Well here we are again, setting off
on another adventure, but, this time it is a holiday - no volunteering, no
working, just enjoying life in what we understand to be developed
countries. We will see how that goes.
We will be away for 134 days and
the confirmed flight itinerary is:
Brisbane to Sydney - Done
Sydney to Seoul (for the Winter Olympics) -
Doing
Seoul to Munich
Munich to London
Dublin to Zurich
Zurich to New York
Los Angeles to Brisbane (via Auckland)
Packing was OK, and we have
limited ourselves to 20kg each as some of the internal flights we will book on as
we go will be budget airlines. Our main
flights are already booked, but for the rest of the time away we will see what
unfolds as we go. We needed to pack for
all seasons as we begin with winter in South Korea and end up in Las Vegas and
LA in summer.
As a little bit of luxury to
ourselves, we will get to sit in the pointy end of the plane as friends of ours
convinced us that business class for long haul flights is the only way to
go. That so far is very pleasant.
I am sure Denise is keeping many
of you updated with Facebook, but I must remind you that she doesn't have my
permission to post any photos of me on Facebook. I don’t care! Silly
Man!
Before we left, I checked the
temperatures for PyeongChang and Seoul and -18c was showing for the first
week. I also heard somebody mentioned
-30c, so dressing in layers is what we have to learn to do or stay indoors...a
little hard when you are watching skiing and snowboarding events. The forecasters were right. It’s ******* cold. Very unlike my
husband to swear but it is so cold. I
think the cold has stifled my sarcastic self. Need to investigate that.
Lisa (our
precious little jam drop) dropped us off at the airport (Secretly she is cheering we are leaving) and we went
to check in, but failed. A great
start. One of the Qantas ladies rescued
us and after a little fiddling with the system we were on our way to the Qantas
lounge. It beats the Tabua Club lounge
in Nadi, but that’s not a high bar to reach.
Logged on to the wifi then cooked myself a toasted sandwich while Denise
had a coffee. We then sat and watched a
bit of the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, we
got the half time entertainment and very little of the game.
We flew to Sydney with the
Australian Women’s Rugby’s 7’s team who I believe were returning from the
Auckland 7's, but I did hear several conversations about big nights out over
the weekend. In Sydney we caught a bus
with the Spanish Rugby 7's girls going to the international airport.
Take off was interesting as there
were banging sounds coming from under us as we sped up to take off. Must be a
business class thing as apart from Denise and I, nobody else appeared
concerned. I suppose it was a feature as
we didn’t turn back, and we landed OK, but the sound was still there when we
landed.
I have decided Qantas business
class to Sydney is not worth it. Meals
were ordinary. A choice of salad or soup with the only saving grace being we
had proper metal cutlery. They had
already run out of sandwiches, and there were only 12 business class
passengers, plus I had marked Denise for vegetarian for the whole trip and she
was given the same as me.
We flew down over Tamworth and
the Hunter, so I waved to those living in Tamworth.
We spent the night at the Airport
Rydges and we decided it was cheaper to eat at the international terminal, so off
we went and had Japanese - very nice. In
the morning we repacked and checked in for flight two. This time we got an express line through
security, but, were then trapped with the ordinary people to get our tax back
on Denise's phone.
Next stop was the Air NZ lounge
for breakfast - yes, I had Weetbix, and to go above and beyond, a banana.
To stop Denise wandering off I
have realised I need to hold her hand.
It works!! Only problem is when I
have the two bags I have no spare hands, so she tends to stray a little. That’s not true! I take photos and actually see things, instead
of going like a bull at a gate to get anywhere. I really think he is trying to bump me off.
The Asiana flight was luxurious,
well compared to what we encountered on Qantas.
We were even on the top deck of an A380, something I thought I would
never see. It was a little disconcerting
when the safety announcement said, “when landing on water there will be life
rafts at the bottom of each slide”. The
menu was wonderful, and I decided to try a French red (Chateau Cissac 2014) to
go with my Korean meal (Bibimbap), but the meal wasn’t great. Only because this is
Mr Meat and Three Vege. You can
order just about anything in food or alcohol - all included. Too bad I like to get off flights sober.
Lunch turned out to be six
courses and finished off with Taylor’s 20 year Old Tawny Port. It was a bit like degustation. I ate about half of the Bibimbap. After that it was time for a nap…try out my
lie flat bed. I got a rest, and the beds
do lie flat, but aren’t that comfortable.
I would hate to be any taller as I could touch both ends of the
bed/seat. All I’m
hearing is whinging. I slept like a brick.
It’s the first time in a long time that I have arrived off a plane and not been
exhausted
One interesting thing I did
notice was that the flight tracking system showed many towns and cities as we
flew over or near them, but not Brisbane.
They did show Ipswich, Gympie, Home Hill and Grafton.
The movie selection wasn’t great,
so instead I worked on my laptop fixing files for a few hours. I did watch one movie, but gee I do get bored
on plane flights, even on Brisbane to Sydney flights.
