Seoul (Incheon)

Boeing 747-400, very comfy

Usually I cant sleep well on planes and once again I was just able to sleep 2 hours on this flight. Though being really tired I always suffer from insomnia on trips like these. Never mind, you are nervous, anxious and happy about the things to come. Who could sleep in this situation? Well I know many ;-)

Landing on the world’s best airport for 5 straight years (Incheon) I must say they deserve that title. Everything is new and tidy and in excellent condition. There are drinking water fountains everywhere and the toilet’s cleaning staff in charge has a photo ID just next to the sink. If you cant find him, you’ll just have to wait a minute until you see him coming round the corner filling up stuff with dedication.

For some reasons the toilets are much lower than in Germany. Havent figured out the reason why.

We thought the transit area might be a little boring after a while and so we immigrated into Korea to be able to see the entire airport. It got me my first stamp in my new passport.

Incheon International Airport

We had a 7 hour stop over in Seoul and although it sounded tempting we did not decide to go to the city. Bus takes about 90 minutes and so we just explored the airport on foot. There are lots of restaurants, all presenting their food in a little show cases. I know of pictures in menus or of pictures on the wall like McDonalds, but I have never seen the actual meal prior to the order. I also wonder how they prevent the food from getting spoilt. Probably replaced the food with plastics.

This time I made sure there was a smoking area after the security check and in fact I found one just next to our gate. The entire area is just huge with dozen of duty free shops, cafes, craft shops etc. Since I planned on stopping smoking it was kinda hard not to buy a carton of cigarettes for $17 USD. At least now that I am writing this post it gives me an incentive not to restart cuz I would have saved a buck or two. And don’t worry, Dad. I’ll put your cig money to good  use ;-)

getting a little tired at Incheon

KE123 from Seoul to Brisbane at 20:05h with Airbus 330-200.

Realizing that this flight would take almost as long as the previous one and that we lost our own entertaining system, we boarded the aircraft with some mixed feelings. I didn’t care cuz I thought I’d sleep well anyway. Having enjoyed “Western Chicken” on the first flight I decided this time to have “Korean Rice Meal”. It started with a seaweed soup. It was a surprising taste and I might be a good soup after getting used to.

Main course was a bibimbap. Meat, vegetables and mushroom in a big bowl. Additionally, you are served hot rice that you pour onto the meat. For the little extra flavour you add gochuang (a hot pepper paste) and some sesame oil.

It might be a good meal if the rice was really hot. But since I was eating the soup first the rice was not able to heat up the vegetables and so the meal was way too cold.

Anyway, I was hungry and didn’t leave a thing behind.

Cliffnotes:

Landing in Seoul with stop over of 7 hours

Flight Seoul to Brisbane in A330
Strange Korean food on plane (Bibimbap)