February 28, 2010
Fourth day in Korea
So, I woke up today to try to find a post office to send off a few postcards that I wrote for my friends and family. I couldn’t believe how hard it was to find a postcard in this country. I’m sure I mentioned it in the previous post, but they are dam hard!
As a recommendation to all I would just buy a card from the stationary store. They are cheaper and cost just as much to send. I’m talking like a birthday card, but you can get them here with photos of famous places around here. That is what a post card generally is right?
Anyhow, I started at checking out of the hotel. I asked the service person at the desk, “Where is the nearest post office?” He seemed to know what he was talking about and immediately pointed me in the direction. Not thinking about a thing I made my way down the street towards the post office.
I was walking down the street, and I really liked the weather. It was a beautiful day, the sun was out and there was a slight breeze. Then I realized something. I didn’t know what the dam name of the post office looked like in Korean, or didn’t even know what a post box looked like.
Flustered, because I was walking for about 20 minutes for something I don’t know what I was looking for, I went into a STARBUCKS for a coffee. Walking into the store, that I must have been in at least five times over my two-day stay in Busan, I was pleasant surprise.
The girl behind the counter spoke Japanese. I found out because I smiled, walked up to the counter, and pointed at a Caramel Macchiato tall. By the way, coffee lovers, coffee is starting to pick up around Korea right now. It is REALLY cheap, aside from STARBUCKS, and the portions are ginormous!
The girl behind the counter immediately started with Japanese, rather than English, and so I went on after my order, to ask where the post office was. She informed me that it was Sunday, and the post offices are closed.
DAM AGAIN! That is twice in one day, no the same hour that I made some simple stupid mistake! WOW! I thanked her for her services, and went to go check my email with my coffee at hand. I also checked the schedule for the trains going back to Seoul.
With little to no time left before my trains’ departure, I decided to hang out around Busan Station. I never really went to this area, so I decided to look around a little. There was a Chinatown right across the way, and some very interesting pieces of art statues around the station exterior.
Finding none of it really that amusing, I went to board the train. Now, here is another hint for people trying to get around in Korea, and don’t speak Korean.
First, use the Korail Pass! Yes, I am mentioning it again. It saved me some money, and I was able to use that later to buy souvenirs. Second, make sure the person issuing you the ticket tells/writes your gate number! I failed to do so, and spent 15 minutes walking back and forth trying to figure out where the hell my train was!
It was a real pain. The only good thing that came out of it was the fact that I was able to find a really good sandwich place that served me roast beef on parmesan bread. It was delicious, and the only thing that I ate in Korea that I forgot to take a picture of. Darn. The train ride back was pretty uneventful.
The only funny thing was the lady that was next to me kept falling asleep, and would start leaning every-which-way. Then she would suddenly jerk back awake! It was funny for about the first 10 times, but it did start to get old. I wanted to tell her to just recline the seat and get comfortable. Although, I didn’t know how… so I didn’t.
Arriving at Seoul Station was nothing big. I was just wondering what I should do after I dropped my luggage at the hostel. I decided on going to the South Gate of Seoul. So, I went to the hostel.
Now, remember a few days ago, how my room was not ready? Well, it was a repeat of that event. So, I moved my stuff to the other room, and then checked my email. I was still trying to meet up with Ben. Nothing from him, so I sent out an email to ask if he wanted to meet and I would check again around dinnertime.
Now, I made my way to the South Gate. I got out at the station and started to walk around looking for this thing. It was nowhere to be found. I was wondering, how does a gigantic gate disappear?
So, as I was looking around, I ran into these foreigners. I asked if they knew where the gate was. They nodded an immediate affirmative. Then they pointed at a box of a building with no windows, and a big covered chain-linked fence around it. I was then informed that five years ago, there was a big fire there, and they are still trying to put it back to its original shape.
Again, I was disappointed. Looking around I found a string of camera shops. Why not? I’m a camera buff. Therefore, I went into one after another looking for a stofen light diffuser for my flash. Only one out of all the stores had one. He wanted 25,000 won for it. I wasn’t going to give it to him. I walked out of the store with it for 7,000 won. I love bargaining.
