduction to travelling to the Northern Hemisphere as you could have hoped for.
Once at Incheon Airport a crew of us congregated together. There was an Englishman on his way back home, a few Kiwis and myself. The rest of them all had a hotel booked for the night in Seoul itself; this was something that my super-cheap ticket apparently didn't include. I didn't want to spend a few hundred dollars on a hotel room for one night, but thankfully the Englishman (we'll call him Chris) offered for me to crash on the floor of his room.
Once in Seoul we did what most young men do when in a strange city - had a feed and found a pub. We ended up somewhere called The Beer Club, where I can't remember much other than they served us beers in large urns and that we went through a rather lot of them.
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| Pictured: a beer urn. |
Even though Chris and I headed back relatively early we were still a bit dusty the next morning on the bus back to Incheon. This was nothing compared to one of the Kiwis who'd spent the morning driving the porcelain bus then had to do the same again when arriving at Incheon. The bus ride itself didn't help, with the suspension so bad that the bus rocked from side to side while travelling straight down the highway!
The rules of international travel state that if you have a good run on one leg (exit row seat, three seats to yourself, attractive Scandinavian sitting next to you), you will pay for it next time. This is exactly what happened to me, finding myself at the back of the plane and in the middle seat. There was a shortage of the "European" meals as well, and I remember the flight attendant tried to give me a big spiel about how to eat the Korean meal. Not that I listened - after being in the air for a few hours I would have eaten just about anything!
Towards the end of the flight I found myself having a chat with Chris at the very back, catching glimpses out the window of fields arranged every-so-neatly below us. This was Europe - the place I'd always dreamt of visiting and I was there! Well, nearly there. Had to land first.
We eventually got to Heathrow and began the tedious process of getting through immigration. Jason had already arrived and got the third-degree about his plans; Cat (our other travel companion) and had the second-degree when she arrived. Me? Pretty much straight through. Had all my documentation ready to go and everything.
Waiting for me at Arrivals was an old friend Bec. She was over doing her two-year working holiday visa and having her there as I stumbled into the light was a great help. We took the Tube (riding the Tube!) back to her place, stopping along the way for a quiet beer in a pub (beer in a pub!). It was there I had my first John Smith's and instantly decided it would be my beer of choice every time I visited the UK.
A day later we caught the train up to Leeds where Bec had a work trip; I got to tag along and pay a bit less than I would have otherwise. After spending a couple of very pleasant days pottering around this Yorkshire city it was back to London where we met up with Jason and Cat.
Tomorrow we would be in Paris.
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