Thursday, 29 June 2023

Wet and Dreary

 Its the beginning of the wet season here in South Korea.  I was warned, but up until the past couple of days, its been hot rather than wet.  But here we are now!  

In fact there has been flooding and landslips and warnings, asking people to evacuate the hill regions.  Maybe there is someone missing, my interruption of a news item, but could be wrong.  So my timing hasn't been too bad.

Today was always going to be a rest day.  With all this wet weather around, the decision had already been made to catch the bus back to Seoul.  So top of the list was to find the bus station and buy a ticket and to try and ascertain that it was OK to bring a bike on the bus.  

Maps.Me is working again and it was just being lucky that the Bus station is only about 1.5km away.  It was pouring down, the canal outside was ripping along with murky brown water.  So I had a coffee until it eased up a bit.  I borrowed a brolley, put on my walking shoes and headed off to the bus station.

the street is lined with tiny shoebox-sized shops of all sorts, but specialised.  That is, if they are selling fans, that's all they're selling.  Or tyres, or cars - though those shops are a much bigger affair.  Most shops didn't really have window displays, maybe just posters, which gave me no idea what was inside.  But that's OK, cos I'm not here to shop!

A tad of panic once I arrived at the bus station.  No attendents and just two ticket machines.  Gad, what does it all mean?  I decided to go look for an attendent and just outside, a lady with a hi-vis vest was fast approaching.  Not sure if she was just returning to the office, or whether she had seen me entering and knew that I would need help.

So all good!  Ticket bought for Friday at 10:15 and yes, bikes are allowed, but am still not sure if that means in a bag, or just as is...  I've decided I will get there early and quickly bag Hennie up, just so there's no confusion!  fingers xd!!

I'd been keeping my eye open for a cafe, but the only thing I could see was Starbucks, which I've seen throughout my trip.  There's also a Burger King just across the road...  Real Korean food!  

I opted to go back to the supermarket and hopefully they would have some bakery items that I could buy there and eat with a coffee back here.  But no...  a large supermarket without bakery items!  In some ways that's good, as it must mean that people prefer to go to a bakery, so keeping a small business going.  But alas, not what I was hoping.  Ah well, Starbucks it is...  And yes, their coffee is so weak, its hard to even taste the coffee!  But the carrot cake was OK!

I may have mentioned it earlier, but an observation has been made!  Koreans don't like coloured cars.  There's white and black, and 50 shades of grey!  It is almost exciting to see a coloured car.  A dark red colour is occasionally seen and Wow! there was an orange one once.  i queried this on a FB site and was told that often, Execs are given a black car, while those down the line only get a white car...  not sure if that's a government policy, or wider company deals.  Also apparently "Koreans don't like to express their personalities through their cars"!  But I find that hard to believe, as the amount of flash big SUVs etc, especially the black ones, seem to be saying "look at me"!  anyways, its become a thing to spot a coloured car!  keep my brain alive!  :)

The rest of the day was spent just chilling out in my room, having a snooze as I had had an interrupted sleep with these blooming Extreme warnings, that come thru the phone, with a piercing sound like a fire alarm!!  

so no interesting photos - just dreary weather shots...  Oh and a guy out the back of a restaurant peeling onions and yes!  a red car!!





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