Even getting out of Korea takes some effort! We had our bags packed and made a last minute call to the Seoul Helpline to find out what time the airport buses left from our area, we had originally planned to take a taxi to Suwon and get the airport bus from there, at the last minute we decided it might just be easier to go from Byeongjeom. We dragged our bags down to the bus stop, calling in for a quick iced coffee to get out of the heat, and then jumped onto the bus headed for the airport. The bus takes between an hour and a half and three hours depending on traffic conditions (yes, it varies that much, traffic close to Seoul is crazy!) and for our trip it was closer to the three hour mark as it was peak hour traffic on a Friday. When we finally got to the airport we checked in right away and then headed off to find something to eat. We had been forewarned that most things at the airport closed at around 10pm and our flight was due to depart at 11:55. Fortunately for us one of the bonuses with my friend's Samsung credit card is that we get free access to the Korean Airways Business lounge…. Aaaahhhh…. What a way to start the trip! They had a selection of foods, from cheese platters, to soups, and all manner of salads as well as a fancy coffee machine, selection of wines, and fruit juices and soft drinks. We curled up in the big leather chairs with coffee’s and made a few phone calls before I picked up my book and. Before long it was time to head to our departure gate to get onto the first leg of our flight from Seoul to Dubai.
We were both glad to have made the decision to fly emirates, though the flight still felt horribly long, and the flight was fully booked so there wasn’t much room to spread out. We made it through the 9 and a half hour journey, with very little sleep, and arrived at around 5am in Dubai where we had about a four hour break before our next flight. We wandered around, stopping for coffee, McDonalds (which made me realize just how bad the McDonalds in Korea really is) and to have a look in the bookshop before we gave in to our tiredness and curled up on one of the airport chairs to wait. Now that I write this it seems like we weren’t really waiting a long time before we boarded the next flight… but then it’s funny how your memory does that… fooling you into believing that the next time you do the flight it won’t be that bad! The next leg of the flight was just as long… and possibly harder to sleep through because of the ill disciplined child a few seats back from us (making us question whether we really wanted to have children…or how some people were allowed to have children) and also because I knew that South Africa was at the other end. It’s kind of a surreal feeling to realize that you are about to land in a place you have wanted to go to for most of your life.
Off the plane we grabbed our bags and went to collect our hire car. Then we were off again heading for Worcester with my friend driving us in our little Kia Picanto. My mouth dropped open as we drove away from the airport and I had my first glimpse of the shacks, little lean to sheds of stacked up sheets of metal, plastic or wood (depending on what they can find) that people actually live in. I was told later that we accidentally took a wrong turn and went through a Gangsters paradise - rather one of the worst areas in Cape Town. I had no idea… I, like most people outside of South Africa, had been told numerous stories of people being robbed, hijacked, and killed, and so a part of me kind of thought that perhaps this is what most of South Africa looked like. Only a part because if I am completely honest I also expected to see sprawling mansions and wild animals roaming the streets… yes I know I am naïve.
We made it to our accommodation in Worcester where we both showered and then collapsed into bed grateful to be lying flat after what seemed like the longest flight ever… we were travelling for 36 hours in total if you include the bus to the airport and the drive to the accommodation… we just kept thinking about how glad we were that we booked a stop-over in Dubai for the trip home!
When everything finally started to open we called into a restaurant called Wimpy, which is part of a chain, and had a massive breakfast of bacon and eggs with all the trimmings! Then that afternoon I was treated to my first real braai in South Africa…yum!
Day One in Cape Town.
We drove into Cape Town early on the Monday morning. It was raining when we left but by the time we were a little way out of Worcester it had stopped and the most beautiful rainbow had come out as if to welcome us… at least in my mind it was there to welcome me! I spent most of the trip in peering into the mountains in search of baboons… I had been promised that they liked to sit on the roads along the way...
We found our accommodation in Sea Point (near the waterfront) as quickly as we could, dropped off our bags, and then went down to the waterfront for something to eat. We sat in the window of a restaurant where we could see the whole waterfront and Table Mountain and had the biggest plate / dish of calamari and prawns I had seen in a long time. (I am including a picture here purely to make the mouths of my friends here in Korea water… this food is nearly impossible to get here!) Somehow I found the will-power to finish almost every morsel and then we wandered around the waterfront feeling like we were going to pop! We tried to book tickets to go and see Robben Island but discovered that all the tickets that day had sold out and the next available trip was 2pm the next day… we decided not to book for the next day because we weren’t sure where we were going to be.
We wandered around for a while doing a bit of window shopping and then wandered into the Aquarium to take a look. It was fantastic! Everything was cleverly lit and well displayed so that you could see it well and it was visually stunning. The jellyfish display stands out as being one of the most clever… I took a picture without flash and it almost looks like they are floating in mid-air. On the other side of the “world of frogs” exhibit there is a special room set up for the penguins, there are two groups, one that stays in that area all the time. The security guard, who was incredibly friendly, told us that we were just in time and if he wandered back downstairs to the outdoor penguin exhibit they were going to walk them up to their night-time spot in about 10 minutes. It was hilarious. This maintenance man kept going in and out of their outdoor enclosure and every time he opened the gate they would line up in front of the door to be let out. They knew what the time was and were eager to get to their indoor houses! Finally the lady they were waiting for opened the door and they all trotted inside obediently, making their way through the aquarium, with all the people in their standing on each side of the path as they waddled along!
After the aquarium we jumped in the car and drove to Canal Walk shopping centre for a little shopping… we had realized after a day or two that the clothing we had taken with us was sadly inadequate for this particularly cold South African winter. My thought when packing was “it’s Africa…how cold can it be?” My friend was clearly mistaken as well so I don’t have to feel like a complete moron of a tourist! We got a nice warm “K-way” jacket for me… some new Springboks jersey’s for each of us, and I found some gorgeous black boots (guys you may tune out for the rest of this paragraph because I am talking about shoes…lol) that were so inexpensive! I like shoe shopping in South Africa…so far it’s the only place in the world that makes me feel like I have small feet! In SA I am a size 6…wow. Sounds small! Also in the boots I bought the size 6 was the smallest they had…leading me to believe that the boots were either meant for me or that South African women have freakishly large feet!
After our “short” shopping expedition had turned into hours of pacing the mall we decided we were completely exhausted and it was time to return to the accommodation and see what our room for the next few days looked like. We certainly weren’t disappointed – the suite was lovely – full kitchen, separate bedroom…and the bathroom had a bath! (I am excited about the bath because you don’t see one very often in Korea.) On our way in we had also been invited to a wine and cheese evening that was being hosted downstairs and so in the spirit of not wanting to miss out on a single moment of our holiday we went down to check it out.
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