Leaving on a Jet plane... to Prague

Jeju has come to an end.  And it's hard to leave my home of three years.

  Lot's of busy work had to be done before I leave; closing of bank accounts, cancelling my cell phone, cleaning the house and selling all of the things that I have acquired over the last few years.  The last meal I had on Jeju was great Korean food with friends.  Kimichi jjijea (spicy fermented cabbage soup) and pajyeong (egg, rice flour and seafood pancake) YUM!

 But this place will remain my home.  It's beautiful sunset with squid boats, the lovely traditional houses,  the mountain, all it's little orums (volcanically made hills) and the people I love that I have become such close friends with that they are my family. Jeju definitely has my heart and I have already decided to come back to visit, at the very least.

I jumped on a plane and headed to Seoul on the 23rd of September.  My last meal in Korea was an unimpressive nacho plate, but I had good company and that's all that matters.  

On the 24th I jumped on another plane headed for Moscow and ultimately Prague.  I came in after 15 hours in transit to discover the bag, I didn't want to check in the first place, was missing.  Good thing nothing in it was important.  With that cumbersome item out of the way I headed out into the big wide world of intercity transit in a language I didn't (and still don't) understand.  Good thing it went perfectly.  My couch surfing host, Osasu, gave me perfect directions and picked me up from the metro station very close to where he lived.

I was in awe when I first stepped off the metro.  Prague is so different than Korea.  I sure as heck wasn't expecting the same thing, but I was surprised when culture shock set in.  I didn't understand anyone talking around me and I couldn't read hardly anything.  Everyone thought I was Czech or Russian in transit and out.  The buildings were old, well maintained and had architecture (after coming from a country that rebuilt it's self in 50 years that is just weird), cobble-stone streets, an honor based transit system; this was a lot to process.

Meeting Osasu (my host) was great!  He made sure I was perfectly comfortable and provided me with a towel, tooth paste and soap (obviously still all in the lost bag).  He had even made me dinner, which I politely refused, being too tired to eat.  Luckily for me I had a spare set of clothing and my toothbrush, and after a short chat with Osasu I drifted off to sleep.

In the morning we had breakfast together and he headed to work and I went for a walk.  I was in search of a phone store and the train station.  Did you know that you still have location enabled in the iPhone even if you have no service or WiFi?  Talk about a life saver!  You just can't search for things, the map still works and it shows you where you are.

The train station is really close to Na Svihance (where I was staying), so I could walk there in about half an hour.  Then I wandered around and found the tourist area.  I didn't go into anything (museums, stores, attractions....) I just walked and people watched.  Eventually I did make it down to a cafe with a perfect view of all the  tourists.  

After this bit of meandering I got a phone plan.  It was just about then that I realized I had no idea how much money I had been spending.  I had to change some of my euros over to korunas, and then I withdrew money too, but nothing had value to me.  Luckily for me shortly after this "oh no!" moment I met up with one of Osasu's friends, Gary.  He showed me around a little bit more, had lunch with me and helped me figure out all this nonsense with the currency.  100k is about $5.22 USD, so I just round it to $5 in my head.  I didn't spend hardly any money!

The best part of Prague is looking.  Looking at people, looking at buildings, looking at streets, looking at all these advertisements in a foreign language. There are street vendors everywhere.  They are selling flowers, bread, fresh cooked ravioli in little cups, fish... probably everything.  Of coarse there are the tourist vendors too, but these guys are just as fascinating selling marionettes, hand embroidered napkins and so many other local goods.  

The tourist area was also one of the older parts of the city, so I spent a good hour just walking down all the windy and twisty streets trying to get myself lost, but mostly just amazed by the architecture and how small the streets were.

And I didn't just do my looking in the tourist areas, I walked around the neighborhood that Osasu lives in and looked there too.  I found a wonderful little park with a great view of the city.  I also found another more quaint market, and a great little coffee shop near his house.

 The next day I got a chance to explore the castle and the castle grounds.  I couldn't believe how much their was to see.  It is one of the biggest castles in the world, and I got lost just wandering around it.  I spent a good 4 hours just walking around the grounds and the little village attached.  

After all that I met Osusa's friend Gary and we had a few beers, played pool and then I got taken to eat Nigerian food.  I thought I would like it, and I kinda did.  The spices and the masa (dough) used to scoop up the food was good.  But I got a little discouraged when I saw lung (I've had it before, but I prefer it pureed) and little pieces of bone.

The Czech food I had was tons of coffee, a little bit of beer, pastries and sausages.  Unfortunately I didn't get to eat as much as I wanted because of jet lag.  It just means I have to come back and do an eating tour.

On to Budapest!