4 subways, 2 busses and 1 train but we made it to the beach!

We chose the beach as our daily destination and okay, it should only have been 3 subways but we got out too early. This is me have a 40 cent cup of vending machine coffee which I quite enjoyed. Move over Dunn Bros, I am actually liking the instant that comes premixed with powdered creamer and sugar mixed in.

We made it to Incheon on the east coast (where the airport is) where there was a tourist info center with a guide with great English. Let me pause here to say that it is incredible how often subways, trains and buses run, that there are info booths with people and maps, maps posted everywhere even in neighborhoods, and everyone is friendly. Anyhow, we landed in Incheon in the Chinatown neighborhood where we took a few photos and stopped for lunch.

Here is an inside joke for Georgia-Rae in reference to Mr. Bean?!?

I wish I had taken a photo of the kind Chinese man who fed us lunch and brought us tourist pamphlets to read about the noodle making tradition (and museum!) in that part of town. When I ordered noodles with no meat just vegetables he said "shrimp?" "No, thank you, just vegetables" he brought out a bowl of mussels unsure what they were called in English "These?" "No, thank you, I just like vegetables on my noodles" "Okay! Extra mushrooms!" I didn't have the heart to say no after he'd worked so hard to please me. And yes, I choked down those mushrooms using the don't breathe and swallow big pieces method. He called Otto "the little prince" and we chose his restaurant in part because of this adorable dog who slept throughout:

Onto the bus to the beach, just hoping we'd figure out where to get off:

BTW this bus went to the airport which was on the way to the beach and we could have just taken the train to the airport (faster) but then we wouldn't have had the help or the noodles (we did not make it to the noodle musuem...). There are lots of tidal marshes:

So we saw a beachy area and got off at the next stop - not as nice but too far to walk back. Here we are hoping that the beach is around that corner:

It was! We got there about 1 and it was pretty empty. There is a row of wooden platforms covered by tarps and some with umbrellas that we settled on outside a restaurant (though they were everywhere up and down the beach) and went to buy a Coke, a Sprite and a Hite (beer!) so we could use the bathroom of the local beachy restaurant. Sorry I didn't think to get a photo of all of that. Then Tim and I settled on the platform to read while Otto went to play.

We had Otto's shirt off as he splashed but soon realized that that is not the Korean way. It was windy so he was happy to put his shirt back on anyway. By about three lots of Koreans in their early 20s started showing up. The whole young folk scene here has an innocence to it that we don't see. Notice how very few are in a bathing suit or it is under a coverup. They swim in the coverup. It is hard to tell but this is a group of boys in the water (all with shirts and shorts on) next door to the group of girls they came with.

Over here we find the boys and girls together. Before they went for a swim they set up a stove, big pot and put some ramen noodles on and it was ready to go and share when they got out:

Here is another Korean couple doing something we've seen a lot of - dressing alike (I know it is hard to tell - they have matching green and white striped shirts on):

But I guess they are not all innocence because of course they had to add the finishing touch after burying their friend. Plus is was fun to watch develop - it started with pouring water in that area, moved to sand, and ended with a stick. We caught the middle phase here:

Windswept and a little chilly (!) we were ready to go home about 4. We stopped for salty snax in a little tent store and you can see that this woman is showing the price on a calculator - that is how everyone does it without a cash register display:

A bus ride where we got off at the airport this time, onto a express train to Seoul Station, stop for dinner:

(another example of how hard it is to eat vegetarian without speaking the language - I had a salad from next door that had chunks of tuna like you would get from a can that was good and provided enough after my post beach Pringle/Dorito salt attack). One more subway stop til our hotel! A little Bugs Bunny and it was lights out.