After the 6 and a half hour plane journey we finally begin the descent into Seoul. Through the window, flumes of smoke rise up through the clouds and at first we think they are natural hot springs. But, somehow less romantically, we realise that these towers of steam are factory produced. And while Seoul’s mountainous terrain is beautiful, the city seems heavily polluted. After 42 hours of almost sleepless travel, it’s no wonder that Lily and I begin to feel hysterical and talk to our fellow passengers on the plane’s chat room app. When we land the airport is suffocated in a cold mist and my intrigue about this new city heightens.

Fast forward a couple of hours and we have managed to locate the right train, which was easier than I thought, and we are on our way to Arran’s apartment. In the space of 30 minutes Seoul has already made an impression on me, having already annoyed and entertained two people. Firstly I managed to agitate an old Korean man by blocking the middle of train while attempting to take my bag off. His displeasure shown by an intense stare, accompanied by tutting. It was also at this point I learned that lugging my 17kg bag around, was not going to be fun. Not long after this a boy, of about 13, sat down opposite us and began hysterically laughing, tears literally swept away by his hand. His phone was in front of him and I kept on making awkward eye contact, it would of made me feel uncomfortable if I hadn’t of been so tired. He clearly found us hilarious and presumably took lots of photos.

We waited for Minsu, who would take us to Arran’s apartment, at Hongik University station and it gave us a chance of observe the local people at a busy intersection.  We invited a lot of stares, presumably because we looked like homeless westerners, sitting on our bags, hats down to our eyes and falling asleep. But we weren’t the only ones. Opposite us, a large poster of a Chinese Olympian (we think) caught the attention of a few young fans who would giggle and pester their mums for a photo with him.

Later we had an interesting drink in one of the Mexican restaurants down the main street, it was a margarita with a whole beer bottle in the top of it, I would definitely get another! We went to a few bars, Cocky’s and Dune where we played beer pong and relaxed. The nightlife in Seoul is very popular and there are bars and clubs clustered everywhere. At about 4am we stopped in for a slice of pizza at ‘Monster pizza’ and it began snowing! In excitement, back at the house, we ran to the rooftop and danced around in the white air which evidently resulted in both Lil and I falling over. I couldn’t wait for some sleep.