Trogir

The weather was much better the next day and we took a bus to Trogir, a UN World Heritage site, a few miles up the coast from Split (after unsuccesfully hunting for a MacDonalds for breakfast as we were both craving a McMuffin - and still am). Trogir recently stood in for Venice (with a bit of CGI) on Dr Who, so it may look a little familiar! We walked around the little alleys, shopped for souvenirs, then had a late lunch at a restaurant on the sea front before returning to Split. We then walked down to the beach area, about 20 minutes walk from the city centre and had a couple of beers overlooking the sea.

Trogir

Alleyways and courtyards in Trogir

Split

After a quick freshen up at our B&B, we set out to explore Split. The old town is built within the walls of Diocletian's Palace (built by the Roman Emperor Diocletian who was from this area). The Palace walls form part of the Riva, which make the sea front look very attractive. Unfortunately, it rained for most of the morning which made the cobbled streets very treacherous!

Walls of Diocletian's Palace

The Riva (seafront) with the old town on the right Singers in the old town

Old Town

Traders in the "Green Market"

The old town was very busy as a cruise ship had just pulled into port, so we were competing with hordes of Americans wearing hiking shorts and the visually offensive socks/shoes combo. The old town reminded me of the old part of Rhodes Town, where various buildings were built within old walls for protection. It results in a higgledy piggedly feel where you plunge down a little alley not quite knowing where it will lead you and you can seemingly wander round for hours without walking down the same street twice.

It also felt very liveable - I liked the market where you could buy just about anything and was aimed at locals not tourists. I could just imagine myself living there and picking up some meat and veg to cook something wonderful for dinner!

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

Last weekend in Budapest

Lisa arrived on Thursday evening after I'd completed my final teaching assessment, woo! I had to move out of my flat on Saturday morning, so we moved to a hostel on Rakoczi Ut. near Keleti station called Hostel de Luxe (and it was very de luxe!). We spent the day doing some sightseeing.

Hostel de Luxe courtyard

"My" car on Rakoczi Ut.

Me & Lisa by the Danube with Parliament in the background

In the evening, we went for Korean food (back to the same restaurant Estelle and I visited. I can't remember the name, but its on Zichy Zeno Ut. if you're in Budapest and want some tasty, authentic Korean food!) and then back to the Irish pub Becketts for cider and music.

On Sunday, we met up with Caroline, Jacqueline and Juli to go to the thermal baths at the Gellert Hotel (http://www.gellertbaths.com/). Budapest is famous for its hot springs and the art deco style Gellert Baths are one of the most well-known in the city. There are several thermal pools of differing temperatures and an outside swimming and wave pool. We spent some time in the steam room and a scary woman made us dip underwater 3 times in the icy cold plunge pool. That was definitely bracing!

Gellert Baths

CELTA course

The CELTA course is very intensive and hard work, but I learnt a lot over the course of the 4 weeks and came away with a Pass Grade B! I made some great friends on the course, especially among my TP (Teaching Practice Group).

CELTA trainees, April - May 2010

If you're thinking of doing a full-time CELTA course, you need to be prepared for long hours, a lot of hard work, being thrown into teaching (you teach a short lesson on the second day of the course, very daunting for those who had never taught before!) and to be observed and given feedback by both the tutors and your peers. A lot of the TP assessment will concentrate on lesson planning; the evenings before a teaching session were always spent doing very detailed lesson plans!

The timetable went something like this:

9.00 - 11.00 Teaching Practice

11.00 -12.00 Feedback

12.00 - 1.00 Lesson planning

2.00 - 5.00/5.30 Input sessions (seminars with the tutors concentrating on a certain topic, eg Teaching Pronunciation)

In addition, there are 4 written assignments to complete (approx. 1,000 words each).

However, it wasn't all work....some evenings (ie the ones with no lesson planning required) were spent at the Moskva Ter Bisztro across the road drinking 300Ft (less than £1) beers or meals out. Friday nights were spent at Godor (a vast underground bar near Deak Ferenc Ter) or Moskva Ter.

