Budapest to Split

During the CELTA course, I made plans to travel down to Split by train with Caroline, one of the members of my TP group. After collecting our grades from IH, we headed over to Keleti station (another formerly grand, but now dingy station) and caught the Budapest to Zagreb train. It was a gloriously old fashioned train and we had a compartment (the type with leatherette seats facing each other) to ourselves - at least until we were joined by a loud American traveller, oh joy. The train line ran along Lake Balaton which was quite impressive for a lake, it seemed as if we were travelling along a sea coast and then we passed the border into Croatia.

We had a 3 hour wait in Zagreb for the sleeper train which we had been a bit worried about in case Zagreb station was as seedy as the stations in Budapest. Luckily, we needn't have worried as the station was clean and non-dingy, so we relaxed with a beer and some pasta.

We booked a sleeper cabin on the Split train which was compact, but surprisingly comfortable and I managed to sleep for most of the journey. We were awoken by the guard at 6.30am who bought us coffee and croissants and then we arrived in Split. Unsurprisingly, I had lost the directions to the B&B, but we passed an internet cafe not far from the station and reprinted the directions. The B&B (Guesthouse Bulovic) was very nice - we had a huge room with a shared (very clean) bathroom plus the landlady was kind enough to let us into our room at 7.30am!

Our sleeper compartment

Christmas and New Year

I spent Christmas in Mid Wales with my family - we even had a touch of snow! NYE was spent in Cardiff with Lisa, David and Rhysian who cooked an amazing meal of melba toast with pate and rocket to start followed by venison steaks with roasted veg and mash and then pavlova with cinnamon sauce for pudding. My taste buds are tingling with the memory! We drank lots of sparkling wine and let off some fireworks in David's back garden at midnight. A lovely evening.

I flew back to Korea with Robyn. All was well until we landed in a blizzard at Beijing Airport where we were supposed to transfer for the final leg of our journey. Unfortunately, all flights were grounded and we spent many many hours queueing up for new tickets. We finally got new tickets which were for 3 days time...we then queued up in another line for a hotel and about 12 hours after landing, got on a bus to take us to a hotel.

The hotel was probably the worst one I have ever stayed in (and I've stayed in a few dodgy hotels). Our room was filthy and there was no drinking water available. My bed was broken, so I could only sleep perched on the edge of the bed otherwise my bum would be touching the floor! At breakfast, the only drink available was some sort of sour milk, not nice.

We were severely jetlagged, sleep deprived and dehydrated, so we made the decision to get a taxi to the airport where we could at least get some decent food and drink and possibly go on standby for a flight to Seoul. After a crazy taxi ride through the snowy streets of Beijing (swerving, overtaking, undertaking, cases jammed in every available space - all at 70mph) we arrived at the airport. Asiana had a flight definitely taking off within the next hour we were assured, so we handed over visa cards, dashed through security and landed at Incheon a few hours later. Unfortunately (yup, the last part of our journey wasnt going to go smoothly either...), the worst snow storm for 50 years had now hit Korea (we could only land thanks to Incheon's heated runways!) and we were advised not to take the bus back to Bucheon, so we decided to get as far as we could via subway (it was about 11.30pm) and cab it for the last few miles.

We reached Bupyeong without incident, apart from having to drag our cases up a few flights of stairs (helped by a Korean man who called us "babo" - stupid!). The snow was pretty deep, it was freezing cold and the streets around the subway station were strangely deserted. I waited with the cases while Abby and Robyn went to find a taxi. I had dressed for mild British winter weather rather than deep freeze and my feet and hands were blocks of ice by the time the others returned with a taxi. We eventually made it to Bucheon, I have literally never been so glad to see the familiar streets of Jungdong.

We had one more final hiccup. Robyn's door keypad decided not to work as the battery had drained due to the cold. We got hold of Janice (I'm sure she was happy being woken up so late!) who said she thought Keith had a key. Luckily he did as I think that by this point Robyn was on the verge of heading back to Incheon and the first flight back to the UK!

View from Hyundai Dept Store

Using the subway

It is very easy to use the subway in Seoul, especially as all the signs and announcements are in English as well as Korean.

A subway map and route search can be found in English at the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transport Corporation website or SMRT for short. Bus routes, timetables and maps in English can be found on the Korean Public Transportation Guide.

My nearest subway station is Songnae which is on Line 1. From Songnae, you have the choice of taking the normal subway train which stops at every station, to Seoul and beyond in one direction and to Incheon in the other. There is also a rapid train which runs from Dongincheon to Yongsan which cuts a good 15 minutes or so off the journey time from Songnae, but you have to change trains at Yongsan to get into Seoul city centre. The rapid trains run from the inner platforms and the regular trains run from the outer platforms. If travelling from Seoul to Songnae, one of the benefits of changing trains at Yongsan is that you get onto the train first and can therefore always get a seat!

The buses and subway are incredibly cheap (especially compared to the London Underground). Its costs around 60p to get from Songnae to Seoul. Last weekend I bought a T Money card, the Korean equivalent of the Oyster card. It costs 2,500 won (around £1.35) for the card and you save 100 won on each journey when you use the card. It can be used on buses and at some vending machines as well as on the subway. Cards can be bought at subway stations and are easy to top up using recharging machines at stations. You can also buy T money chips built into mobile phone attachments, watches, MP3 players and I heard that some Korean credit/debit cards have T Money chips embedded in them so that you don't have to worry about topping up.

Subway Line 7

The Seoul Metro system is extending Line 7 from Onsu so it will run through the centre of Bucheon meeting up with the Incheon subway Line 1 at Bupyeong. My nearest subway station is Songnae which is a bus ride away, so it will be much handier for me when it is completed as there will be a stop named Bucheon City Hall. Of course, it would be even handier if Line 7 were to run all the way to Incheon airport. As far as I can work out, to get to the airport would mean taking a bus to Songnae, Line 1 to Bupyeong, switch to the Incheon subway to Gyeyang and then take the airport railroad to the airport. I think there are direct buses from Bucheon which is probably the easiest way to get to the airport.

I took some photos of the construction work while out walking the other day.

Looking towards the city centre, with the Mall in the background (left)

Looking towards Incheon