Today was the day. Finally, time to start the trip towards Asia, South Korea, and the 25th World Scout Jamboree. Even though I don’t have any trouble getting up in the morning if I need to, I’m not really a morning person. 4:45 is way before my preferred time of waking up.
I fixed the last items at home, making sure the windows were correctly set, emptying trash, and folding the last-minute washed clothes. Some prepared breakfast so I wouldn’t produce any more dishes and then off with too much luggage to the taxi who picked me up at 5:30. A very nice cab ride actually, the driver lived at the other association which got bombed the same time as us in January 2020. The topic for the 25-minute drive was set 🙂
ARN to WAW
When I arrived at the airport I met up with Jojo and Lars, who were going on the same flight to Seoul, at Terminal 4. We were also accompanied by the Swedish unit Brobyggarna. A unit with scouts consists of four patrols with 9 scouts in each, and four adult leaders (18+). In total 40 people who travel and live together during this trip.
I used the priority check-in lane thanks to my business class ticket. However, the staffer missed to put an S on two of my three luggage tags, so when I arrived at Special Luggage, the guy there refused to take them. He explained that if the S was missing, it would be left behind. Back to the check-in desk to rectify the mistake. I was thinking of just taking out a pen from my backpack and doing it myself, but better not to mess with this, I want the stuff I packed to follow me to South Korea 🙂
After we got rid of the luggage we set off to Terminal 5 to use the new security checkpoint. I have way too much electronics in my backpack to unpack and then pack again. When we got back to T4 the Swedish unit was in the process of clearing the security checkpoint there, so including the rather long walk, I think we got some more comfort and didn’t lose any time, even though all our bags were selected for some extra screening. For it was the powerbanks I think.
We waited at the gate and helped the unit take a picture. Boarding went smoothly, I was third on the plane with a free seat beside me (that’s business class on short-haul flights). After takeoff, I got some breakfast, hummus, müsli, bread, and some orange juice. Then just try to sleep some, got really tired.
The flight itself was uneventful, the staff was friendly and I just spent the time listening to a couple of podcasts and trying to sleep.
WAW to ICN
When we landed we passed through passport control and I set off to the lounge, preparing the first part of this post, and getting some “free” food 🙂 Beside me in the lounge sat a guy who had three people watching him with earpieces. Have no idea who he is but he seemed important and at the same time rather “normal”.
Boarding went smoothly, it seemed like the guy just before me in line got upgraded to business class, jackpot! 🙂 Four out of 18 seats were free with only me and one other guy not clearly Asian. We had to wait for one last guy who apparently was late before we headed out from Chopin Airport.
Flying in business has a few advantages. Priority check-in and boarding. A welcome drink (like orange juice) and an appetizer as well as choosing the main course before take-off.
A three-course meal for lunch/dinner and a generous breakfast.
The spacious and comfortable seat that turns into a bed.
And then be the first to disembark (which means first in line to passport control).
Unfortunately, even with all these luxurious things I just managed to get two hours of sleep during the flight. Instead, I watched the whole season four (six episodes) of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. During the last hour of the flight, we had some turbulence. At one point so rough that the crew was told to be seated. I don’t see myself as afraid of flying, but during this time it got a bit uncomfortable. Just trying to keep focus on the episodes of Modern Family I was watching.
When we landed at about 22:50 Swedish time, 5:50 local, I was really tired.
Seoul
Since I were one of the first to disembark and it was early in the morning, the line to immigration was really short and it just took a few minutes. The officer didn’t look twice at my “arrival card” and not at all at the health declaration I filled out on the plane. Maybe the scout uniform helped.
Luggage arrived quickly and after I met up with Jojo, Lars, and their two travel companions again I set off to fetch my Korean SIM card. First time I’m using dual SIM so it took a while to figure out how to define which card would be used for calling and data respectively. When I managed that took a shuttle bus from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 where Jonas was landing. For some reason they have built the terminals opposing each other with the entries on the “outside”, so the bus ride took 15 minutes since we had to go around half the airfield.
While waiting for him I took out the small luggage trolley that I bought at Clas Ohlsson. Mounted my bags and tilted them, just to realize that the wrong thing moved. I had tried it at home earlier in the week, but now the metal gave away instantly. So now it was useless. On a positive note, my luggage was now 2,6 kg lighter… Also while waiting I met up with Wilhelm who I met within Dreamhack Crew a few years back and his friend Janne(?) who was going to rent a car and drive around. Brave guys! Janne came on the same flight as Jonas (and Wilhelm on the same as me) but was much quicker through immigration and bag collection.
When finally all were gathered Vilja from Finland said hi and ended up following me and Jonas to the train station and into Seoul. We went to our hotel and dropped off our bags since we couldn’t check in for another 2-3 hours (the time was around 10:30). We also left Viljas bag along with ours while we went out to take a first look at the city, and find something to eat. We found a small coffee shop that offered some salad and sandwiches, where we hung out for some time while figuring out what to do next.
We kept walking around and went to the Namdaemun Market. Lots of different shops with goods in a variety of quality 🙂 We ran into a Dutch fellow who tagged along while we were hunting for some coffee. We discovered that the central station was quite full and after we found some ice cream, or soft milk as they called it, we headed back to the hotel. I was quite tired, and I and Jonas were going to a football game later in the evening so I needed the rest and a shower.
A quite nice room, maybe a bit odd floor plan, but the house is quite odd. Went for a shower immediately and hung my clothes to dry. Almost everything was soaked in sweat. Then slept for an hour. I woke up, hungry, tired, and probably dehydrated. I went out to get me a coke and a bag of chips 🙂
K League 1
Jonas met up in the lobby and we left for the Seoul World Cup Stadium. We met up with Roland there and started to look for the ticket office. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere but after asking a couple of people we found it and got our tickets. Long side and no rain (meaning a roof over our heads) were the criteria, which were both met.
Found a burger place nearby called No Brand Burger which has the slogan “Why pay more? It’s good enough!” I was quite cheap, quick, and decent enough. We went into the club store to look at the merchandise. I like game jerseys, but 1000 SEK for a team I don’t follow and have only seen once, that’s my limit. We went into the arena and found our seats. An alignment error on the ticked made us look for the wrong gate, but we got it sorted out.
The two singing sections made a great effort and the game was quite exciting even though the quality wasn’t the best. VAR made an impact in giving the home team, big brother FC Seoul (founded 1983), a penalty; which the goalkeeper saved. And also disallowing a goal for the same team for handball. It ended 0-1 in favor of the younger brother Incheon Utd. (founded 2003). I would say the referees did a good job.
The trip via subway back to the hotel was smooth and we were both really tired. I managed to finish this blog post so I can post it before midnight and then get a Facebook-memory notification on the correct day.
After about 36 hours with roughly three hours of sleep, while traveling and experiencing new cultures and a humid heat, I’m just looking forward to (hopefully) uninterrupted sleep and we’ll see what we will do tomorrow. It should rain, but if it rains like tonight (just an easy drizzle), then it’s not a real problem.