Korea is cold. When we landed around 19:00 it was -8c, but
with the wind chill, it said it felt like -27c.
We caught the bus in to town (1.5hrs) and walked about 750mtrs to our
accommodation. We walked past it and ended
up walking an extra 200mtrs. Not too bad
you say, but remember it was now 21:30, cold, and I was pulling two 19kg bags
without gloves (I forgot to get them out, although I did stop once as my
fingers felt like they were about to drop off).
With the help of a local we found our accommodation. Small room with its own bathroom. Reminded me of Tanzania as you could sit on
the toilet while you had your shower.
First rip off for the trip – we
purchased two data sims for our phones, but only later realised it was
expensive. At least we have unlimited
data while we are in Korea, so no need for mobiles, we just use Viber and Skype.
He wasn’t on top
of his game!
We had one free day in Seoul
before heading to our base on the East Coast, so we spent that looking at Gyeongbokgung
Palace (don’t ask me how to pronounce it).
I decided on this as the accommodation owner said it was bigger than all
the others and had everything that all the others had. After four hours at the palace I am over
seeing palaces for the rest of the trip, well Korean ones anyway. The first few hours was fine. We saw (unplanned) the changing of the guard,
but then it became monotonous, although I’m sure Denise would go to other
Palaces. I will have to find another
thing to interest me. We were on foot
from 08:30 till we got back around 15:00 (walked over 10kms) when I decided to
have a nap/sleep.
The next day it was off to our
Olympics base in Donghae on the fast train.
Google said it was 2.8kms from
our accommodation to the station so we allowed 2hrs. When we arrived, our
watches said it was over 4.5kms with me dragging 2 x 18kg bags and a backpack.
It took 1h 20m. 2.8km my eye and it was more like 5.3km
but the boy wonder continued to walk at break neck speed!
The top speed for the KTX train according
to my Garmin was 246kph. According to
Google it’s got a top speed of 370kph...disappointed.
I let Denise have the window seat
(big of Him) on our 40min bus trip from
Gangneung to our hotel in Donghae through some beautiful hilly countryside and
ocean views so she went to sleep. What a waste! As most of you can
imagine I have lots to say about this but I’ll be the bigger person and let it
go!
We have found a big supermarket
on the next street where you can sample lots of things, including alcohol, so
we did, on quite a few days. I think
they know us now.
The first morning in Donghae there
was a weird alarm that woke us about 05:20. It only went for a few seconds.
When we woke up to my alarm 1hr later I discovered an Emergency Alert message
on both our phones, but the message was in Korean.
I later found out there was a 4.8
earthquake 162km away. I am assuming that was the reason for the Emergency
Alert. We felt nothing
On our way to our first event, the
downhill the forecast was for-14c with a wind chill of-27c. I lost count of how many layers I put on with
more in my pack. We allowed 3.5hrs to
get to downhill. It would have taken
about 1.5hr, but on the way word began to filter through the it had been
postponed to Thursday 15th due to high winds, so now we have a ticketing
clash.
As we had Women’s Moguls later
that day at another venue we decided to look around so off we went to the
Olympic Stadium. We needed every layer
and more while we wasted time waiting for our next event.
The weather at the moguls was
freezing, windy and snowing. Australia
had two in the final event, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be our night. We had problems getting home as public
transport stops around midnight, so we had to get a taxi for the last 40kms -
ouch!! Denise rationalised a little
better than me. We finally got home
after 01:00. Good
grief was that credit! The taxi driver took
us on the long trip home which cheesed me off but, on the trip, I observed from
the back seat, we were travelling at 165km /hour. To make matters worse he sounded
like he had sleep apnea while he was awake. No wonder he was grumpy! Mind you I was not in the mood to be jacked
around. I lost a glove and I’m cheesed
about that too!
The next day we had the Men’s
Moguls in the evening so got to sleep in (a little). The weather was a little kinder (not much
though), and this time Australia got a silver medal. That was exciting. It was incredible to see moguls live and the
difference between men and women. The
women use finesse and get down the course in 30secs, while the men use raw
power and get down in 25secs. In the men’s
particularly it was a go for broke mentality from many, but amazing nobody had
to be carted off, or even required medical attention on course. My only disappointment
is that I didn’t have a zoom lens for my iPhone. So sorry everyone no great shots just ordinary
ones.
Walking is a big thing so
far. Everywhere we go we are walking
somewhere and to date we are exceeding 10,000 steps a day. The frustrating part is for the same
distance, Denise gets another 2-3,000 steps.
In the hotels I even use the stairs for all seven floors up and down,
and I still get nowhere near Denise’s step count. That’s because I spend
the whole time running after him as he strides off into the distance.
The next day (today) is a day off
competition to rest and recuperate…and write the blog.
Until next time, hi from the
Winter Olympics.
No comments:
Post a Comment