Navigating in Seoul; GPS by coordinates and 2 hours driving for 9.1 kilometer!

I really thought our life would become much easier when we got a car. Well, that isn’t the whole truth…………………….

First things first, if you want to drive a car in this immense city you definitely need a GPS. We being not Korean literate can NOT just download the English map; NO we have to buy a new GPS (only one available and distributed at two sites). Without having any other options it’s just to go ahead. If you now think it’s just to put your destination in, you’re mistaken again! Some sites are pre-programmed but let’s be honest you want to visit other places as well. Now one good option is that if you have been to a place you can put it into your favorites and then the next time you want to go there you can!

First trip on our own was to the golf club, but no sweat, we had been there already two times following a friend of ours. Wrong again! Traffic is quite a challenge, rules are there to be broken so it’s intense to drive and you look more in your side mirrors to see what’s going on than at road directions. One wrong exit and it took us 40 minutes to come back where we started.

Learning curve here is very steep so when we were invited to have dinner with Carmen and Jan von Feilitzen we prepared. GPS still didn’t accept the road name so we found the coordinates, very smart we thought! Just one small digit wrong and we were in the middle of the Buguk Tunnels and were instructed to take a 90 degree right turn and then: arriving!

Lots in the middle of a multi million city.................

Not to bore you with more details and new words I learned from Anders, we finally arrived one hour late, although we started one hour earlier! During this time we tried asking directions of taxi drivers and youngsters on the side walk (no one spoke English so no help) and luckily we received the correct coordinates of Jan and Carmen.

In spite our late arrival we had a wonderful evening and I can visit Carmen to celebrate her birthday this week for now we have it programmed!

Our navigating adventure ended with a wonderful evening with a couple we met on America's 4th of July celebration. Nice to be welcomed in a home "Off Base" and spoiled with nice conversation, foods and wines by Carmen and Jan.