The only lowpoint for me was having a nasty bout of food poisoning around the end of Week 3 which left me unable to leave the flat and unable to keep any food down all weekend. I blame the dodgy Chinese takeaway...most of the Chinese takeaways here have buffet counters where you choose what you want and they stick it in the microwave to heat up, not the best way to deal with rice. Best to avoid!

Budapest

After leaving Korea, I went to Budapest to do a CELTA course (CELTA stands for Certificate for English Language Teaching to Adults). I did the course over 4 weeks at International House and cannot recommend it highly enough! Budapest is beautiful and a great city to visit and live in.

Royal Palace

View over the Danube taken from the top of the Citadel

I was lucky that Estelle came over with me for a few days before the course started and then Lisa visited me for my final weekend. We arrived at Ferihegy airport on Thursday evening and caught the train to Nyugati station. My first impression of Budapest was not that favourable as the station (designed by Pierre Eiffel who also apparently designed a famous tower in Paris) was dirty and seedy. Our hotel was a few minutes walk away and was great. We stayed at the Star Inn Centrum which was a bargain at £32 a night. After checking in, we headed to nearby Irish bar for cider and caught a good covers band.

The next day, we bought tickets for the open top bus tour (I think they were around £20 each) which allowed us to hop on and hop off for 24 hours. There are great viewpoints from the Citadel and the castle, from the fairy tale looking Fishermans Bastion. In the evening, we went for Hungarian food at a restaurant on V. Utca and got ripped off by the waiter offering us "traditional Hungarian licquers" which tasted like nail varnish remover and an equally offensive price of £6 each....

St Stephen's Basilica

On Saturday morning, I went to collect the keys for my temporary home for the next 4 weeks. The flat was on the Buda side of the river, inbetween Margit Bridge and Moskva Ter (which IH is located). The block was very communist era and the flat was old fashioned, but was spacious, comfortable and most importantly clean. I also had the feeling that I wouldn't spend that much time there! Estelle and I had a wander along the Danube to look at the Parliament building. We stumbled across a sad monument of lines of shoes honouring the Jews who were murdered during the Second World War by tied together, shot and falling into the river.

Parliament Building

Memorial to the Jewish people murdered during World War 2.

We then had a stroll down Andrassy Ut. which is Budapest's grandest street down to Heroes Square and City Park. Andrassy Ut. is notable for two things, firstly it is home to the world's second oldest underground railway (the oldest, of course, being the London Underground) and secondly, it stood in for Buenos Aires in the film version of Evita!

In the evening, we went to a Korean restaurant which Estelle had stumbled upon and had excelled dolsot bibimbap! Then we had a few beers in the theatre district and stumbled back to the hotel. Estelle had to leave the next day and I had to go and unpack in my new flat!

Gran Canaria

About a week after I returned from Korea, I went on a week's holiday to Gran Canaria with mum for a bit of winter sun. We stayed in a lovely apartment in Playa del Aguilla on the outskirts of San Agustin. It was a very quiet resort, but it was a 15 minute walk into the centre of San Agustin or a short taxi journey.

We spent most of the week chilling out on the beach and eating out in the evenings. Towards the end of the week, we ventured into Playa del Ingles and discovered the simple joys of drinking margaritas in a beach bar!

View from our apartment

Not far from Playa del Aguilla was a place called Sioux City, a western style town nestled in the Canarian hills, which did actually look like the American west. It was a fun day with lots to look around and shows taking place throughout the day.

Sioux City

Always knew there was something suspicious about mum!

Farewell Korea

I've just arrived back in the UK and am pretty groggy and jet lagged, so hope this makes sense! It seems strange to have left the place that has been home for the past year. Will I ever go back? Never say never.... for now, its onto pastures new. Next week, I am going on a week's holiday to Gran Canaria and after that it's onto Budapest to do a CELTA course which will allow me to teach in Europe and improve my teaching.