So, again I was happy, but I was also hungry. I remembered seeing an Outback Steakhouse around here somewhere. Outback Steakhouse has never sounded so good. Walking around for 45 minutes, quite literally around (I must have past the same stop light about 5-6 times), I finally found it down a little side street.
It was AWESOME! Now, there is this famous canal around these parts too! The Cheonggyechong, was about a 3.6 mile stream with waterfalls and fountains. I walked around looking for it, but had no success. Then it hit me! I told Ben about the meeting up in Korea! Making my way back to the hostel I checked my watch to find that it was 21:00 hours. I hope I am not too late!
Making back to the hostel, I checked my email to find out that Ben wanted to meet up around 19:00 – 20:00 hours. Sending an apologetic email for my tardiness, I decided to turn in for the night.
This was a pretty short day for me. Most of it was spent around the shopping areas. Every time I got lost I would spend the time looking at things and shopping around. I was in the Namdaemun Market area. That is where the South Gate is near. Thus, there was not a lot to write about today. I’m also getting really tired, so I will stop here.
Stay tuned for my last full day in Korea!
(Pretty cool way of showing the Year of the Tiger)
(Western foods are really taking off!)
For more pictures click HERE!
February 27, 2010
Third day in Korea
This day started slow for me. I was extremely tired, and was feeling sluggish. I got to STARBUCKS for breakfast and the use of the internet around 10:00 hours. At this time I was looking at my email to check up on some info about Ben and his whereabouts and to check up on my trip to SAPPORO when I get back.
After finishing up with the internet, I made my way to Yongdusan Park. There were various things here, but what I was told yesterday, by information (Busan Station English speaker dude), is that this was where you can get the best look at Busan. He wasn’t wrong either. Here at Busan Tower, you can see all of Busan. It was gorgeous! I could not believe the view. I really did see all of Busan.
To get to the park was kind of a trek though. It was really fun! You had to go up four flights of elevators. The thing is, they only go one direction and that is up. Meaning you have to walk down four flights of stairs. Along the way there was this neat temple, and another exercise type park with all these metal exercise equipment. Then you get to the tower and a few hidden things.
Now, I was having difficulties finding a souvenir for one of my friends. It was ridiculous! You cannot buy a single postcard in this area. You need to buy a set of cards! So, for a friend back in Japan, I bought ten cards. While, I was there I was pretty much able to get the souvenirs for everyone else too! There are a few people that I still need to shop for, but I will take care of that in Seoul tomorrow.
It is funny, because people in this country do not speak English or Japanese at all. Not that they should or have to, but even in JAPAN, you get the occasional person that speaks English. Not really the case here. That is why I was surprised when I went into this souvenir shop, and they spoke both. I was quite happy, but I have to say I wish they would spread it out more. From Busan Tower, I wanted to go to the Taejongdae Cliffs.
As I came down from the tower though, I ended up in Nampodong shopping district. It was neat looking with all sorts of statures and stores. I walked around there looking at things, and walked into a few camera stores to see if they had a diffuser for my 580EX. Unfortunately, they didn’t. Therefore, I just continued walked around. I was getting hungry and noticed that the time was about 14:00 hours.
Looking for a place to eat, I walked into the dry fish market. Interested, I walked around for a little, but hunger soon took over. I took a few photos, but nothing worth noting. While walking around hungry looking for a place to eat, aside from the dried fish food stalls, I walked into a celebration of some sort. Curious as to what it was, I took a few photos. Again, hunger took over and I moved on. It seriously took me 45 minutes to find a place to eat.
Finally, I ended up at this restaurant named: ‘VIPS’. Not knowing what they served or how they served I went up and in. I was starving. The waitress asked me how many people, and I said, “one”, and was walked over to a table. Still not knowing what type of restaurant it was, the waitress came buy and asked me what I wanted to eat. I looked and there was a special type of steak on the menu.
I ordered the steak, and was told that there was a salad bar on the other side of the wall. Not thinking much about it, I thanked the girl and made my way towards the salad. This is where I found three tables full of food.
