Annyeonghaseyo Korea

I have been to this beautiful country several times already. It even became my home for two years. But my recent visit was something of a "first" for me. (One of my goals before turning thirty was to travel alone.) On the night of the 4th of August, I embarked on my first solo trip. I have booked this trip several months ago, so you can just imagine the excitement when the day finally arrived. This also happens to be the trip where I got the cheapest promo for my plane ticket (P3,600 or $72 back and forth already). Few days before leaving though, I was too nervous for the very same reason that I was excited... This is my first time traveling alone and I want to make sure that everything will be fine, that I will be safe, that I'll be able to meet new people, and, pretty much, just enjoy every moment of it.

While I was on the plane, majority of the passengers were Koreans and only a handful were Filipinos. I don't know the exact reason but I felt like I was really all alone at that moment. Add to the fact that I was even seated next to a young, Korean couple. So the best thing to do was just sleep. Haha! Then, there was a game in the plane. The stewardess ask some fun questions about the expressions or things millenials say and I got to answer one of them. They asked about the meaning of LOL, TBH, among other things. How fun was that? A Korean lady, seating opposite to me, asked me about those things. She's genuinely interested and it was nice talking and explaining all those stuff to her. When we arrived in Busan, we talked some more while in the bus going to the airport. She just had a vacation in the Philippines. She's very friendly and I couldn't believe I've met and talked to a new person on my first night in Korea.

Shortly before midnight, I arrived in my guesthouse, located in Gwangali Beach. I hadn't had dinner yet but the first thing that I did after putting all my things in my room was to go to the beach, which is just opposite of the guesthouse. I couldn't believe I made it. Standing, with the sand on my feet, err, shoes, seeing the beautiful surroundings, inhaling the fresh summer breeze..it was a perfect welcoming moment.

Annyeonghaseyo Korea!

Past midnight, I had my dinner at a coffee shop (dinner = sandwich).

Did a bit of walking in the surrounding area before going back to my room located on the 9th floor. The walls of the elevator were transparent so while going up, I could see the beach and the people and the the Gwangan bridge full of lights. Everything seemed so serene from up above and there I was, ready to take a deep slumber in preparation for tomorrow's adventure.