The first half of April was apparently nothing worth taking a photo of! It was busy with work, pilates, getting pre travel jabs and so on. Easter, with its long weekend and special church services — my 6pm band did music for Praise and Passover so that was a load of work too.
And then finally it all started!
Thursday night was Ginny's hens, with actual handbag making. A great idea, notwithstanding issues with the instruction videos. Heather and I finished ours on our trip, I used mine at the HK reception!
Friday night was a catch up dinner for any family in town at the Yacht Club, which was lovely, and we met some of the other side.
Saturday was a pretty casual day, all the travel stuff was really done by then, so we had all day to get ready for the wedding! It was in the afternoon at Medowie I think, a golf club.
It was a lovely ceremony, and a fun casual reception.
The speeches were great, I always enjoy good speeches.
The holiday photos won't be in order or fully represent the trip, it was all in my instagram and there are too many photos to sort through again!
One unfortunate thing was I had 4 bad nights sleep in a row, either stomach cramps or hip nerves. So by the weekend I was already sleep deprived, and my hip woke me up at 4am on Sunday morning well before the airport alarm. So I was headachy and exhausted for travel day. I drove us to Sydney, we left my car in a carpark and they shuttled us to the terminal, we were nice and early all smooth. As soon as we were on the plane I put on my mask and collapsed. We were delayed on the tarmac but I didn't care because at least I could close my eyes. The rest of the day was just about resting as much as possible, and then at the other end it was Heather's job to get us through Seoul to the hotel by midnight.
So we ate our packed lunches on the plane, and landed in Seoul, H helped me get a Tmoney card, the AREX was not running much because it was so late so we caught the regular train, but Heather was very confident and we made it to Seoul Station and then to MeyongDong, where Elsie met us with gimbap sushi for dinner. It was super late at night but we made it!
Our first day we took it slow. Had an unexciting breakfast, got cash out, went makeup shopping, had a sleep. Might have then gone to the shopping district with the buskers that night too. We realised that Korea doesn't have a lot of fruit and veg. But the street food markets near our hotel were cheap and tasty. And the strawberries were delicious, Korea is into strawberries.
Our second day we went to a palace with a garden. It was rainy and cold but that didn't matter much.
We then went to the Insadong area, found somewhere downstairs to have a hot lunch and warm up, we had beef hot pot Bulgogi, and a fish called pollock.
We bought some cute hats and I really liked the shops in this area, they were less tacky stuff more cool stuff. We had afternoon tea of cake and drinks in this upstairs cafe with hammocks!
We picked the best weather day to go North to the Odusan Unification Tower and look over the river at north Korea. We caught the bus, then walked 23 min uphill, then walked through the small museum in tribute to the hope of unified north and south Korea one day, then looked through the binoculars, to my delight you can see tiny people. Remy later said its a fake village which makes sense because some of the apartments had no roof.
We had a sleep at the hotel, then went to Dongdaemun, unfortunatly too late to see many shops open at the fabric market, but we walked around it anyway. We had a drink where you buy a cup of ice and a sachet and mix the together, sitting in hillside garden below a section of old city wall. There is an original gate below, right at a busy city intersection. The contrast is fascinating.
We had fried chicken dinner on a rooftop with Hs Korean friend Grace, she ordered for us because the menu had no pictures or english. It was TASTY!! Another goal achieved for the holiday.
Then Thursday we did our hike up Inwangsan, which follows the city wall up and over. A great walk, really challenging though. We started from the city so it was interesting to see the houses and electricity lines.
We were super tired after that, and we had vague idea to see a comedy show called Nanta, but that seemed too much, so we didn't end up going. But we did see Remy! And she took us to a cat cafe.
For our last dinner we spent the last of our cash on all the tasty food we hadn't yet tried at the street food market!
Then Friday was another travel day, H and I caught the trains back to the airport, and by the way we timed it pretty well with our Tmoney cards too! Then we flew HK Express to HK, which was a super organised and efficient flight, left on time to the minute. Check in at the hotel was hectic because apparently there was an EXPO of some sort, so we were numbered and called in groups, took us 45 min total. Then our room stank of cigarettes. Amazing views, 35 floor, but unbreathable. STRESS. Decided we needed dinner and then face the desk queue again about it. We had KFC, which was a lame choice but at least it was foreign KFC, with rice instead of chips or mash. Then I asked for a room swap and we got moved to 16th floor, and it smelled clean and we had a great time in that room. The beds were firm, and my hip stopped waking me up!
