Once we found them, we headed over to the Avis (or Hertz?) to get our rental car. I should mention here, that anytime someone found out we would be renting a car, Korean or foreign, they would look at me in astonishment, and say something along the lines of “are you sure that’s a good idea?” And I knew, of course it’s not, but if there is one person who would have no problem fitting in with the Korean driving style, it’s my dad. Going through red lights whenever you please, just like the professionals, u-turns at every intersection, weaving through different lanes. For most people, this would be like driving in hell. For my dad, this was more like driving heaven. And of course, the car rental agency had just run out of English language GPSs. Oh well, let the adventure begin.
We hopped in our fancy black Kia, a map or three in hand and tried to make our way to Seoul. I say tried, because well, we got a little lost. We ended up in Goyang, some odd little city north of Seoul because we thought the speed limit signs were actually signs for route numbers. Needless to say, this was not helpful. It was a nice little detour though, because I got to see the Osh Kosh B’Gosh store, my favorite designer label as a child.
When we finally reached Seoul, we then had the challenge of find our hotel. We knew the neighborhood, or really, the neighborhood next to the one we actually wanted, and we knew it was by some universities and maybe kinda close to the Olympic stadium, and around the corner from a post office. Seriously, this is what we had to go on. Once we finally got to an area we felt the hotel was certainly in, we started driving around looking for it while Jake attempted to decode the ridiculous map the hotel website gave us. After a few unsuccessful attempts, and a trip across a bridge and back, we finally pulled over to take a look at any and every map we had. At that moment, my dad spots the hotel directly across the street from where we were parked. We must have driven by this spot 3 times, and never saw it.
What’s stranger yet, is that when Bonita and I went in to check in, and make sure it was the right place, the man at the front desk told us (we think) that the hotel lobby was on the 15th floor. Really? Apparently the bottom half of the building was apartments, and the top was the hotel. Strange, but at this point, we were just thrilled to have somewhere to sleep. The views were nice, the bed was hard, the room was cute if small.
We went back downstairs to collect the guys, tell them we had made it, and show them where the parking garage is. Which by the way, was the cleanest parking garage on earth. I really should have taken a picture.
Later that night, we went out for Bonita and Daddio’s first Korean meal, and the “learned” to use chopsticks. But that story is for the next post!
