My first trip overseas, thrown in the deep end. A direct flight Melbourne to Incheon, roughly 11 hours in duration. Leaving Melbourne at 9:40am, meant a pretty early morning for all concerned. Thanks for the lift to the airport mum!
Nintendo DS helped to pass the time, but lead to me having a bit of an upset stomach towards the end of the flight. The food was passable for plane food. But I couldn't bring myself to order the bibimbap, when the real thing was going to be available soon after.
My long legs survived intact, the seats were just big enough that i wasn't overly constrained. I have no idea how anyone any taller than me could survive cattle class however. I had made the rookie mistake of not buying pain killers before we left, leading the inevitable to 5hr headache.
Once we had landed and disembarked, we were through imigration pretty quickly. It was the last international flight to arrive on a week night so the airport was pretty empty compared to my expectations of what a major international airport would look like.
As we waited for our baggage to arrive, Jiran began chatting in Korean to a couple next to us. Little did I know, this was the beginning of me listening to a lot of Korean, recongising a word here and there, but generally being oblivious to what was going on around me.
Finally Jiran's bag arrives and we head off through customs. After having watched those airport security tv shows where Australian customs give foreigners the 3rd degree, I was expecting something more than having to hand over a form without breaking stride.
Jiran's friend Eun-mi had come to meet us at the airport. Once we meet up there is a considerable amount of crying and hugging between the two of the Korean girls. Jiran tries to introduce me but Eun-mi is now too embaressed by her wet eyes and insists upon wiping away her tears before, turning back to meet me. I insist upon a photo of the two of them, to which Eun-mi tries to escape from, but I am unrelenting. I subsequently found out the Jiran 'accidentally' deleted this photo.
We head out of the airport and the crisp 3 degree air, wakes me up. I was told to expect as low as -10, so this isn't too bad I think.
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