Saturday was another rest day. We walked around Tseun Wan to find money exchange and a supermarket. We got lost twice but eventually we were oriented. The supermarket had some good staples so we could set up our room with meusli, milk, bread, cheese and ham, and 2 minute noodles, which is both cheap and restful when you're travelling, to just eat in hotel and not always be looking around at foreign shops making decisions what to eat. Noodles in your PJs is a big energy saver.
We stayed in bed in the arvo and sewed our bags and read books. Then we went down a few floors to the reception! We had good chats with some of Ginny's fam who speak English, and have interesting jobs and such, and with Jason and Irene, and Maya and Mel. I took part in the tea ceremony as Matt's older sister! But was unprepared with gold gifts.
The night was basically a long family photo shoot, with 5 dresses for Ginny, and a 12 course banquet, we had a great time!
Sunday we all met for buffet breakfast and filled up! Then Heather and I went to St Andrews church, we loved it. A warm meeting, singing, communion, Romans, felt at home. Then we met the others up at the street markets, the puppies and kittens and fish in bags for sale, and the everything on the street. Then we went and explored a mall which was much more chill, and a japanese supermarket, and we had a late lunch of snacks and food court drinks.
H and I went back to hotel for a rest before meeting at the taxi rank to go out west for seafood dinner with Ginny's parents and the other Australians. Ginny's mum picked out the seafood at the live market downstairs and then it was all cooked for us in the restaurant. Some of it was sashimi style, some was battered, some was in sauce. Amazing experience!
The next day H and I went to the Palace museum, which has a lot of things from the Forbidden City. I enjoyed the history of ceramics, seeing the craft develop from earthenware jugs 2500 BC, to amazing coloured glazes and fine porcelains. The royal courts placed great value on design and craft, pride in creating better and better designs.
We had hotel dinner but added some KFC egg tarts.
Wednesday H and I walked up the peak and met Matt and Ginny at the top. It was a nice bushwalk, but obviously much uphill. I have lost some weight after so much walking! Due to the rain and fog, no views, but it was cool at least for the walk. At the top, there was a shopping mall! We bought some gizmos and gifts, and had a nice lunch of wonton soup and noodles.
We went back down on the tram, and then walked to the ferry, and took the ferry.
We explored the shopping mall at Harbourside, enjoying expensive Godiva ice cream, and gawking at the luxury shops that had ropes in the doors to stop the povvos going in.
Thursday morning H and I checked out and caught the trains to Disney! We checked in, and were entering the park at 10.45 or so, shortly after it opened and it was already crowded!
We had a lovely day. The weather was perfect! Sunny, low humidity, comfortable. Being mid week the queues were relatively OK, 15-20 minutes at most. We did queue 30 min for the lion king show to make sure we got good seats, but we only stood 15 min then we sat. in fact the queues were all very well planned so you moved fast, had things to look at, they set the scene. We did all the good rides, the 3D theatre ones, the roller coasters, the river cruise we did in the day with chinese guide and at night with the english language guide. We had packed sandwiches for lunch, but bought pork and rice for dinner. We stayed for the 8.30 fireworks and it only took us 30 min to walk and shuttle back to our hotel, where our bags were already in our room.
Explorers hotel was super comfortable and so much fun design! It was a shame we couldn't stay longer. The next morning we had a quick walk along the coast, snooped on the other hotels a bit, and then bought a souvineer for Julia and got Uber to the airport.
Then I spent all day at the Airport, half outside the checkin half inside the check in. I broke up the day well though, I read, went to bathroom, instagrammed, had lunch, sat around again, bathroom again, sat around more, finally checked in. Meanwhile my throat got sore. I did a rat, negative, and I bought cold and flu things at the chemist, so I wouln't be snotty on the plane. My early check in meant I got a recliner at the gate! Then J and I found me and we boarded a bit delayed, I got an exit row (I paid $25 for a window seat at the front and luckily it was exit row) and had an interesting chat with other passenger and the stewards.
Then I rested, it was qantas so it was more comfortable then jetstar, but throat meant not really sleep, then we got out of the airport eventually, our bags were last on the carousel, then I got the shuttle back to my car and drove home. Park and fly worked well.
And JK had made soup, and sweep was happy to see me! I slept and unpacked and washed and slept and unpacked, and luckily my cold isn't too bad and I did another negative rat, so it isn't likely covid.
A really wonderful 2 weeks, the joy of the wedding and the adventure of travel!
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