I DID IT! I WENT TO THE OLYMPICS! :D
I'd know about the Olympics for months, but I wasn't sure about attending them. First off, tickets were pricey, and I wasn't sure it was worth the 7 hour trip from Naju and the money to go. So like everything else I put it off, unsure. Then, after my trip to Japan, my friend and I were discussing the Olympics, which were about 2 weeks away. We wanted to go. There were so many obstacles though.
First a place to stay...surely they would've all been sold out or the prices jumped. Lucky for me though, a friend of mine lives in Jinbu, right in the middle of all the Olympic arenas. We talked to her and squared it away to stay with her if we could get tickets.
Transportation was the next step...was it available? For me, coming from nearly the opposite end of the country, transportation was an issue. I couldn't get there directly, so it was a mix of overlapping bus times or trains and unpredictability of traffic jams (due to it also being Seollal - Korean New Year, and one of the biggest holidays of the year). The easiest and cheapest path I could find that was manageable was to bus 4 hours to Seoul, and then later that day KTX to Jinbu from Seoul Station. It cost about 40,000 won total.
Now the most important step...We had a place, transportation was available...but Olympic tickets? Now THAT was a challenge. I feel like because I am a foreigner but living in Korea it was especially difficult. We could buy tickets online, but ONLY if we had a Visa Card. This turned out to be the biggest problem of our entire trip. I have a Visa, but it is my American Card and since I've been living in Korea for over a year I don't exactly have loads of money in my American account. Not to mention if I used my American credit card, I would have to lose a lot of money to currency exchange to send money home later to pay off the bill. It was not easy. All I had was my NH card, and my friend only had MasterCard. It wasn't like we could get a Visa overnight either. So we ended up relying on people we knew, and a teacher at my friends school bought our tickets with her card and we transferred her money. It was the easiest way we could use, but because of it we only bought ticket to one event. We didn't want to use her too much, and she wasn't around all the time to help either. As much as I would've loved to go to more events, I don't think I could've afforded it in the long run anyway though. Ticket availability was also a road block. Everything was sold out unless it was like the 300,000 won tickets for seating. My friend and I had our hearts set on seeing figure skating, as it was both of our favorites and the only thing I ever watched on TV as a kid. Only men's singles were available the weekend we intended on going, and they were sold out.
We ended up scouring the fan to fan page looking for people that were selling the cheaper seat tickets. We found only 1 ticket. My friend was going to buy it and just hope that another turned up, even if it meant not sitting together or only one of us getting in. However, by some MIRACLE, the moment she went to buy the one ticket someone else posted on the site selling two tickets and she managed to grab them. It was an Olympic miracle for us! Tickets bought, transportation reserved, and a place to stay squared away we just had to wait for the day we left. We would go for two full days and two half days, but our only plan was to see the Men's Single Short Skate Program on our first full day there.
With it all set I announced to my family that I was going, and there were growing concerns. They were worried about North Korea's presence, about security, about the people, about a norovirus that was apparently going around making people sick. It was a list. A list I promptly ignored lol. I was going to be perfectly fine. And, I WAS.
