Day 6 - Day trip to Busan This is basically a trip within a trip. If I lived in Seoul, this would be a mini vacation. Like living in Portland and going to Seattle for a day. Or vice versa (more accurately?). So, early start. First train is at something like 5 am but I'm not that hardcore, so I just set my alarm for around then. Trains run every half hour or so all day. I wake up, have a Zone bar with some instant coffee (a story in itself but I'm too lazy to tell it at this point). Since I'll have roughly five hours on the train round trip, I might as well use the time, so I bring the laptop and the backpack that holds it. Making my way to the station I buy a first class one-way ticket (around $65). Since I have no idea when I would be coming back, I leave the return decision to there and then. There are people around, but I find a way for them not to be in most of my pix. It is how I do.
The train ride is comfortable, there is a power outlet for the laptop, and so I mostly focus on processing prior days' pictures with occasional glance outside. When the train is moving full speed (200+ mph) it is similar to takeoff speed of an airliner. So if you've seen what it looks like out of an airplane window just prior to rotation on takeoff, you get the idea of what it's like.
On arrival I take my time disembarking, being rewarded with more people-free shots. I do enjoy seeing the world this way.
The plaza outside the station is busy. It is warm. There are several signs in Russian, including one on a sex shop front and center. Interesting.
I do the 'look at Google maps' exploration and see that there is some kind of cable car across a bay. Good starting point. It's a short bus ride there, and my Tour Card app works for public transit here too.
Getting off the bus, Google still doesn't understand walking pathways so it just plots a straight line. I have to zoom into the map and use the directional pointer to figure out which back alley to take. It works out.
The bay is cool. It being about 55F with the sunshine, there aren't many people on the beach. Or in general. Just how I like it.
Just for the record, if mermaids were at all a thing, that is not how the tail would work. But this is art so artistic license granted. From an engineer.
Fishes, in abstract and edible forms, are more like it.
There is a small library type shack in a small park. No idea why or how. It just is.
Of course since I'm here, I do have to take the cable car. Both ways. I opt for the 'glass bottom' option. And even knowing full well, as an engineer, that it is completely safe, I do feel odd uncertainty standing on the glass floor. Especially once the car is up a ways. Humans. Funny how we function.
At the other end is a park, and I do meander for a bit, but I only have the one day and several suggestions of things to see. Both from friends and from Google. So I head back.
Next up is a hilltop 'cultural village'. There is a walk to the bus, then a bus ride, then another walk. As before, Google just plots straight lines for the walks leaving it to me to figure it out. The actual pathways look like this. All uphill, of course.
With the backpack on my back and the still-sore foot, I am happy to reach the bus stop. The bus takes a while to arrive. There has got to be a better way to do the whole public transport thing. More on that later. The bus does arrive, and takes me a ways up the hill (mountain?). Disembarking it's another Google straight line, still very much uphill.
After a good deal of climbing I pass a whimsical bus stop with mannequin 'passengers' waiting to board, forever. Apparently Google didn't consider this bus as an option or maybe it thought I needed the excrcise. Can't say it's wrong.
More climbing. At some point, signs say 'cultural village this way' and 'cultural tombstone', or something to that effect, the other. Eeenie-meenie. I choose tombstone. It quickly turns from a street to a dirt path to a barely discernable, and climbing, footpath up the side of the hill. What it leads to is a shrine of some kind. It is very cool to see and I'm glad I took the 'wrong' turn and didn't miss it. Not sure of the details, but certain of its authenticity.
From there, I can see a rough footpath further up the hill. Maps tells me it's the general direction I want to go, but offers no assurances I'd get there this way. Worth a try.
After much climbing and some spectacular views I realize that I'm now well above the cultural village that is the intended destination. So I walk back down following another path, and eventually I'm there. It's cool.
I stop for a coffee at a cafe, and use the wall mirror to get a selfie. Yes, this is how I look in selfies. No matter the angle.
According to Google, the fish market is another cool thing to check out here. So a long walk down to the bus stop it thinks is legit (still not seeing the ones right along the way, and still just plotting a straight line). But it's fine, I have the time and I've told my foot to suck it up and deal with it.
The fish market is in a slightly different spot than what Google suggests, but once in the neighborhood it's obvious. And wow.
OK, so now I have to eat some of these critters. Experience meal. So I find a restaurant/fishstand, sit down, and point-grunt my way through the menu. English is not much help here. I haven't had a beer in years but this seems like a good time. And assorted fried fish.
The food is delicious but too much, so I point and grunt to get them to pack up 2/3 of it for me to go. Ends up being about $20, for three meals' worth of fish and a beer. And there is a robotic bus boy. Human wait staff still serve you, the robot just carries things for them. There was one at the bbq place earlier as well.
Having consumed the fish I start getting the feeling that this will be gastrointestinally challenging, delicious as it was. I start walking towards the subway which will take me to the train station, past more fish.
The fish market is right at the port, but there isn't a discernible way through. Finally I spot a narrow gate and go through it. The port is very cool. This is what brings all the critters in. The economics of the place still escapes me, but what do I know. It's been here longer than I've been alive, so must work somehow.
A helicopter randomly flies overhead so I take a picture. Strobe light.
Done with the port walk, I'm starting to feel that getting back to the train station and its bathrooms is becoming more urgent. So I hasten my pace.
Most places in Europe I'm mistaken for a local, and people often ask me directions in whatever the local language happens to be. Here it's not a risk, but someone does ask me in Russian how to buy a subway ticket. I guess I look the part. Unfortunately I'm not much help since I use the electronic Tour Card, and I really got to get to the train station ASAP. Which I do and all is well. Part of the experience. I still have 2/3 of the fish and since it is so tasty, I'm very much intent on consuming it in the days to come. Whatever the consequences. I buy the ticket back to Seoul and spend the train ride sorting the photos. Very cool day.
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