Crossing South Korea by Rental Car

View from my first kilometer of solo driving in South Korea.

"It's going to be OK ... there, there!"

Words to live by -- and drive across South Korea by -- as spoken by the Avis car rental attendant, Jay, to this Olympic blogger as I burst into tears of anxiety around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

Why the fuss? 

My first driving in Asia experience: A 3.5 hour whopper that ended with glee!

Though I had pondered an Olympic car rental for PyeongChang a few weeks ago while stateside, actually signing the contract and accepting the keys turned into a whole other story. 

By last night I was so anxious about the driving option (a DIY alternative to surrendering control to the Olympic transportation network and taxis/Uber), this writer logged almost no zzzz's Tuesday night in the Seoul hotel. 

Confidence was intact until the flight from Atlanta on Sunday, during which a fellow traveler who resides here said, "absolutely do not drive in Korea ... the drivers are crazier than New York or Rome!"

Then yesterday, on the Seoul Metro, a trio of Chicago-based business men echoed the anti-driving sentiment with comments like, "There are 50 million reasons not to drive in South Korea ... the other drivers!"

In the pre-dawn hours today, I psyched myself up reciting "if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, it's up to you, just drive to PyeongChang ... da, da-da-da!" 

It worked, sort of. 

After crying with the rental car attendant, who (thankfully) programmed the on board GPS with accuracy, I also cried with the gas station attendant, the first toll booth lady and in the direction of the eastbound driver in a Bentley next to me in the lone Seoul traffic jam we traversed around 7:30 a.m.

By 8 a.m., however, confidence reigned and my appetite returned, eventually stopping for coffee and croissants at a Highway 50 rest area about half-way across the Korean Peninsula. 

Sidebar: A fun culinary discovery came in the form of a cream-puff by Olympic sponsor Beard Papa's, offering a "cheer UP!" five-ringed pastry in time for the Games. 

By 10:30 I was parking at the Holiday Inn Alpensia -- home of the Main Press Center (MPC) -- and checking in at the Team USA office for the first time. 

Further up the mountain I also checked into the PyeongChang Grass Fragrance Pension, a super-rural private home turned hostel for ski bums and Olympic bloggers, not to mention a security manager for Worldwide Olympic sponsor Bridgestone (we both discovered the pension via Hotels.com). The pension has its own YouTube Channel!

An enormous cat greeted me in the parking lot, and I was so very happy to land in my heated pension mattress and enjoy the proprietor's cappuccino in my room.

The owner/barista also served up a hot baked potato from her garden, roasted in her cedar-fueled pot-bellied stove!

There will be more driving and more stress, for sure. 

But today was a win. Tomorrow I'll post more about the MPC. 

Must catch up on zzz's.

Photos by Nicholas Wolaver

View from the PyeongChang Grass Fragrance Pension balcony.

Final Push Toward PyeongChang

Two weeks from now (Feb. 4), this blogger will be aloft on a Delta Air Lines flight half-way across the Pacific. Destination: Seoul, and a couple of days later via rental car, PyeongChang and the 2018 Winter Olympics.

It's exciting this countdown to the Games, my fifth consecutive snowy Olympiad and 11th overall trek to a new host city.

This will be a first-time adventure in South Korea, and I'm as pumped about exploring the historic 1988 summer Games sites in the nation's capital as much as experiencing the shiny and new venues in the mountains and on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

Photo via KoreaHerald.com

As with prior travels to Olympic competitions at destinations deemed "unsafe" (Rio with Zika), "un-secure" (Athens w/terrorism) or "scary" (Sochi or Beijing and "being watched"), friends and family already inquired about the outlook for PyeongChang safety and the Olympics' proximity to potential aggression from North Korea.

Honestly, since 2016 I was always more hung up on the potential for a Rio-repeat (abysmal and frustrating fan/volunteer logistics) than ever concerned about the Communists a few mountains away from the snow venues south of the 38th Parallel.

Photo by Amy Sancetta/AP

Fortunately, North Korea's pro-Olympic stance announced on January 1, and subsequent friendly conversations involving International Olympic Committee top brass and diplomacy from Korea's North- and South-based leadership, put many folks' (and my own) further at ease that peace will reign in PyeongChang. Will a Nobel Peace Prize result from this? Maybe.

It's historic and exciting to read about the unified team, individual athletes from both South and North, and the delegation crossing the border in just over 21 days. I'm definitely going to try to score an interview with some North Korean athletes or fans (wish me luck).

Let's just hope The White House avoids mucking up things in the next 18 days to the Opening Ceremony and the 16 Games-time days and nights that follow!

Thankfully (sort of), the Team USA delegation leader-designate is Vice President Mike Pence -- what thin ice will he manage to skate and create next month? We'll see.

Blog and PyeongChang mascot image by Nicholas Wolaver; ski jump photo via KoreaHerald.com; Torino 2006 Opening Ceremony photo via Associated Press.

Possible Theme Songs for Olympic Bids

A colleague recently nominated me as "most likely to break into song."

With that new title in mind, here are some suggested theme songs the media might use regarding each city vying for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Note: The tunes are set to match recent headlines for each bid city, Tokyo, Rio de Janiero, Madrid and Chicago.

Tokyo 2016 -- "So Emotional" by Whitney Houston -- With thanks to this AFP Report.

Rio 2016 -- "Lets Face The Music And Dance" by Irving Berlin -- Via the Associated Press.

Madrid 2016 -- "Takin' It To The Street" by The Doobie Brothers -- As noted by the Chinese outlet People's Daily and some mesmerizing Reuters photos.

Chicago 2016 -- "My Kind Of Town" composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn -- via the Chicago Tribune.

No matter the bid city, all may be thinking of their final presentations Friday in the context of this tune created for the 1988 Olympic Games of Seoul.

Music Festival logo via this link.