I Flew to Korea for Lunch

I always used to tease my mom and step-dad that they could fly to Paris for lunch or go shopping in New York! They never quite took advantage of their flight benefits to the extent I would have. Well now that the torch has been passed so to speak and I'm fortunate enough to have an incredible flight discount, I hope to do what I can to live up to my own advice (aka taunting). I won't have this benefit forever and I want to take full advantage of it while I can.

When Dave had a 2 day layover in Incheon, South Korea recently, I said "Hey, why don't I join you?" I waffled back and forth quite a bit about it being worth it or not to spend more time in the air than the less than 48 visit, but I kept going back to "why not" and "do it while you can" and "you can fly to New York for lunch!" So I went. :) Of course with stand-by travel, nothing is for sure so there's the added risk and stress and possible re-routing of itinerary and schedule at the last minute. But wow, it turned out pretty darn good and now I can say I've done it, and in style!

Nothing beats starting off in a nice lounge! The new Chase Sapphire Lounge definitely ranks high on the lounges I've been to throughout the world. The food, service, and atmosphere are great, but you better book your facial (yes, facial ... with take-home product!) well ahead of time. I was not able to partake in that particular luxury. First world problems.

Then I busted out (ha) a red-eye from San Diego to Detroit (yeah I had to fly all the way East to then go West), a 6 hour layover, then a 15 hour flight to Korea. Got domestic first class for the red-eye - excellent - then had a quick look at the light and sound display in the terminal tunnel (felt like I should DO something) at DTW and found a padded "bench" to lay down for a little while. Then easy sailing in my Delta One pod in the brand new Airbus 350!! Woohoo! I even overheard someone asking the pilot if the plane had even been flown yet. Apparently it had, but that shows you how new the plane was. Arrived fine in Incheon with my tiny pink carry-on and immigration was a breeze. I tried to be really strategic with my sleeping through all that traveling mess so I'd land basically on "Korea time" so I didn't spend my ONE DAY there sleeping on jet lag.

At least packing was easy! Winter clothes pack horrendously big, but I managed a couple of winter outfits and a big heavy coat in my little under-seat rollie. With all these flights, Dave and I somehow managed to arrive within an hour of each other but in different terminals that are like 20 minutes away from each other by bus. No problem. The new hotel I found is awesome. The Golden Tulip Incheon Suites has free airport pickup that stops at both terminals. So after a bit of panicked (maybe including a few ALL CAPS) texting to determine which terminal my travel mate was indeed at, I went out in the freezing cold (holy crap like below freezing!) and caught the shuttle. They even have their own sign (in English) at the airport pickup area.

Love the new hotel. $62 all in after fees and taxes for a nice room with fridge, kettle, robes. They even give you a coupon for a free coffee at the cafe downstairs. It's walking distance to the big Lotte Mart across the street, a few restaurants in the courtyard directly downstairs, the metro next door (Unseo AREX stop), and tons of stuff in the neighborhood. I was itching to get out a little the first night if only it weren't so COLD!
 
Korea is not very vegetarian friendly, so a little embarrassing, we got pizza downstairs the first night because it was just too icy and windy to wander around and find something else. It was actually really good and cheesy. Had sort of a weird purple crust though. Option for bulgogi BBQ pizza BTW. (roughly 17,000 KRW, $12 USD per pizza, $1.40 soda)The next day it was determined too freezing (actually quite a bit below freezing, like between 18-23 degrees throughout the day, windy and snowing and getting Korean emergency alerts on my phone about the cold) to bother going into Seoul. No reason the adjoining neighborhood wouldn't suffice for a wander. I found an authentic family-run restaurant a few blocks away with great reviews and it said they speak some English.

I've been to Korea once before on a layover and found it incredibly difficult to find food. Not just vegetarian food, but food at all. LOL It's just the kind of place that (for me) I find difficult to translate and find something other than hot soup or a large BBQ order for many people. In the states, bulgogi is the go-to Korean dish but it's actually hard to find in Korea! And with some restaurants hiding up on the second level, it makes it more difficult for a gingo like me. Anyway, I was just looking for a simple meal, something warm, something Korean. Finding the place was a challenge. I knew what corner it was on. Thankfully one of the reviews said it was upstairs. Hmm. Even finding a way to get inside and upstairs on this busy city corner with the snow in your face was quite a puzzle. Then trying to match Korean characters to find the restaurant name. "Hey, that first character looks like a little man on a sled, I think that's it!"

Poor chef/owner when I told him I was vegetarian. :( Apparently even the vegetable fried rice I had seen on the menu is only for larger groups. So he came up with bibimbap - okay great, I'll have that. I had it once before and it was good. This one was a little different. I got a bowl of lettuce, some hot rice to put on top of it, and some fried eggs to put on top of that. Yeah, baby. (12,000 KRW, $8 USD)

Thankfully the soup we ordered for Dave was pretty good (15,000 KRW, $10 USD). There was the usual assortment of spicy picked sides and a lovely salad. We were the only ones in the restaurant and we had a nice window seat overlooking the city watching it snow. The meal was so uneventful that I didn't even take a photo of it! This post is about the journey, not the meal. ;)

The most fun(ny) part of the meal was us fumbling with a combination of no fork (spoon and chopsticks only) and not understanding to use the tongs and giant scissors to cut the meat off the bone in the soup!Took the long way home and had fun walking around the big grocery / department store after our mediocre lunch. Bought some pastries and snacks for the next day, including a weird sausage/corn thing (2,700 KRW, $1.90 USD), 4 almond muffins (5,200 KRW, $3.60 USD), and my fave - a red bean bun (1,800 KRW, $1.25 USD). :) Okay that's it - the wind has picked up and the biting cold is too much. Time to call it an evening. Coming home to that heated toilet seat is quite something. LOL Why don't we all have heated bidets in the states?

The shuttle back to the airport was easy peasy. My journey was not quite as posh on the way home, but I did get Premium Select on the long flight. My Lyft home in San Diego cost almost as much as my round trip flight to ICN! LOL Fortunately I wasn't away from home long enough to get too much jetlag. Just a bit. Where to next?? Paris? I need a travel buddy!

Total cost of this trip $115! Flight $42, food $38, Lyft home $35