10 South Korean tourists were stranded in a blizzard near Buffalo. Then they spent 2 nights in a stranger's home, cooking and watching football.
A van carrying 10 tourists got stuck in snow near Buffalo, New York, on Friday.
One couple who lived nearby welcomed the stranded group — they stayed for two nights.
The visitors were from South Korea and passed time by cooking meals with their hosts. When their van got stuck in the snow in Williamsville, New York, a South Korean tour group found refuge with a good Samaritan who sheltered them through the blizzard. The group of 10 travelers in the van — which included nine tourists from South Korea — were making their way to Niagara Falls from Washington, DC, when they found themselves in the middle of a blizzard. Two men in the group decided to knock on a door to ask for shovels to try to get their van out of a ditch. Instead, they ended up with a place to stay until they could be picked up on Sunday after the storm cleared, The New York Times reported. Alex Campagna, a dentist, posted on Facebook that at around 2 p.m. on Friday, he heard a "frantic knock on the door today during the worst blizzard I've experienced."
Campagna and his wife ended up inviting their 10 visitors in, where they put them up on couches, in sleeping bags, on an air mattress, and in a spare bedroom, The Times reported. Campagna didn't want to let the tour group back out on the roads, saying he knew, "as a Buffalonian, this is on another level, the Darth Vader of storms. "Choi Yoseob, a member of the tour group that Campagna hosted, told The Times that it was "kind of like fate" that they had ended up at the home of a hospitable family with a full pantry."We have enjoyed this so much," Choi told The Times, calling the experience an unforgettable one, and a "unique blessing. "The group spent Friday and Saturday swapping stories and cooking with their hosts. According to The Times, they watched an NFL game on Christmas Eve and made several Korean meals. Campagna and his wife are reportedly fans of Korean food themselves. The Campagnas also had many main ingredients on-hand their visitors needed to make jeyuk bokkeum, stir-fried pork, and Dakori tang, a spicy chicken stew. If the travelers stayed for Christmas dinner on Sunday, the group was planning to make bulgogi, The Times reported. Drivers picked up the tourists on Sunday when roads were cleared and reportedly brought them back to New York City. Choi said he and his wife will stay in NYC for New Year's Eve. The rest of the group is scheduled to fly back to South Korea sometime in the middle of this week. ????
