From Seoul to London and escaping the virus
Most travels are meant to be met with excitement and anticipation, they are meant to be a great time, stress free and magical journeys to unknown lands blah blah blah. Well while this trip of mine was indeed meant to be all these things, a little spanner was thrown into the works know as the Corona virus. Suddenly, my great travel plans were at risk because of this shitty little virus that decided to take the world by storm. Now this has affected many thousands of people worldwide and while my problems with it might seem trivial, I guarantee there are hundreds who are in the exact situation I was.
The first big problem I had to contend with was if I would be able to fly out of Korea to London and will I arrive there only to be thrown into quarantine. Since the situation was literally evolving day by day, I decided to move up my departure date by 4 days to try and get ahead of this thing. While in the end that ended up not being a problem, the extra few days to look around London and escape Korea early ended up being well worth it.
The sadder affect of the virus was mostly to do with the social side of things. We had to cancel our going away party because of the uncertainty of the virus and who might have it. I also avoided going out to the clubs, now of which, many have closed their doors for a few weeks, so I was unable to say a proper goodbye to a lot of friends in the industry many of who will definitely be struggling right now. This was the real kicker, I have met a lot of awesome people in my time in Korea, I am hoping the virus has calmed down when I am due to go back thru end of May so I can have a chance to say goodbye then.
Another problem was that no one was really moving to Korea, so finding someone to move into my apartment just wasn’t happening. Also with so many people leaving at once and now reduced time to move out of my apartment, it made selling things also a nightmare. And with the amount of junk I had accumulated of the years, people who were looking for stuff got a bargain and I ended up throwing everything else out.
Finally, there is still uncertainty with my travel plans. I am meant to go to Italy towards the end of April but now I am playing this by ear and could possibly just skip Italy all together if things there don’t get any better. Then there is also the concern about my flight back to NZ from Korea at the end of May as well. Again, something I will have to play by ear.
But after all was said and done, I managed to pack my life into 3 bags and leave my house and go to the airport. Officially unemployed and homeless and on my way to travel the world for 3 months. I got on my plane, flying business class from Seoul to London without problem and arrived at my hotel rested and ready to start my journey. Most definitely the best way to use my credit card rewards! Also business class is really another world, you can really feel that extra way they treat you because you supposedly have money… this world really is messed up. Next Stop, London!
Marcus Powell has been living and working in South Korea since 2010. He is now on the road before returning back to NZ. Aside from writing his own blog, he is also a popular Club DJ, Gamer, Community manager, esports fan and anime enthusiast.
akadjblaze 
Great post 😁