Chuseok Seoul-style

I arrived in Seoul to meet Rebecca et al for a week of sightseeing and such and take advantage of the few(er) crowds. However, the often humorous Mother Nature had a different plan for us. This was how we were welcomed upon our arrival…

At least the subways were operating .... sort of ....

Nevertheless, we decided to test our luck with them. After all, what's the likelihood of our exact stop being the one that is shut down? Turns out, pretty good.

Ok, fine. So, we get off a few stops down the line. No biggie. We exited the subway and proceeded to hail down the first taxi we saw.  Rebecca was carrying the “directions” to the hostel, which would have been quite useful had we gotten off on the right subway stop. Likewise, they were walking directions starting from the subway station exit, which went something like this, find the Paris Baguette and take ten paces to the right and continue until you reach the Dunkin Donuts.

So, Rebecca and I found ourselves having to quickly pull ourselves together and somehow explain to this guy where we needed to go…”Uh, Dunkin’ Donuts”. Ok, good job girls. That’s definitely a start but unfortunately, blurting out Dunkin’ Donuts is not the same as saying oh, I don’t know, take me to The Eiffel Tower (while in Paris), simply because there are more DD’s in Seoul than there are in Bean town and I feel fairly confident in making that statement.  Needless to say, our taxi driver was unimpressed. Ok, let’s try “Hongdae Hostel"? By this time, he's given up on Rebecca because clearly she's not from "here". He immediately looks to me (naturally) and to his disappointment and in my state of anxiety, I also blurt out “Dunkin Donuts”. So now the taxi driver has two babbling Americans in the backseat with no clue as to even what direction to go in. Let's try this again, “Hongdae Dunkin Donuts Hostel-UH”.

Here’s a tip. When you find yourself in a communication barrier with a taxi driver in Korea, 9 times out of 10 you can break it down by simply adding an “uh” to the end of your words. Example.

Me:  I need to go to Daegame Park

Taxi Driver:  Mwuh?! (WHAT?!)

Me: Daegame Park… go....please

Taxi Driver:  Huh?

Me:  Dae-ga-me Park…(repeat and louder)

Taxi Driver:  (shakes head) ???

Me:  Daegame Park-uh?

Taxi Driver:  Ohhhhh OK! Daegame Park-UH!

Me: Yes-UH!

10 minutes later, we pull up to Dunkin’ Donuts and to our amazement, the hostel was directly above. Sweet-uh! We bid our driver adieu and went on our merry way.