Little Butterfly : Korea at its best

Meeting and greeting people with the same mindset as you, to travel the world, creates some interesting stories and insights.

After Thailand my mother joined me in Korea for the rest of the week. First, we sat on a luxury bus for about an hour before reaching Uijeongbu. We got off the bus and was surprised with a lady handing each of us a bottle of water. She obviously saw we were extremely hot and tired after our flight to Korea.

# Tip: Don't fly on a budget airline without eating before the time and buying yourself some water because you do get hungry and thirsty on a 6 hour flight.

We topped on the train to Jeongok where I stay. After arriving in the afternoon it wasn't long before we hopped onto a bus and went to my school so I could show my mom the school and area I worked. She found it very nice to see it and I guess it gives her a lot of perspective. That night I took her for Galbi which is Korean bbq and she loved it. Except for the Kimchi part, that she didn't like so much but it's understandable. I hate it too.

The Thursday we took the long journey back to Seoul, this time just with less suitcases or well only my mom's suitcases. With everything we bought in Thailand we were quite sure her suitcases was overweight. We slept in a nice hostel in Itaewon close to the subways and some nice restaurants. The evening we went to see the panoramic view of the city from the Seoul tower. It's quite a romantic experience I must say. The view is just to beautiful and you could see why the original palace grounds that expanded into Seoul city was built specifically in that area. The Han river flows through the city and with about 9 bridges to cross, each looking differently it was a sight to see. We wrote some post cards and left feeling quite mesmerized. Only thing we did however do slightly wrong was not checking the bus times so we ended up missing the last bus. We took a stroll down the hill like Jack and Jill to the main road and sat on the bus for way to long before getting to our destination. At some point we thought we were on the wrong bus and we're just driving in circles around the hill. We had dinner at like 11 that evening but it was all worth while,

The next day we slept late and had a fat chat with some of the travelers who also stayed in the hostel. There was two Americans from Calorado, Pieter and Andrew, 2 guys from England, Alex and Stuart and 2 Koreans, Kevin and ... I told them I'm going to show my mom Hongdae which is a student town in Seoul where students do street performances and there is also a lot of clubs and stuff. Something neither one of the guys have seen. They all decided to join later that night but first me and mom had a palace to visit. We took the red city tour bus and saw some really nice places. We got off at the one palace called Changdong and went to explore the palace grounds. All of a sudden there was thunder and lightning and a little after that it started to rain really hard. At first my mom was dancing in the rain singing songs and the next we were running for shelter to prevent getting soaked. It was nice to cool off a little though. We were stranded in a cafe so we made the most of it. Coffee and post card writing it was until that was also done and we were still stranded. Luckily it ended raining after about 45min and we made our way back to the bus stop.

The evening we went out with this bunch of guys we met at the hostel and I can honestly say it was like watching a real life comedy. We all being complete strangers to each other somehow had one of the best nights even. With doing chants on the escalators and talking to loud in the subways to laughing at each other and taking selfies it was bound to be unforgettable. We visited a chicken a beer restaurant to fill up our stomachs with some protein and carbs before going to the bars and clubs. The guys looked after me and my mom so well buying each of us drinks and looking after us. The girls ended up leaving early but early as in 2am since some of us had to fly the next day.

With very little sleep we got up the next morning and hopped onto the train all the way to the airport. We both ignored the emotions through the whole morning until we had to say our final goodbyes. It's never nice saying goodbye and to be honest it wasn't easier the second time round. I broke down in tears afterwards anyway. It sort of felt a lot like the first time. Expect at least this time I know my mom will still love me when I get back to South Africa. It scratched open a healing heart once again leaving me feeling helpless.

Here are the crazy guys calling my mom " mommy" all night.