Approximately 53 weeks after I arrived in Korea, I departed.
The week before leaving, I mailed two very large boxes filled with souvenirs and miscellaneous camping gear; each weighing 24 kilograms and costing roughly 200,000 Won. It was expensive, but necessary. Both of these boxes, buy the way, arrived in the U.S. only 3-4 days following the day I mailed them. This is almost twice the cost and nearly four times the travel time of the three packages I mailed back home prior to Christmas. Amazing.
I am leaving with the same amount of luggage I arrived with; three giant suitcases and a large backpack, though the bags feel much heavier this time as they are filled with countless memories to last a lifetime. I am also leaving with a beautiful Korean girlfriend, and together we will start a new journey in the United States.
Total travel time was around 20 hours as follows:
We left Incheon International Airport at 8am, following a free night's stay at the Best Western Premier Songdo Park Hotel and twenty minute taxi ride to the airport. Actually, both the 5:20 and 5:40 early morning shuttle buses from the hotel to the airport failed to show so we were forced to take a 35,000 Won taxi. Not cool.
Our first flight lasted two hours, followed by a two hour layover in Tokyo. The airport was nice, and I wish we had slightly longer to spend here. Unfortunately, this would require us to exchange some Korean Won or U.S. Dollars into Japanese Yen, which neither of us wanted to do for such a short period of time.
The flight from Japan to Chicago was 12 hours, and immediately after arriving at Chicago O'Hare Airport we were marched before the fine folks at U.S. Homeland Security. This proved no problem for me, but was slightly more complex for my traveling partner, Gemma, who was asked a series of personal questions regarding our relationship and her intentions in the U.S.
The Chicago layover lasted three hours, which was mostly spent wandering around the airport terminal and hot dog consumption at Gold Coast Dogs. A fine welcoming home.
The final leg of our trip was the 40 minute flight from Chicago to Detroit. Fortunately, the skies were without clouds so Gemma and I could look out the window and comment on how flat the midwestern United States is. "Where are the mountains?", we both exclaimed.
Our 3pm arrival in Detroit meant we had been awake for approximately twenty-four hours (since 4am Korea time), and we were only slightly exhausted. I suppose the excitement fueled our otherwise drained bodies, and a quick meet and greet at the airport was followed by an early dinner in Ann Arbor and back home in Toledo by 7pm.
And so concludes my KOREAN Adventure. Stay tuned for the forthcoming U.S. Adventure starting May 2010. Thank you for your interest in this blog.
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