January 31, 2022 Seollal Break
Story time:
So today (Monday) was supposed to be chill as it was our (me and Elsi) last day in Daegu for the Lunar New Year. We checked out of our hotel at 10am after spending 15 minutes trying to figure out what card they charged since we never gave them a card at check in and I didn'thave one registeredon the app.
Afterwards, we decided we would go put our bags in the subway locker until we headed for the train station at 2ish. This required a phone number and credit card. Everything seemed to be going well and my card was sufficiently charged.
Grabbed an early meal at McDonald's and then wanted to see what movies were playing only to find out that there were only 3 playing and the one that was in English had been watched already. So we window shopped and walked around until we decided to go to Sparkland - which is a bunch of carnival type rides atop a building.
Elsi is terrified of heights and the ferris wheel dangles you over the edge and moves very slowly. She managed ok and then we decided to go on the Disko ride that rocks and spins you - even though we both get ill from spinning rides.
Luck seemed to be on our side as we managed ok and only needed 30 minutes to settle our bellies. So we decided some tea and a dessert would be an ideal way to end the adventure before catching our train back. AMAZING, BTW.
We people watched for about 45 minutes after from the amazing cafe view and then headed back to our locker to retrieve our belongings so we could go to the train station still one subway stop away.
We had 45 minutes before we had to catch our train. I had taken pics of the location and marked it on a map. Got to locker #10, entered the phone number to open, but it kept saying no such number. We entered it multiple times. There were few people around and no one that seemed to work there.
I was beginning to stress - a lot. Luckily we still had 2 days of vacation but we needed our stuff. Even if we missed the train, that was all very important things.
There appeared to be a number to call so I did only to have a Korean automated system. First it played and then hung up. Called it again, decided to push 1 and it gave me a busy signal and hung up. Tried a third time, pressed 1, and it started ringing. A lovely korean voice answered on the other end who spoke ZERO English and apparently didn't have anyone there that could (even though the menu of the locker was in english). We had 30 minutes to get our stuff and get to our train.
The woman continued to proceed in only Korean with what I assumed to be were questions. Of course it also seemed as if all humans were nonexistent outside of us. Finally an old man walked in for a break and I ran over to him with the lady on my phone and tried to ask him to help. Pointing at the locker and saying like the 10 Korean words that I knew that might help him understand what was happening.
He tried to help us and seemed to be getting somewhere until he said we had to call the assistance phone in the station. Elsi called and got someone in English but then they just hung up on her. We were so lost and down to only 20 minutes to still travel and get to the correct track.
We went back to the locker and a worker appeared (maybe as a result of the call - still unsure) and he spoke English. He talked to the lady on the phone as we pleaded for them to hurry and find a way to open it. Luckily, they opened it and we finally had our stuff. But we had about 17 minutes now.
We hurried down the 3 flights of stairs to the subway with our sore feet from all the walking only to have to wait...Tick Tock...because it was still 3 stops away and taking FOREVER!
Finally we get on the subway and with 10 minutes we began to maneuver our way through the subway line to find the exit/entrance for the train station (which was quite a distance). Korean subways are often underground shopping centers so they can be very long.
Finally - the exit to get the the train station! But...about 40 stairs up...and no escalator nor time to find an elevator. We were doing our best to get up those stairs as quickly as possible but it was such a challenge. Luckily, the next area had an escalator to get to the terminal but it was sooo slow and we couldn't manage any faster. We just figured if we miss it we would just catch another train later if there were seats or even stay another night.
But I wanted to try before canceling the tickets and giving up. By the time we arrived at the top we had about 5 minutes to find the track and get to the platform. Literally half running while reading the information board on where to find our train and also trying to login to our ticket page while carrying our luggage.
We find the track, take the escalator downstairs to the platform to be greatly pleased and horribly exhausted and out of breath that we had arrived on the platform with about 1.5 minutes before our train to Busan did.
Nothing like cutting it close. What a crazy adventure!
