Tuesday saw me meeting up with the girls and boarding a bus to Incheon Airport. No, we were not jetting off on a plane unfortunately, but we were going to be staying in the (rather expensive) Incheon Beach Hotel. Jessica and I had dropped a little more cash, expecting there to be three of us sharing a room, and booked the suite. We were all excited for the holiday to start. We arrived at the airport and called the hotel to send us a shuttle. Ten minutes, they said. Ten minutes until we could be dropping our bags at the hotel and running along to the beach, the restaurant or the 24 hour spa that was supposed to take up a floor of the hotel. Forget the rain that was threatening to ruin our fun! We would find ways to enjoy ourselves despite it. Half an hour later, the shuttle still hadn't arrived. We called three times before someone came to pick us up, our spirits only slightly depleted. Once we were on the road to the hotel, English music playing in the background as our own personal soundtrack, we were back to laughing and looking forward to what was supposed to be a fun holiday.

We decided to go to lunch shortly after arriving at the hotel. The hotel's restaurant was closed, but there was a bigger hotel right next door (this was the one with the spa) and we were allowed to use all of their facilities including the rather shnazzy looking restaurant within.

"Real napkins," someone observed!

Yes. Real napkins. And really high prices too. We hmmed and haaed about what we could afford to order before settling on sandwiches for some and soup with salad for others. We chattered away as our food was slowly prepared and were starving by the time it arrived, only to find that they had gotten two of the orders wrong. They were sent back and we patiently waited to eat together. About twenty minutes later, the waiter returned with one order corrected and the other completely wrong once again. By this point we had been waiting for around an hour and twenty minutes for our food, and the food that was already on the table was ice cold. Around half an hour later, Becki's sandwich finally appeared and we could eat our mediocre meals. We were given a "discount" which meant that we didn't have to pay the extra 10% that had been added onto our meal as a tip (unusual in Korea) and we all left in worse moods than we had arrived. But we weren't going to let that deter us! It was spa time! We all headed downstairs with high hopes for massages, only to find that not only did you have to pay 7,000 won entrance and be stark naked, but you then had to pay an extra 35,000 won for a massage (we had been told that it would be 17,000 including the entrance fee). Those of us who hadn't left when we were told about the nakedness, left when we discovered the price and we quickly returned to the rooms to contemplate what would happen next.

The rain was truly pouring down by now, but we weren't about to let that ruin our beach holiday. We all intended to go swimming and get wet anyway, so why let a little rain stop us. We suited up and started the walk down to the beach, getting soaked within seconds. We arrived at the beach and immediately started regretting our decision. The sea was an icky brown colour and had bits floating in it thanks to the ships that were docked at the bay only metres away. But we wouldn't relent! We stripped off our outer garments and ran into the sea in our costumes, all shrieks and screams of cold and disgust, and once we were in we stayed there, laughing at ourselves and just having fun. We stayed in for a good hour with some Westerners joining us at one point and numerous Korean audiences. But we eventually decided that we'd had enough and headed back to the hotel, dripping all over the foyer as we made our ways to our rooms. After showers and cleaning up, we all headed to one room for face masks, nail polish and general girly activities before making our way back into the night to try and find some dinner.

It turned out that finding dinner was not as easy as it sounds, since most of the restaurants were closed for Chuseok, and those that weren't only served seafood, which none of us were keen for after our ocean experience. We were left with two choices - ramen noodles (think Maggie's 2 minute) from the Family Mart or the restaurant that we'd eaten lunch at. Two of the girls refused to go back to the restaurant and opted for the noodles. While I wasn't happy going back, I wasn't happy with noodles either and grudgingly decided to give the restaurant a second chance. With red wine calming us down, we ordered pizza and chicken and the service went far better the second time around. After dinner we played some drinking games before heading to norebang in our pajamas for a round of Don't Stop Believing, Proud Mary and other such Glee classics.

By the time Wednesday came around, none of us were interested in staying in Incheon. We had planned to go to an island off Incheon's coast, but even that idea didn't sound quite as appealing with the rain clouds hovering over us and the thought of food weighing on our minds. We decided to head back home instead. Before leaving, Jess and I made a detour into Seoul for some foreign food market treasures and a stop into What the Book (three more books to add to my shelf).

Thursday dawned with a sense of disappointment at the failure of a holiday, but that feeling of disappointment was quickly buried under food from a Chinese restaurant in Chungdae which Jess revealed to me. Peanuts, tofu "pasta", carrots and onions were followed by lamb kebabs dipped in spices and delicious spicy potatoes. After our feast, Jess and I both decided that we needed a walk and wandered across a forest that neither of us knew existed beforehand. We wandered through the forest for a good forty-five minutes before making it out on the other end and flagging down a taxi to take us home. I had a few hours to relax by myself before heading for a Shabu-shabu dinner with Jack, followed by drinks and series at his apartment. I was lightheaded by the time I left, and the feeling of disappointment was far less than it had been that morning.

Friday dawned and Jess and I made our way to Sandong Fortress for a hike, a decision that had been made after scoffing down the Chinese food. We jumped between forest and fortress, snapping pictures along the way of the beautiful views and interesting bits and bobs. The whole hike took us around two hours, and we ended up somehow in the middle of a little village. We thought about backtracking and seeing where we had gone wrong, but decided against it since we didn't know how much longer the fortress would go on for. Instead we made our way along the road back to the start and waited for a bus to take us into town. Once we had survived the ridiculously packed bus winding down the mountain paths, we headed into Home Plus and bought some ingredients for pita pizzas which we made in Jess's oven on arriving back at her apartment. Pita pizzas, oven-baked french fries and a movie filled the rest of the evening, and I returned home for a bit of an early night.

Saturday saw us paddling along in swan boats on a dam beside Yongam tower and getting a nice workout for our legs (as though the hiking hadn't been enough) before ruining any good work that we may have done by indulging in a Outback feast. If you ever think that you can handle an Outback steak and still have room for dessert, think again. A bread roll to start, a bowl of soup each, steaks, veggies, Aussie chips, green tea and Thunder From Down Unders left us so full that we actually felt drunk as we hobbled towards the taxis carrying bags of bread that the restaurant had given us "service" (for free). Needless to say that I didn't need to eat again until lunch on Sunday.

Sunday was a relaxing day. The morning was spent relaxing in bed, watching episodes of the Mentalist and reading. By the time afternoon arrived, I was ready for some batting practice at the nets in Chungdae and met up with Jess and Jack to get some baseball in. We wandered the streets trying to find the nets, and once we did we found them to be closed. Fail. Instead we opted for a kalmegi dinner followed by a couple of drinks at Buzz Bar before returning home for another early night. I couldn't stay out too late, after all. School was starting in the morning.

And thus ended my Chuseok. A little disappointing, sure, but at least at the end of it, I managed to another side of the city that I will be calling my home for the next five months.