Last weekend I got the privilege of going to Busan and it was really fun and funny.
Friday: Getting there was interesting. I had a later class so everyone went on without me and I caught up. I thought I would ride on the KTX (the really fast train) to get there in only 3 hours instead of 5 and a half. So when I get to the train station and am waiting in line for the machine to get my ticket from there is a girl in front of me and a man behind me. The girl in front of me seemed to be having issues and so the guy behind me was watching very intently behind my back and looking over my shoulder. He was breaking my space bubble a little. Then the girl got done and I got up there and the man behind me moved up to my right to help me and this other guy appeared out of nowhere to help me on the left. The guy on the left I thought was a train worker but he turned out to be a clerk from the nearby Lotte mart. So they are trying to help me purchase a ticket even though it is in English and they have no idea what it says. So I'm trying to tell them that it is sold out and they aren't understanding so we finally get the ticket. Then the Lotte guy grabs my waist pulls out his cell phone and asks a stranger to take a picture of us on his cell phone. I have no idea who this guy is and he didn't even ask. While taking the picture he keeps pulling me closer to him. It was a little startling but really funny story for later. Then we parted ways and I went to my platform but they were shooting a drama on the platform. This was kinda cool to see because dramas are so huge here. Getting on my train was not to bad I just matched up the characters and the number with the ones on my ticket for which car. Then I asked a random guy where I can sit and he said anywhere. I sat in a window seat so I could see out. There was 4 boys who came in and sat down across the isle from me and I think they were from the military taking the weekend to go home. One of them still had his uniform on. I didn't make eye contact with them and just sat in my seat. A girl sat next to me and got off at the first stop. After a little while one of the boys got up to go to the bathroom and it caught my eye so I looked up at him and made eye contact and smiled. Then when he got off the train he gave me a Starbucks latte and I was so surprised I just said thank you. I couldn't even think to say it in Korean. When he was leaving he waved really big at me. I still can't believe all the kindness of the Koreans. They are always helping out and really accommodating.
Once I got to Busan the girls picked me up and we went to the Hostel. This was probably one of the coolest places I've stayed in. We had our own room with 4 twin beds and then a kitchen and living room and bathroom which we shared with the other people staying there. It was called the Indy House after Indiana Jones and it was only around $17 a night per person. On the last day they even let us leave our stuff there until we left for the bus even though it was after 11 am. Then we went to a delicious Italian restaurant and a bridge where we took pictures and hung out by the sea. Even though it was chilly it was beautiful. Afterward we played on some play ground equipment and hula hooped there.
On Saturday: We went to the fish market in the morning. This was also very interesting. I'm not sure I ever want to eat fish after that. There were also lots of places that sold pork including pork feet and pork heads. There was squid, octopus (live and dead) and sting rays. While we were there we kept getting asked where we were from and the people were all very nice. One lady asked me where I was from and then when I told her she told me I was pretty and started to touch my hair. I wasn't exactly thrilled to have someone touching my hair when they've been working with fish but I guess that it was just a sign of friendliness. On the way to the Lotte department store where we could see the city and sea from a nice view on top we saw the dried market. They dried everything. Apparently even frogs which is what the picture is of. There are also dried squid, octopus and fishes. This was an experience. Once we got to Lotte there was a water show where they shot up water and it feel in designs from the ceiling also. This was all to music and they set it to lights too. In the water falling from the ceiling the wrote words like welcome to Lotte and others. Koreans sure know how to do some things big. The view from the top was also very cool. We could see the view of the market and all the ships coming into it and then also the city and the tower. Best of all it was free to do and we didn't have to pay to get into the Busan tower to see the same view. Inside the department store we saw a Hello Kitty store and a Barbie store. They had everything here. Also I got to eat a bread bowl from Quiznos for the first time since being here. It was delicious even if it wasn't Korean. When I was walking in the store a few little boys ran up to me and shouted Hello! When I asked them their names in Korean they just ran away. Maybe they aren't as tough as they first seemed.
After this we went to see a temple. There are always temples here. The temple was Beomosa and it was kind of far away. When we got off at the subway station we just started to follow the signs thinking they would lead us to the temple. We saw one that said 3 Km and I thought that's not that far so we started walking up the mountain. Then we reached a fork in the road with no sign so we asked a guy. He was so nice even though he was talking on the phone and didn't know where it was he tracked someone down and asked them and translated it back to us. They asked us whether we wanted to take the bus or walk and that should have been our hint but we said walk anyway. 15 min later and one very narrow winding road with no side walk we found a bus. And we embodied the saying stupid foreigners. It was a nice temple though and we were glad we made it up there. It wasn't as cool as the shrines in Japan but it was free and very nice. We were tired and very ready to just sleep or eat or rest. So we went back to the hostel and some of us took a nap. After this we decided to just eat delivery pizza at the hostel but we weren't sure where from. Pizza here is kinda expensive so we asked the lady working at our hostel she showed us a bunch of different menus and even ordered it for us. The only problem was we had a communication error and only had two small pizzas for the four of us. After this we just went out to eat a snack and this guy who was also staying at our hostel came with us. He was from New Hampshire and he was very nice. He had graduated from college and was just taking some traveling time across southeast Asia. After this week looked at all the good Halloween costumes. They don't actually celebrate Halloween as a holiday here just the bars have huge parties for it and people get all dressed up. The costumes were hilarious. We saw a really good Marge Simpson and other people dressed up well too. When we came back to the Hostel we ended up staying up late talking to the guy from New Hampshire and another guy who was staying there from Israel. He spoke awesome English because his dad had grown up in the US and all of his family was still in the US. He told me his dad was an orthopedic surgeon and had gone to Harvard Medical school. He was a nice guy and it was interesting to hear how Israel works.
