The road to Seoul – Step 2: House hunting

28-29 November was house hunting season! Since our expectations were low (by this time we are immune to relocation side effects, aka cultural differences) we were not surprised by not finding our new home then.

We visited around 10 gloomy and sometimes weirdly arranged apartments in Itaewon-dong (the foreigner's area), Hannam-dong and close to Seoul station. We were more inclined to the city centre at first. But it became rapidly clear that living in Itaewon would make our lives much easier, since the English spoken there must surely represent 95% of total English spoken in the entire country.

Anyway, landscape is not that artistic in the city centre. This is our current view from Fraser Place, our temporary home in Jung-gu:

Most Koreans live in high-rises in the outskirts, but we believe that commuting reduces life expectancy, so we didn't expand our criteria.

Our main impressions:

• American with a twist – Koreans love American open kitchens. But apparently they feel their cuisine is rather smelly and need a second separate kitchen, where they can imprison the kimchi stew in the making.
• Size doesn't matter – the number of bedrooms is more important than their surface.
• Not so magic pipes – so whoever designed the sewage system forgot to take into account the need to deal with toilet paper and made the pipes too narrow. The basket production industry must have been happy with this omission.

The most positive outcome of these two days of house hunting was that our relocation agent made us discover this amazing yet expensive restaurant called Sanchon, in Insadong. This was the result, a variety of meat-free delights:

Sanchon: 30-21, Insadong-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul 

서울특별시 종로구 인사동길 30-21 (관훈동)

There was one apartment that we didn't manage to visit then due to an issue with the main door code. It turns out this was OUR apartment. It has a happy name: Primavera (= spring in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese) building. It's big, has an oversize fridge and two balconies. I visited it on the following week and was convinced by the time I took off my boots at the entrance hall to comply with the Korean custom.

It will be uma casa portuguesa, com certeza.

[Update 19/12/2013: back to square one. The landlady backed out of the deal. House hunting part II to start very soon.]

Day 2 - November, 28th, 2013 - Begging for a quest.

Today we started the 'house hunting", and we're not thrilled. It's now around the twelfth time we look for a roof. Hurray...
First day, we were shown ten flats, in the Itaewon and Hannam-dong areas (the major expat areas). Quoting someone: "Mainly, coco" or the leftovers of the previous 20 house hunting's that our relocation company organized.
Key takeaway: never settle for the first flat. They are always shown in "crescendo" and the more you'll refuse, the better they will look at your criteria. And, BTW, one of the land marks in Itaewon is a mosque at the top of the hill, visible from almost everywhere!

PS: The Turkish Airlines office in Seoul's downtown is located at the Seoul Centre Building, in the City Hall Square (Turkish Airlines office in Seoul), and is open only until 18h.

Day 1 - November, 27th, 2013 - The beginning of a New Era in the Korean Peninsula

19:00 - First finding: it's cold, very cold!
19:30 - Second finding: the Turkish Airlines office on the second floor of the ICN airport, only deals with "flight irregularities"
19:40 - Koreans are very precise when talking about waiting time: "Please wait SEVEN minutes."

The road to Seoul - Step 1: the move

After almost seven years in the land of chocolate and beer, and the so-called "home of the French fries" (I read it on a billboard outside Zaventem airport and will never forget it), I'm leaving to the land of kimchi. Yes, because Geneva was not far enough for weekend commuting.

South Korea is completely unknown to me, except for kimchi (obviously!), Kim Ki-duk and Psy (I'm not proud of this one). I will visit for the first time next week and write down my impressions.

Step one: the move started today and will take two days. We will send 150Kg by air and the rest in a container, by boat. Today is packing day. Pilão, our mascot, is already boxed up. Here he is, just seconds of going in the box:

We are only allowed to take a bottle of wine per person, otherwise they will make us pay 68% dutty - kind of restrictive to say the least. So we decided to take 1,5 liter bottle of Brunello de Montalcino (Banfi) 2004. I hope it will survive the sea trip and I will enjoy it with a nice vegan bulgogi.

1st damage done: one light bulb glass cover, which will be hard to replace. I find hard to imagine that they will manage to do everything in two days. They are only two!!

Dinner tonight will be in one of our favorite restaurants in Brussels - the traditional Chinese "Beijingya", close to St. Catherine. It's cheap and authentic, serving very reasonable portions. With this we start scrapping items in our bucket list. Still to do one last time:

• eat mussels in "Le Pré Salé", 
• spice up in "Toukol" Ethiopian restaurant, 
• drink mulled wine and eat empanadas in the Christmas market, 
• buy chocolates for the family in St Hubert galleries, 
• have breakfast in "Pain Quotidien", 
• watch a movie in Actor's Studio, 
• buy beer & pumpkin bread in Charli, 
• go window-shopping in rue Dansaert, 
• have a stroll in Parc d'Egmont. 

One almost down. 9 to go!

Trier: you'll be in my heart

Tonight, when walking back to the hotel, I cried... You've been good to me, and I now know I'll miss you. See you soon.

Porta Nigra, Trier

Daisy the Duck and lobster

At first sight Daisy might not have anything to do with lobster but it was the name we picked at Key Fisheries (Key Marathon, Florida Keys) to be shouted through the restaurant's megaphone once our order was ready. You see, it's easier to shout a well-known comic book character than boring or unpronounceable surnames. A-Z-I-N-H-E-I-R-A, say what? The restaurant itself is at the harbour, so some customers anchor their boats just beside it and come to make an order. We tried the Reuben Lobster - it was heavy in our stomachs - full of carbs (wrapped in big slices of bread) and fat (with cheese dripping from it and fries as side-dish) - but heaven in our hearts. That's the way an American meal at the waterfront should feel like, a marathon-size feast. We dragged ourselves back to our Dodge and drove south. We engaged in a monologue with the cutest bambies in sidewalks at Key Deer. We continued our tarmac adventure and finally reached Key West to discover its hidden treasure: Key Lime Pie! Where were you all this time?  Will we ever meet again?

Key Deer, Florida Keys

Lunchboxes and the Emirates

We were positively surprised by the Seychellois. They don't dress tastelessly, which is amazing given the scarce garment shops in the islands. Especially on Sunday morning, it's a treat to see older ladies coming from the church with pristine white and pink dresses, adorned with hats that remind the Roaring 20's. They live in not-so-shabby houses, are well nurtured - they can make a mean octopus curry taste wonderfully in a Styrofoam lunchbox - and actually travel. The daughter of the owner of the guesthouse where we were staying in La Digue actually told us that, since her brother worked in Abu Dabi, she went there already twice. Though she didn't like it, nor she liked Dubai or Singapore. Thailand was her thing, which made us wonder (with all respect for Thai people, food and landscapes): why is the grass always greener on the other side of the fence, even if paradise is on this side?

Victoria Market