First impressions.

Finally we've arrived in South Korea - Incheon International Airport. We haven't  spent much time in the area (not counting 1.5hr at the airport and another hour in the transit bus from the airport to the Incheon Bus Terminal) and we've left on the intercity bus to Gyeongju. Therefore this post is all about first impressions! 

Impression 1:

Samsung everywhere! Wherever I look, people are holding a Samsung device - and not the usual ones (widely available in UK), these ones are massive and it seems like they can do so much more than the traditional Samsung I know!

Although tunes and ringtones are definitely the same! Always 'titirititi' - how do they even know it's their phone ringing?! O_o

Impression 2:

South Koreans don't speak English very well - in fact, at all! You can sporadically have a half decent conversation with younger population but even simple food order, asking for directions or buying stuff in the store takes a miracle to get what you really want! I'm still waiting to be proved wrong on that one!

Impression 3:

Despite a massive language barrier, South Koreans are the nicest people on earth (quite like Japanese in fact)! So friendly and willing to help that even if it take horrendous hand gestures and akward misunderstandings, they will always go an extra mile to be as helpful as possible.

Impression 4:

ATM machines! They are bloody scary! Poor me wanted to withdraw some money and the ATM machine (bear in mind located in the middle of the airport terminal) started screams at me with an annoyingly repetitive sirens! Of course that attracted huge attention to myself - not what you really want after 10hour flight looking more like a monster than your great self! Poor machine had a point (silly me couldn't locate a receipt for the transaction) but made me look extremly foolish, which I had to swallow with pride!

Impression 5:

Foreigners definitely don't ride for free! We boarded an odd looking bus (transit to Incheon Bus Terminal) and the bus driver seemed to let us go free of charge! No money, or a mention if money, was exchanged. Poor naive foreigners - and let me add the only ones on the bus - thought we were lucky! Extremely lucky! That is not until later when the driver stopped the bus in the middle of the street (literally!), left his driver seat and demanded his fair share! Equal and fair - you ride the bus, you pay;)

Ps. After almost 2 days of travel - looking less fabulous than intended - I can only think if that image: 'Surviving the flight'