Sunday 13 October, 2024
Another adventure begins! This time we are heading to Japan via Korea for a good four weeks.
After two business class flights thanks to frequent flyer points, we arrive in Seoul a little after 7am and decide to catch the airport bus. We buy the bus tickets 2 minutes before it’s due to depart and spend the next 90 seconds sprinting with our luggage to the bus, not realising the platform is right down the other end of the terminal. Note to self, don’t buy buy bus tickets if they are due to depart with less than 5 minutes to spare!
The bus takes us straight to Gangnam where meet our mate Jimmy, who has organised for our bikes to be serviced. We had left our bikes with him on our trip to Korea last year to save us taking them home and risk the airline damaging them (again).
The bikes are being serviced at a little bike shop in Gwacheon so we make our way there via subway. Two of the panniers we left in Seoul have gone missing so we will need to source some more to replace them.
We arrive at the shop and a mum and daughter are also waiting for the shop owner to have the little girl’s bike repaired, which was the cutest thing. After attending to her bike, he wheels our bikes in and we ask if he stocks panniers.
Unfortunately he doesn’t but says he has a set of his own that we can borrow for our trip. We are super grateful and promise to bring them back when we return from Japan.
We jump on the bikes and make our way back towards Gangnam along the canal, which turns out to be a lovely ride on the bike path. It takes around an hour to make it back as we have to navigate around the traffic and people once we get to the main roads.
After packing sorting out our panniers and luggage, we make for a quick/late lunch at Ssada Kimbap (싸다 김밥), one of our go-to places in Seoul for a cheap and cheerful feed.
We then cycle to Nonhyeon to check into our AirBnB for the night.
Turns out a friend from high school is also in Seoul and staying nearby so we meet up at Dessert 39, which is a great little dessert and drinks chain. Cheye also heads out to meet with Jimmy.
We’re both pretty exhausted after a busy day and decide on an early night as we’ll need to cycle to our new accommodation tomorrow situated closer to Seoul station for when we catch the KTX. It’s always fun/terrifying battling Seoul traffic!
Next post: Day 2 | Seoul
eat bike fly 
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