Back in December, I had a 14-hour layover in South Korea on my way to Hawaii from Thailand, and decided to make the best of it. I arrived at 6 in the morning into Incheon, where I napped for 3 hours, waiting for the sun to come up and for me to recover from my 7-hour flight from Bangkok. I then cruised through immigration, asked for the best sites to see in Seoul at the information counter, pulled out a few thousand Won from an ATM, and caught a bus into the city.

The only thing I didn’t plan for: snow. I forgot to check the weather, and having skipped fall and winter in my cozy SE Asian corner of the world, I failed to consider the phenomenon of seasons elsewhere. Although I had scarves and a jacket in my big bag that I had checked, I had to make do with a long sleeve shirt and my thin fleece in the 30-degree freeze.

I didn’t have time to notice the cold too much, because I spent the day being whipped around from tourist site to tourist site on nifty little buses that looped around the city in 15-minute intervals to 27 different locations. It was similar to the red double-decker tourist buses they have in NYC, but having never actually taken one of those, I can’t really compare.

But my experience in Seoul was great. Everyone was extremely friendly and eager to help a floundering westerner find her way around the city and sites. My first stop was the National Museum of history, where I took a fast 45-minute run through of Korea from 5000 BC to now. While wandering around one room, 2 of the one million uniformed school kids at the museum that day began giggling meekly behind me. I turned around to find two girls with downcast eyes, pretending not to be there. I walked on. Again, they followed me and began giggling, I turned around, and they cast their eyes to the floor. After a third time, I turned around so quickly that I did catch their eyes, and I said, “Hello there.”

With this, their faces lit up, and they said, “Hello!” and began giggling again. Then they offered, “How are you?,” to which I replied “I’m fine, and how are you?” This they really got a kick out of, and I realized that these were likely oft-repeated phrases they had maybe learned in school or had heard elsewhere. They asked me where I was from and a few other questions, and then promptly said, “Nice to meet you, goodbye”, and scampered off excitedly.

I left to see if I could grab lunch but found that it was out of my price range, so I took off for my bus stop. Outside, tons of kids in uniform were involved in a heated snowball fight, which involved chases and tackling.

My next stop was the downtown shopping center, Iteawon. I checked out a few stores, and searched in vain for an affordable restaurant where I could try some Korean food. Instead, I was bombarded by Subway and Burger King. I stopped quickly at a post office where I could send my grandmother a quick hello from Seoul.

A few stops later, I arrived at the Seoul Tower, where I got an amazing view of the whole city and finally had some Korean food. The top of the tower was a great place to sit, relax, and take in the views of the city. Plus, it was heated!

Around 4:00, I jumped on the bus, finished my tour, and grabbed another bus back to the airport with no hassles. I arrived at 5:30 for my 7pm flight to Honolulu.

And thus, I discovered the art of the layover.