The conclusion.
Ashley dropped by with her brother, Gunil, to say her goodbyes since she’ll be staying a couple more days, and Gunil, a couple more months. She also picked up the cellphone we were using thanks to Jinhyo, that has come in handy so much, we’re very grateful.
Our plans? Head to a familiar dollar store. hahaha.. grab last minute candy for a dollar 😉 We did however manage to do one thing that we haven’t done this whole trip, get on the wrong train. we backtracked a station and found our shop, visited paris baguette once more, and left for the airport due to the ominous slowly darkening sky.
We had left our luggage in the hotel lobby in case we decided to eat lunch out instead, since checkout was at 12. so we went back, grabbed that, and made our way.
it was a bit of an adventure once we got to the express bus terminal, one stop away… T_T looking at the station 3D floorplan, there were no elevators that led to the ground floor, only flights of stairs, which was quickly solved by asking one of the info girls, who are standing in heels behind a small info pillar… haha… but once we got up to the ground floor, where were we supposed to go next? eventually Karen found where the airport shuttle picked people up and Cassie found another alternative although we believe it was a more expensive option. by that time, we had about 20000 won left and 9000 was supposed to be for the bus.
The shuttle karen found was exactly the one we want to get on but the only problem was, we can’t cross the street to get to it… we’d have to go back underground, through some hallways, down some stairs, up an escalator, and finally across the street. it was more exhausting and confusing than it sounds – -;… and i also managing to break a small part of my brother’s luggage. oops.
9000 won and 40ish minutes later, we’re at Incheon Airport. Checked-in, Cassie and I go through security while Karen and Michelle wander outside to shop and explore. This is where the first sign occurs. but I’ll get back to that later. so we go on the shuttle subway thing to get to the our gate, shopped around, looked at last minute souvenirs, and ate bulgogi burgers, mmmm, at Lotteria. Boarding time at 430 and michelle and karen are nowhere to be found at 426, but show up right on time, and boarding is delayed 15 minutes… haha
smooth 11-hour flight to vancouver. small sign occured. slept a little, watched the sun come up from the horizon, watched a bunch of japanese and korean dramas/movies that i downloaded at the hotel 😀
and here is, what i would like to call, The Curse of the Hallabong.
Going through customs, i was led towards the line up to talk to someone to clear, as per usual. The other three, used machines to input their declaration, i think, and got to the carousel way ahead of me.
Backtrack. First sign. I bought a jar of Honey Citron Hallabong Tea from Jeju island which was meant for the lovely people at unikron, who would be able to use it as jam! (or just as tea, whatever) but due to a lack of…. brain, i packed it in with my carry-on. awesome. entering security at inchon airport, i had no choice but to leave it there. i watched as the guard gently place it into the garbage can. T_T… So because of that, i bought Tangerine chocolates and packets of the honey citron hallabong tea from the duty free lotte store.
Small sign, i guess, whatever, the cup they gave my with sprite, cracked. spilled on myself and my laptop. altho both appear to be… completely fine.
anyways, no problems getting through customs at vancouver, found my luggage, went to the washroom. as we left the customs hall, and put our luggage back on the plane, i realize that I left a bag back at the carousel. none other than the bag that held my hallabong tea and chocolate. the guard who collected our customs declaration form informed me that i wasn’t allowed back into the customs hall and would have to talk to the lady in the next room and get an employee to go back for it. i threw my luggage on the belt and was told to go out, find the info desk, and call an Aircanada person to look for it. with no luck. it wasn’t where it was supposed to be, i guess chocolate and tea in a duty-free bag would go pretty fast unattended.
but i had yet to give up. i was directed to another info-desk up the escalator, which directed me towards the aircanada customer care, who then told me to go to customs baggage claim on down a flight of stairs, who then called someone that said no one had turned it in, but proceeded to tell me that i should have go to the canada customs office in the first place to get someone to look for it, which was back up the escalator, across the a hallway, down another escalator, etc. so instead of doing that, i went back to the customer care desk who actually went down herself to try and find it, unfortunately, to no avail. by this time, my friends were already comfortably seated on the plane, and i had worked up a nice sweat, giving in to the curse of the hallabong. and it all started with my lapse of judgement while packing the tea into my carryon. a lesson learned.
5 more hours in the air to toronto. carrying 0% hallabong… we’re about to land, ahead of schedule. hopefully all goes well and i don’t have any other stories to add to this one 😛 since the presence of hallabong is gone, i guess it should be fine 0.o…
all in all, a good trip. good experience. i need to learn some korean 😉
but next year, australia. i hope.
home.
Cassie’s bulgogi burger in the process.
The sunrise.
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