Sunday: We went to the worlds largest department store in the morning. It was still kind of expensive but had good sales. All of the world famous brands are in it and they even have an ice rink. It's kinda like a mall only just one store. It was very large with I think 12 floors. It also had a Krispy Cream doughnut shop in the basement. Here there are so many doughnut shops here like Krispy Cream and Dunkin' Donuts. After that we hung out at the beach for the rest of the day. This was a beautiful day to do that because it wasn't too cold to put your feet in. It was probably 60 degrees out and the sun was out. There were lots of people at the beach. We had a lot of fun taking random pictures here and just enjoying relaxing. After that we went to get our stuff and get on the bus to come home. The bus ride home was pretty uneventful other than the man next to me was snoring very loudly. I've never actually heard anyone snore on a bus but I'm amazed his wife next to him didn't wake him. It was a very fun trip and I still really like Korea.
Friday: Getting there was interesting. I had a later class so everyone went on without me and I caught up. I thought I would ride on the KTX (the really fast train) to get there in only 3 hours instead of 5 and a half. So when I get to the train station and am waiting in line for the machine to get my ticket from there is a girl in front of me and a man behind me. The girl in front of me seemed to be having issues and so the guy behind me was watching very intently behind my back and looking over my shoulder. He was breaking my space bubble a little. Then the girl got done and I got up there and the man behind me moved up to my right to help me and this other guy appeared out of nowhere to help me on the left. The guy on the left I thought was a train worker but he turned out to be a clerk from the nearby Lotte mart. So they are trying to help me purchase a ticket even though it is in English and they have no idea what it says. So I'm trying to tell them that it is sold out and they aren't understanding so we finally get the ticket. Then the Lotte guy grabs my waist pulls out his cell phone and asks a stranger to take a picture of us on his cell phone. I have no idea who this guy is and he didn't even ask. While taking the picture he keeps pulling me closer to him. It was a little startling but really funny story for later. Then we parted ways and I went to my platform but they were shooting a drama on the platform. This was kinda cool to see because dramas are so huge here. Getting on my train was not to bad I just matched up the characters and the number with the ones on my ticket for which car. Then I asked a random guy where I can sit and he said anywhere. I sat in a window seat so I could see out. There was 4 boys who came in and sat down across the isle from me and I think they were from the military taking the weekend to go home. One of them still had his uniform on. I didn't make eye contact with them and just sat in my seat. A girl sat next to me and got off at the first stop. After a little while one of the boys got up to go to the bathroom and it caught my eye so I looked up at him and made eye contact and smiled. Then when he got off the train he gave me a Starbucks latte and I was so surprised I just said thank you. I couldn't even think to say it in Korean. When he was leaving he waved really big at me. I still can't believe all the kindness of the Koreans. They are always helping out and really accommodating.
Once I got to Busan the girls picked me up and we went to the Hostel. This was probably one of the coolest places I've stayed in. We had our own room with 4 twin beds and then a kitchen and living room and bathroom which we shared with the other people staying there. It was called the Indy House after Indiana Jones and it was only around $17 a night per person. On the last day they even let us leave our stuff there until we left for the bus even though it was after 11 am. Then we went to a delicious Italian restaurant and a bridge where we took pictures and hung out by the sea. Even though it was chilly it was beautiful. Afterward we played on some play ground equipment and hula hooped there.
On Saturday: We went to the fish market in the morning. This was also very interesting. I'm not sure I ever want to eat fish after that. There were also lots of places that sold pork including pork feet and pork heads. There was squid, octopus (live and dead) and sting rays. While we were there we kept getting asked where we were from and the people were all very nice. One lady asked me where I was from and then when I told her she told me I was pretty and started to touch my hair. I wasn't exactly thrilled to have someone touching my hair when they've been working with fish but I guess that it was just a sign of friendliness. On the way to the Lotte department store where we could see the city and sea from a nice view on top we saw the dried market. They dried everything. Apparently even frogs which is what the picture is of. There are also dried squid, octopus and fishes. This was an experience. Once we got to Lotte there was a water show where they shot up water and it feel in designs from the ceiling also. This was all to music and they set it to lights too. In the water falling from the ceiling the wrote words like welcome to Lotte and others. Koreans sure know how to do some things big. The view from the top was also very cool. We could see the view of the market and all the ships coming into it and then also the city and the tower. Best of all it was free to do and we didn't have to pay to get into the Busan tower to see the same view. Inside the department store we saw a Hello Kitty store and a Barbie store. They had everything here. Also I got to eat a bread bowl from Quiznos for the first time since being here. It was delicious even if it wasn't Korean. When I was walking in the store a few little boys ran up to me and shouted Hello! When I asked them their names in Korean they just ran away. Maybe they aren't as tough as they first seemed.
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