I had a great final weekend in Korea. On Saturday, Robyn, Claire, Abby and I headed over to Nathalie's apartment in Gwanghamun for some German food (courtesy of Nat) and margeritas to get the party started. After polishing off the bottle of tequila, we headed down to Hongdae and found a noraebang where we screeched out some tunes for an hour. We then went to a Ho Bar (there are about 10 of them now) where we decided to have some tequila slammers as we were all a little too sober. As we gagged on the tequila, we realised for sure that our bottle of tequila had not been the real thing as it was nowhere near as strong as the ones which we'd just knocked back! And where did we buy the knock off bottle from? Bloody Homeplus! After a couple of drinks, we went to Jane's Groove for one last boogie. I think I danced until 4am! Finally got back to Bucheon at about 7am and spent the day in bed!

I have mixed feelings about leaving Korea. I've made some good friends and hopefully will stay in touch with them. I've gotten used to feeling like I stand out wherever I go, getting stared at on the subway and having kids run up to me, saying "hi!" then running off giggling! I've found out that I'm a pretty good teacher and its something I want to continue with, at least for a few years anyway. I don't know if I will ever come back here again. I could see myself coming back to do another year, although at a public school rather than a hogwan. I would only want to work somewhere with less teaching hours (30 hours a week, especially when it is mostly preschoolers, is too much) and more annual leave (10 days a year is nowhere near enough time to recharge batteries, I don't know how the Korean teachers do it year after year. They say they are just used to it. I regret not having enough opportunity to visit the rest of Asia - I still want to go to Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Phillipines. So, you never know, I may be back...

Things I will miss about Korea

• food - samgyepsal, galbi, jjimdak, rice cake, bibimbap, dak galbi. The list goes on and on.
• friends - I'll miss the friends I've made here.
• travel - I still feel there's plenty of Korea that I haven't seen yet, let alone the rest of Asia.
• lifestyle - living in another country kind of divorces you from all the stuff that usually stresses you out. In the UK, I was always stressed about work, paying bills and 1001 other things. Here, I always make it to the end of the month with money left in the bank (a first for me!) and while work is hard, I teach and that's it. No more dealing with 5 different managers, endless phone calls and the many other demands on my time and coping ability.
• the low cost of living - free rent and cheap utilities = higher disposable income.

Things I won't miss

• food - no more turnip kimchi. That stuff will give you the most toxic farts known to man. Think brussel sprouts and multiply by 10.
• being stared at. A lot.
• The air quality. I'm craving some fresh Welsh mountain air!
• Korean management style. Rearrange the following words: pissup in a brewery organise can't.

I flew out of Incheon early on Sunday morning and organised for an English speaking taxi driver to pick me up from Bucheon. He was such a sweet man, he was originally from North Korea, had defected in the 1960s, but still had family in NK who he hadn't heard from since he left.

I flew back with Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong. Must say that the food was the best I've ever had on a plane and they have these shell seats, so that if the person in front of you reclines their seat, it doesn't cut off your legroom. Great idea!

Jeonju

A couple of weeks ago, Robyn, Jeong Sook and I went on a trip to Jeonju, a smallish city a couple of hours south of Seoul. Jeonju is renowned for it's bibimbap, apparently the best tasting bibimbap in Korea. I was somewhat sceptical, but it seems they are right to blow their own trumpet, it was delicious!

Jeonju bibimbap

We stayed in a hanok, a traditional Korean style of building, in Jeonju's hanok village. We spent the day pottering around the hanok village and exploring Jeonju's main shopping area where I bought a fabulous leather satchel for about £27, bargain! We also drank omija berry tea in a traditional teahouse.

Our hanok and courtyard

Omija berries and tea

In the evening we went to Makkeoli town. Makkeoli is a type of milky rice wine served in a copper kettle and each round is served with a selection of side dishes. The more makkeoli you drink, the more elaborate the dishes become. Unfortunately for Robyn and I, most of the side dishes were seafood based and makkeoli is definitely an acquired taste, so we didn't proceed past the first kettle.

Makkeoli and side dishes

Blue skies in Jeonju

I would definitely recommend a weekend in Jeonju for those wanting to explore Korea. It was lovely to get away from the smog of Seoul and see clear blue skies again!

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