I will return with travel photo blogs from Seoul since Google-censorship is only partially get-aroundable in Beijing. And yes, censorship does suck.
I cannot declare the journey quite over because it is afternoon in my hutong hotel in Beijing, China—which is still a long way from Albuquerque, USA. However…wherever that pesky travel bug resides in my body, it has definitely been anesthetized for the time being…whatever it needed me to use to scratch the ‘itch’ has been duly applied…whenever it was to have been satisfied, that time seems to have been reached. I am done. Well done. Nearly burned.
It is a perfect place to end the journey except for the couple from Texas who reside in the room across the little courtyard. He likes to talk into the night with whomever is outside to listen to him; he doesn’t actually talk, he pontificates. Ugh. In fact they’re out there right now; he’s smoking, talking to his wife. Explaining the world to her. Ugh. But let me not harbor ill thoughts about my fellow Americans because I intend to end this trip being the cheery chipper kindly-grandmotherly-benevolent me.
There are a few subjects I do want to touch upon that don’t require pretty pictures so I’ll use the time between now and Seoul to write about them. These will be pure advice kind of posts—about the use of guides and about those all important travel accouterments.
Okay. Travel Over. Photogenic travel posts to come in times of better internet (South Korea).
Tomorrow (September 9) is a day of hanging around the hutong and hopefully taking photos of everything in it. I do love this slightly ramshackle hotel and this alleyway-hutang. It is peaceful, intimate, small-busy and everyday-life-charming.
The next day (September 10) I leave at 5am for the ferry to South Korea which will take up the entire day and until about noon on the 11th.
Friday, September 11, I check into my Seoul hotel and smile Buddha-like down at my belly (which is pretty skinny now) in happy contemplation. I express my pleasure at a goal-reached. To myself.
Saturday, September 12, I take a morning ride, walk, stroll, bus tour around a bit of the city and then I go to the airport.
Saturday, September 12, I leave Seoul at 4:50pm.
Saturday, September 12, I arrive Albuquerque at 6:53pm.
Steve picks me up; we stop at Whole Foods for milk, green stuff, angel food cake and laundry soap. I enter my apartment and feel strange. I turn on CNN to see if Trump has done anything interesting while I’ve been away. Maybe I even shed a tear or two of nostalgic farewell because the Big 2015 Trip is over and another tear of relief because the Big 2015 Trip is over and I didn’t get sick or lose anything or embarrass myself or the other little old traveling ladies of the world.