Our destination was Busan on the south coast, the second largest city in the country. Check-in wasn’t until 4pm which felt cruel and unusual, so we had plenty of time to kill. Seeing that it was due to rain tomorrow, we swapped round our plans to do all the outdoor activities today - it pays to keep an eye on the forecast kids! We started with yet another climb up many steep hills to reach the Gamcheon Culture Village, on our way we were treated to a fine view across the foggy city below. The village was a former slum town that was re-built to attract tourists, so cue stores of tat and miscellaneous food stalls. Don’t get me wrong, it looked very pretty, and there were even more great views from the top, but something felt a little bit empty about the whole thing. Again, these were people's homes that had to put up with hordes of noisy slow movers. The focus also only appeared to be for the road running along the top of the village, our exploration on lower streets found closed stores and a more abandoned feel.
Moving back into the city centre, we went for a walk around the massive fish market. Stall after stall of seafood in various states, stacked on ice, hung out to dry or very much alive in tanks. I saw a bucket full of octopi, and one made a valiant attempt at escaping before getting into a fight with the stall owner who did her best to shove it back in the water. Walking through the Oxford Circus-style packed city streets full of stalls and shops, we snacked on street food and walked past a sock stall that appeared to be run by a cat. Heading to the central Yongdusan park, the viewing tower was closed for repairs (not that we would have shelled out for that anyway). The very top was hidden in cloud rolling in off the sea.
Our hotel room availability still several hours away, so we ventured north to Beomeosa temple, perched high in the mountains that surround the city. This was home to an order of monks and was undoubtedly the most calm and serene temple we had visited so far. We passed streams flowing around massive boulders and gravestones pitched on top of stone turtles. Hundreds of hanging lanterns decorated the space, and several people were offering prayers to the various statues. Even though it was in the middle of preparations for an event or celebration, the peace I felt was beautiful. The whole place was free to enter, or we accidentally didn’t pay. Either way, bargain.
For the past couple of days, we had been struggling with cash withdrawals. We both have the Halifax Clarity credit card which is great for taking out cash abroad, or at least it was until halfway through this trip. With little other option, when we got into our hotel I had to fire up Skype on my phone and sit on hold for over 30 minutes. When I eventually spoke to a human, I got no decent explanation as to why both our cards stopped working, and were just urged to “keep trying at like banks or something”. Great advice, cheers. I tried to play the “I’m trying to have a honeymoon here” card and all I got was “congratulations on the wedding”.
Still, we had just had a morning and afternoon packed with the most activities and distance covered pre-check in, so now it was time to think about food. Firing up TripAdvisor, it turned out that the #2 restaurant for the whole city was just round the corner, so we went out to find it. The name was not in English, so it took three walks up and down a street until we finally found this haven. We ate delicious bowls of meaty soup with various sides, so incredibly tasty. After that we went for a walk around the crazy neon city streets, noise and people shouting at you from every direction. For a Sunday evening it felt more like a Friday night. These are streets that felt abandoned during the day, it looks like there is more of a night time economy here.
To round off the evening. we took the metro out to the beach at Geumnyeonsan to wait for a light display to begin over the Gwangandaegyo bridge, and accidentally saw a fountain/laser show at the same time. Both confusingly and worryingly, the Russian flag was broadcast across the bridge at the end of the sequence. The beach was busy with people making the most of the warm evening and, naturally, taking selfies with the light show in the background. Walking around the waterfront we came across a whole area filled with people having their own late night picnics and BBQs. This was going on for 10pm and it was still rowdy and full of life. Continuing our walk we came across not one but two Trump Towers. Sad. This was taken as a sign to head to bed, ending our busiest day for a while.
Finally we had two nights staying somewhere again so there was no rush to pack up and move on. I’d managed to get Hola to access the iPlayer and download new Doctor Who, but this wizardry would not extend to the Chromecast, so I had to make do with watching Bill Pott’s introduction on my phone. The expected rain had arrived, but we were ready for it. What we didn’t expect was for the museum we wanted to visit to be closed. Check your opening hours kids! So we went to a shopping mall which was meant to have a viewing tower, which was also closed. But every metro station seems to be a mini mall in itself, so we walked up and down the stalls in the dry, thinking what to do.
Remembering that we walked past a cat cafe the other day, we went there only to be told to give it another hour for cleaning. So we went across the road for lunch at Octopus Chicken. You can imagine what we ordered. It was a platter so big I didn’t really need feeding for the rest of the day. Heading back to the cafe, we were greeted by a basement full of cats in varying degrees of friendliness. Unfortunately one decided to piss all over my coat as soon as we sat down, but what else are waterproofs for? We spent the next hour or so making some new friends, with one curling up on Angelos’ lap for most of our time there.
The weather was still grim and we were reaching for things to do. Cue overpriced aquarium! On the subway out there, we go talking to an old guy. He had brilliant English, but kept apologising. “You won't understand me, my English is very poor” he said in better English than anything I could say in Korean. He was a retired high school English teacher who had never been to the UK, but a trip to USA put him on “cloud nine”. He eventually asked if we were married, I’m almost definite he meant to women, to which we said no. We didn’t want to risk a poor reaction. It got me thinking that, As A Gay Person, you never stop coming out. Or sometimes you just bite your tongue and feign heterosexuality. I’d never had an existential crisis on the way to an aquarium before.
The Sea Life centre was pretty much what you would expect, with the price tag to boot, but it beat walking around in the rain. Feeling a little drained, we went back to the hotel to recharge for a while. The evening was kicked off with a beer at a Galmegi Brewing Co bar near our where we were staying. We then went out to the Film Festival Centre to admire it’s rainbow projected roof, walking past what claimed to be the largest department store in the world. There was supposed to be another Galmegi bar not to far from there, but that was closed. It had been a bad day for that. So we went back to our local Galmegi for a couple of drinks and some snacks, as we were still mostly full of chicken and octopus.
Korea Blogs: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
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