................Taking Flight...............: Departure Day!

Krystle and I met at Hongdae Station to take the subway/airport line to Incheon. It took us about 45-55 minutes which wasn't too bad. We checked in, exchanged money and then went through security. Those did not take very long either which was nice. Then we wandered the airport. It was weird to be at Incheon Airport and know I wasn't going to the US. We found a Quizno's Sub shop in the airport. Finally it was time to board! Krystle and I were able to pick our seats when we checked in and I wanted a window and she wanted an aisle. We sat in the same row and no one sat in between us, which was kind of funny.

The flight was about 2 hours and 10 minutes. We even were served a meal! (Thanks Asiana Airlines!) When we landed we went to the visitor information desk and asked about free wifi (my friend told me about) and asked the best way to get to our hotel. The nice ladies suggested taking the "Evergreen Bus" so we bought our bus ticket and didn't wait at all for the bus to arrive--good timing! It took about an hour to arrive into the center of the city/our stop. We looked at our map and took off. After walking for about 10-15 minutes and not seeing anything we figured we ought to, we asked someone and they pointed to where we were on the map--we went the wrong direction...Oops. It turns out our landmark, SOGO Department store has TWO branches, diagonally across from each other that we didn't notice. So we looked at the wrong one and went the wrong direction. So we walked back and found the hotel with no other problems after that.

We checked in and took a few minutes for a breather and to relax. Then, we were off to Shilin Night Market via MRT (subway). As we exited our subway station...it started to rain. Neither of us had brought our umbrellas with us from the hotel. Oops. The rain we experienced in Taipei was quite odd though, it would go in spurts, heavy downpour, drizzle, none, drizzle, heavy downpour... So as it turned out, we were fine without our umbrellas for the evening. We walked around the night market and looked at the food stalls. We both got a veggie dumpling. Then we did some shopping. I found a purse and also some small souvenirs for my mom and brother ;)