After slowly getting acclimated to the extreme jet lag, we awoke on our last day in Seoul ready to move north to the real first segment of our four segment journey around the world...Vladivostok, Russia. Also very hungry. Seems that we never got around to eating dinner the night before because of the jammed-packed itinerary into downtown Seoul. We have a 1 p.m. departure on Aeroflot so we decided to get on over to Incheon International Airport early in quest of a big ol' sausage-biscuit. Not.
There were a few U.S. fast-food places at the airport but the menus were customized to the Koreans...meaning no sausage-biscuits. Accordingly, we settled for platters of gravy-covered cutlets, rice, soup and bibimbap with an egg on top. Pretty damned good. Here is some of it before we devoured it:
Got to the gate with no problem after spending our last 5000 Won on three Dunkin' Donuts...also devoured...and got our first taste of the Russian style of customer service. Rather than a courteous overhead announcement of the boarding procedures, a lady stood in the middle of the gate area and yelled "get in line to get on the plane". Two hour flight north to Vladivostok across the Sea of Japan but well east of North Korea. We tried to get a glimpse of North Korea to the west of our plane and may have seen a few mountain peaks but frankly, we were glad to get away from the Korean peninsula in light of the tinderbox situation there.
We had arranged and prepaid a pickup at the Vladivostok International airport for the fifty minute ride into the city. Upon exiting the customs clearing area, there he was holding a sign with our names. Big Russian dude with Micheal Jackson sunglasses who spoke no english and driving a clunker but hey, it worked. Speaking of the airport...it was a real head-scratcher why they put the airport so far away from the city with nothing but flat, gray, frozen tundra in between. Here's the Airport as we pulled into the gate:
After a hair-raising drive into the city during rush hour, we pulled up to the most awful looking building we've ever seen...looked like mortar shells had been hitting the concrete exterior for the last few years and old, dead vines enveloping the building. Bill knew it was the right place from the internet pictures (enhanced, obviously). After lugging all our luggage to the reception area, the nice, young Russian lady informed us that we no longer had a room there but alas, we had been moved to their "sister" hotel...much nicer and only a few minutes away by foot...up the hill. We protested that there was no way we were going to walk there with all our stuff so a taxi was called and after much Russian conversation with the driver about who was going to pay, off we went. By the way, as we left the lobby the nice young Russian lady yelled to us in her best broken english and laughing: "Welcome to Russia"!! Alrighty then. No clue why there was a problem with the room but we're not complaining...nor trying to understand it.
All's well that ends well...as the "sister hotel" was MUCH nicer, an upscale Russian chain and according to the nice young Russian lady at the new hotel..."we give you nicest room in the hotel".
Certainly not as new or modern as the Seoul quarters, but a nice suite with a fabulous view of sunset over Amur Bay, backwaters of the Sea of Japan.
We bought four big beers in the lobby bar and settled into our room for the night. We decided to forgo dinner since we did not want to be wandering around this strange city at night searching for a place to eat. So, tomorrow we'll venture out and see what Vladivostok has to offer. Goodnight, comrades.
Got to the gate with no problem after spending our last 5000 Won on three Dunkin' Donuts...also devoured...and got our first taste of the Russian style of customer service. Rather than a courteous overhead announcement of the boarding procedures, a lady stood in the middle of the gate area and yelled "get in line to get on the plane". Two hour flight north to Vladivostok across the Sea of Japan but well east of North Korea. We tried to get a glimpse of North Korea to the west of our plane and may have seen a few mountain peaks but frankly, we were glad to get away from the Korean peninsula in light of the tinderbox situation there.
We had arranged and prepaid a pickup at the Vladivostok International airport for the fifty minute ride into the city. Upon exiting the customs clearing area, there he was holding a sign with our names. Big Russian dude with Micheal Jackson sunglasses who spoke no english and driving a clunker but hey, it worked. Speaking of the airport...it was a real head-scratcher why they put the airport so far away from the city with nothing but flat, gray, frozen tundra in between. Here's the Airport as we pulled into the gate:
All's well that ends well...as the "sister hotel" was MUCH nicer, an upscale Russian chain and according to the nice young Russian lady at the new hotel..."we give you nicest room in the hotel".
Certainly not as new or modern as the Seoul quarters, but a nice suite with a fabulous view of sunset over Amur Bay, backwaters of the Sea of Japan.
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