Oddly, only one of them had salad on it. The other two had ribs, pastas, fried chicken, pizza, and do-it-yourself burritos with all the sides. There were also two more stations, one with three different types of soups: Creamed Corn, Cream of Broccoli, and Vegetable beef, and the other with desserts: Soft Serve Ice Cream, Tira Misu, Cheesecake (Asian Style), and a pound cake. All of them were excellent.
Then the steak came. It was delicious as well, but VERY expensive. When I finished, I paid more for this single meal, than I did for all the meals that I had here combined, thus far. It was the single most expensive thing I have done here. Following that I decided to go ahead and make my way towards Taejongdea. Now, unknowingly I did the right thing by eating this meal.
Now, the hardest thing that I have done in Korea has to be what is coming up. I have never heard of this Taejongdea, and really didn’t know where it was. It was pushing 16:00 hours and I was thinking that this would be easy. I was wrong. First, it started by getting onto a bus. This should be easy, right? So when there are 4 bus stops consecutively next to each other and you can’t read Taejongdea, which one do you choose?
I went to the youngest person alone in the crowd and asked, “Taejongdea?” It didn’t really work at first, until one person nodded and pointed to a bus that was about to take off. I ran onto the bus, and said the same thing to the driver.
He nodded and pointed for me to pay. I pulled out some coins thinking that it wouldn’t really cost a note to get onto a bus, and the driver kept telling me to put more coins in. Again, I was wrong. You need to pay 1000 won (~$0.90) to get on.
So I do remember people telling me at Busan tower, that the trip would be about 25 – 30 minutes, and they were right. This bus driver was funny, and was swearing (I think) at a lot of the cars that were getting in the way.
We arrived at the entrance to Taejongdea around 16:45 hours. I got off the bus, feeling quite carsick from all the food prior, and started to walk the wrong way. The bus driver honked at me, and then pointed the opposite direction of the way I was walking.
I turned around and made my way towards this park. Little did I know that it was a mountain, and the trail that I was about to walk was about five kilometers long. It wouldn’t have been so bad if it was a straight line, but this was up and down the mountain with too many stairs.
The stairs were made of the natural rock or wood that the people put there. It was stiflingly hard. Although, I have to say with all the views it was worth it. This is one point of Korea, that if the day was clear, then you could see Japan. If you are wondering, the day was cloudy, misty and cold.
There was an observatory, lighthouse, temple, and a café/souvenir shop along the way. It was really nice, but I didn’t know how long this thing was, and dark was approaching. I could tell because the camera did not like the lighting situation as much as I walked further. I made it though!
Two and a half hours later. I finished this long march up and down the mountain. From the sea, to the peak of the mountain I went. I saw so much, and it was a lot of natural beauty. Another cool thing I saw, was how they integrated the bathrooms into the trail. I actually took quite a few photos of that.
When it was all done, I made my way back towards the bus stop. I realized something though. I didn’t know how to get back. Thankfully there were these high school girls who were headed towards a station that I knew how to get back to my hotel from. They just let me follow them. It was interesting. Their English was almost nonexistent. It was more along the lines of me pretending that I understood their Korean.
We arrived at Nampodong Market and got out of the bus. I thanked the girls and made my way towards the market. My legs were in pain from all the dam walking in the forest. So I decided to take the easy path and just walked down it. As I was walking I noticed a bibinba restaurant.
I haven’t eaten that whilst in Korea yet, so I stopped and had some bibinba. It was GREAT! Then I went to a bar called: ‘New York Bar’ in hopes for a Rum and Coke, but to no avail. I ended up with a midori sour, which was pretty good, but had no sweet and sour mix in it… Just midori and lemon-lime soda.
Then after that slight disappointment, I walked outside and noticed a Haagen-Dazs Ice Cream Parlor. I got Strawberry Cheesecake and Cookies’n’Cream ice cream. That was very satisfying. After eating, the adventures of the day started to catch up with me, and I decided to turn in for the night, and get ready to go to Seoul tomorrow. Well, that is all for Busan it looks like.
Stay tuned for more excitement in Korea!
Fore more photos from Busan click HERE!
(Pretty cool way of showing the Year of the Tiger)
(Western foods are really taking off!)
For more pictures click HERE!
