
Suburban Sydney driver service to Sydney Airport, 10.20 scheduled/10.50 actual flight to Incheon 19.00 scheduled/18.41 actual, airport bus to Gimpo airport then taxi to my wife’s brother and sister-in-law’s house in suburban Seoul.
As an Australian, I get 90-day visa-free entry, but as a COVID measure I had to apply for an electronic travel authority. I applied several weeks ago, and got an email with a big green tick and ‘application complete’. When we got to the airport, I showed it to the check-in person, who said I needed a second email with ‘K-ETA granted’. There was no other email and he checked the ETA system and couldn’t find mine. He said I’d have to apply again. I logged on (hooray for mobile phones) and after entering my passport number and email address got a message saying ‘A valid authority already exists’. I showed that to the man, who meanwhile had called his supervisor who checked in a different way and that worked. So I was through. (There was also a second, related procedure I had to do online but that went without a problem. We had our temperature checked but didn’t have to answer any questions about ) I also had a minor delay in getting my hiking boots through the scanner. (My wife got an actual visa in order to operate bank accounts, mobile phones and possibly other things here.)
South Korea has an extensive network of airport buses to various places around greater Seoul and most cities further afield. We took a bus to Gimpo Airport and a taxi to my wife’s brother and sister-in-law’s house (approximately Mok-dong). When she gave the address, the driver told her to repeat it to the GPS app, which processed her speech into a destination … then dropped us a block away, which we had no hope of recognising in the dark (though we knew we were very close). BTW J’s brother is currently working overseas and her sister-in-law is visiting him, so we have their place to ourselves.
There were small patches of snow on the ground and a forecast of snow overnight, and there’s a tiny amount on the roads this morning. There is no more on the 1-2 week forecast.
Mornings are very dark in the middle of winter. I’m typing this at 7.30 the next morning, and the eastern sky is just beginning to lighten. Compared to it being full daylight when we left home at 6 am yesterday. In fact, the daylight map on the plane showed that the sun sets in Seoul before it does in Sydney, even though Seoul is further west.
4040 steps, car, plane, airport bus, taxi. Food: airline bibimbap and spicy pork.