Friday, 9/26 and Saturday, 9/27
Mom and Dad flew into Incheon International Airport from San Francisco, a 12-hour flight. They then took a free shuttle to Hotel Sky in Incheon, the hotel I stayed at for my first weekend in Korea with Baron's English Academy. I had to teach that night until 10 pm, so I couldn't meet them that night. I got up as early as I could on Saturday and met them at the hotel around 10 am. I then showed them around the area I used to live in (Yeongjongdo, the island where the airport is located) and dropped by Baron's English Academy to see how things were there. Surprisingly (or maybe not, given her normal workload), we ran into Julie Dugger, my previous boss. We had a good talk for a little while, and she had a few recommendations for us: 1) to catch the KTX to Gyeongju (our next stop) from the airport instead of Seoul Station, 2) try to fit in a day trip to some mountains near Gyeongju that are famous for their fall foliage, and 3) to take the slow train back to Seoul to get a better view of the countryside. Thanking her for her help, we let her get back to work and checked out of the hotel.
At the airport, we were unfortunately told that the only KTX train for Gyeongju wasn't leaving until almost 5 pm. We wound up buying tickets for a 2:30 pm train leaving from Seoul Station, and so went there as we had originally planned. Since we were hungry and we had time before the train left, we grabbed lunch at a Korean restaurant in the station. Mom and Dad got their first taste of local Korean food: bibimbap for Mom and bulgogi for Dad. The KTX only took about two hours to get down to Shingyeongju Station, and from there we took a taxi to our hanok, Dobongseodang.
It was a really nice house to stay in, with two bedrooms and a living room in the center. The complex also had three other houses (though the north house wasn't available for renting) and a separate restroom and shower building. I highly recommend it for anyone traveling to Gyeongju, and you can get more information at http://www.gjgotaek.kr/english/e_main.html if you're curious.
The main drawback of the place was that it was pretty isolated, more than we'd expected. It was about 540 meters up a hill from the nearest two-lane road, which was where we could find buses and taxis. The neighborhood was very nice, with several large gardens and fields and lots of old-fashioned houses, but there wasn't much in the way of food or supplies, and we hadn't really brought anything with us. The first night I wandered down to the main road trying to find something I could back for dinner, but the two restaurants I found that were open wouldn't let me take anything out. I found a convenience store with some stuff that would work for breakfast, so I walked back to the hanok to report.
My parents were too tired and not hungry enough to walk down to a restaurant, so I went back by myself. It was about 7 pm then, and both of the restaurants and a cafe I'd looked at were all closed. I took a chance and crossed the road to check out a lit sign, which luckily was an open crab restaurant. The menu was all in Korean with no pictures, so I painstakingly translated everything and settled on some "seasoned crab". I got a surprise when it arrived because it was raw crab legs covered in gochujang, a spicy fermented pepper paste. I tried to eat it with my chopsticks and the scissors they provided, but a waitress who spoke a little English said that I should just pick it up and "nom nom nom" (her words). She got me a big plastic glove and I dug in. The raw crab was actually very tasty, though it was a lot of work (as crab usually is) and very messy. They also gave me about ten different kinds of banchan (side dishes), so I got plenty to eat even though I didn't get much out of the crab.
After dinner I bought some breakfast stuff at the convenience store and walked back up to the hanok. My parents were already asleep, and I got a nasty surprise: I thought I'd pack my iPhone charging cable, but I'd accidentally packed two Kindle charging cables instead. My phone's battery was down to 40% already, but there was nothing I could do about it that night. I read for a couple hours after that before going to bed to get ready for sightseeing the next day.
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