Arrival in Seoul

The departure from Szeged started yesterday, so we were looking at a pretty long day ahead of us. Baggage check-in opened at 5 PM. We finished this quickly since we checked in using the Korean Air app, which allowed us to do self-service baggage drop-off. Fortunately, with the help of a staff member (a young woman) who worked with Korean Air flights, we were able to complete this task as well.

Our flight, scheduled to depart at 20:10, did not rush the boarding process as they started letting passengers on strictly in order around 19:40. Despite all this, we departed on time. Most of the passengers were early boarders, with a few Russian ladies and some Hungarians, including us, being the exceptions.

Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep on the plane, just 10-15 minutes here and there, plus the flight was quite bumpy, and for at least half of the more than 10-hour journey, the seat belt sign was continuously illuminated.

We were flying over the Caspian Sea when I saw huge lightning strikes; there were moments when the light from the lightning illuminated almost the entire opposite shore. After a while, the captain darkened the windows, presumably to prevent the passengers from panicking, as the plane was shaking continuously. Despite this, we landed exactly on time.

After that, our real survival adventure began, which was finding the controlled entry location (passport check, fingerprinting, and photo capture). We chose the best tactic, moving along with the crowd. Fortunately, the immigration part took less time than the transfer from the plane to immigration. We quickly found the baggage claim, but since we checked in our bags among the first in Hungary, our suitcase arrived as one of the last.

The next step was cash withdrawal, which we managed to do after a long search at a Woori Bank ATM. Then we wanted to create the NAMANE travel + shopping card for my travel companion, but after wandering around for a long time, we couldn't find such an ATM, and the staff at the local (Arex information desk) couldn't help either. Since quite a bit of time had passed, we exchanged for a T-money card and loaded it with cash, while I already had such a card on my phone. We managed to find the AREX Railroad All Stop station and finally headed to the hotel. This was nearly a 1-hour journey, then we had to transfer to the subway, where we also hesitated but eventually found the correct direction. We got off at the designated stop, came up to street level, and stood there confused about where to go next. In the end, I asked for help from a shop owner, who called two people before he managed to show us the right direction. By then, NAVER maps also picked up and showed the way.

Upon arriving at the hotel (around 17:00), we managed to discuss, despite language difficulties, that we would be staying here again from the 17th and that they would store our larger bags until then, including when we could hand over our bags to them. We successfully paid the bill in KRW with our Revolut card and could finally rest a bit.

After a quick shower, we still went to Namsan Seoul Tower, of course using the Namsan Cable Car, since we were staying at the Namsan Hill Hotel. Eventually, we returned to our accommodation around 8 PM, as a rather chilly wind was blowing, but mostly fatigue was the reason.