Kelly in Korea: Busan

I stayed in this hostel while in Busan. I picked it because it was right next to the train station and that was very convenient for getting around all the places I went in Busan. 

Some things I've noticed about Korean hostels: people generally are less concerned about safety than in European hostels. Doors are rarely locked and people rarely lock their stuff in lockers. Shoes are normally not allowed to be worn around the hostel. This last one lent us slippers.

My first full day in Busan took me awhile to get going. I decided to just go to Gamcheon Culture Village so I wouldn't feel rushed.

This is my T Money Card. It's like the Oyster Card in London. It's SO convenient. I love it. I love public transportation. I just load it up with cash at the station as often as I need. Instead of buying tickets for each subway or bus trip, I just scan this and it deducts it. It's awesome. I can use it in Seoul and Busan. It's so cheap to use too! Subways are about 1200 won per trip ($1.20) and buses are 800 won ($0.80). 

To get to Gamcheon Village, I needed to take the subway a few stops and then get on a bus. I love subways. I think they're great, easy, convenient, environmentally friendly, I could go on. I wish we had better public transportation in the US. But as much as I love subways, I hate buses. They are so much more confusing and less reliable than subways. And they always smell like pee. Buses stress me out, especially in foreign countries because I never know where to get off the bus. And they don't announce stops, so if I don't remember what the stop I got on looked like, I don't know where to go back to. 

Luckily for me, the bus trip to Gamcheon was so easy. I think it's very popular for tourists, so the bus drivers are especially helpful to those who look lost.

This is what the little bus looked like that I took up the hill to Gamcheon. The bus ride felt like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. The hill was so steep. The bus struggled immensely getting up the hill, so the driver compensated by going as fast as he possibly could. The bus driver took sharp corners fast, and the bus bumped and leaned all over the place. The streets were so narrow. It was a really fun bus ride though. The way down the bus just screeched down at half a mile an hour because it was so steep. 

(Disclaimer: I'm having trouble fact checking this) Gamcheon was a town that was built by refugees during World War II. Very recently, the city has put a lot of money into making it a tourist destination in order to bring more money to the area. It is still one of the more poorer areas of Busan. The money went to revitalizing the city. They tried to make it an art town, so there are lots of art workshops (Western painting, ceramics, etc.) that people can sign up to take in advance, there are murals, local artists shops, empty homes turned into giant art projects. According to one sign, it's used as a successful example of an Urban Revitalization Project. You can still see the poverty in some places. It's dirtier than the city, and some buildings are crumbling, pieces of rebar sticking out of windowless walls. But it's been a really successful tourist attraction.

People still live and work there and there are signs all over the village reminded people to be quiet or that some alleys are off limits to tourists. The horizontal alleys between rows of houses are very, very narrow. You have to squeeze between homes to get through

For two bucks I bought a map of the village that has a stamp scavenger hunt on the back. There are little fish signs pointing you on a tour of the town that you can follow to the different locations. There were 9 stamp places around the village. The places you could go with

The village pours from the top of a hill down into the ocean. It looks like if lava had carved a path with colorful tiny homes. Most of the roofs are blue or green, but there were houses of all colors and shapes and sizes. Tall narrow houses, short square houses. I heard them compared to lego houses. 

The village is surrounded by dark green forests and hills. A lot of Korea is very hilly, and covered in dark green lush forests.

There are tiny alleyways with insanely steep stairs that are uneven and different sizes. 

There are cafes and art shops and art installations lining the tourist trail. The encouraged tourism I think brings a lot of money to the area. It was packed with tourists holding the same map as me, going around collecting stamps. 

The weather was awesome for all the walking I was doing. It was overcast and windy. Still warm and humid, but not unbearable. 

I was half following the path, half kind of wandering anywhere I thought looked cool. I got down into an alley and there were a group of old ladies sitting in plastic lawn chairs who shrieked and grinned and kept saying "hello! hello!" to me. I smiled and said hello back. I was studying my map to see where I was. An older gentleman came up to me and took my map and pointed to a missing stamp location and the pointed me to turn right. 

The guided walk had viewpoints at all angles of the town. I enjoyed just looking down over the sea of colorful homes that poured down into the ocean. And also, the stamp scavenger hunt was really fun. I completed it, although I almost didn't, because the last stamp was so far down the mountain and I didn't want to climb back up. But I did it because I wanted to complete the stamp scavenger hunt.

I started with Haedong Yonggungsa Temple on Tuesday. This was a little harder to get to than Gamcheon. An hour on the subway (one transfer) and a thirty minute bus ride. This bus was a little more challenging because it wasn't clear which side of the street I should get on the bus. I guessed (wrong) and then ran across the street to catch the actual bus. I got on the bus on one side and asked, "Yonggungsa?" and the bus driver said, "Change!" and pointed to the other side of the street. 

I've tried to get more creative with communicating since I don't speak Korean and most people don't speak any English. Pointing has been quite effective, both when ordering food by picture on a menu or when getting directions from someone. I did a lot of pointing and gesturing at the squares on the calendar to indicate to the receptionist at the hostel that I wanted to shorten my stay. I lost my selife stick at a cafe and I came back the next day with a picture I found online of a selfie stick and brought it to the cashier. She knew exactly what I meant and returned the selfie stick to me! (Although losing the selife stick was probably a sign that I should take fewer selfies. I've take more selifes on this trip than I have in my entire life). 

The temple was a ten minute walk from the bus stop along some hills. It got very jungle-y. There were a bunch of food and souvenir stands by the entrance. Once you got past that there were statues for the zodiac animals. 

There were statues hidden in the jungle along the walkway the whole way with little sign descriptions. 

It was louder there than I expected. There were Buddhist chanting recordings playing all over the temple, the waves were crashing on the rocky bluff, and there were lots of jungle bugs hissing and squawking. And the whole place was packed with tourists wielding selfie sticks. Out of all the places I've been so far, this had the most foreigners. And it was sticky humid there.  

The temple was very cool to see. It's perched close to the water. You could walk over bridges, see gold painted statues, look inside the painted temples, and walk around the bluff and the grounds. 

I tossed hurled a coin into this wishing well below the bridge

I made a quick stop by Haeundae Beach. 

I then went to Shigsegae Department Store, the largest department store in the world. In it are a cinema, ice skating rink, and golf course. 

And a spa! 

There are gender separated baths and then a large common area. They give you clothes to wear for when you're in the mixed gender section, but everyone mostly just walks around naked in the gender specific areas. People were very naked. 

The clothes reminded me of PE uniforms. The girls had starchy maroon tshirts and long grey shorts. The guys had variations of brown clothing. I started with the outdoor foot bath to soak my feet. The whole spa seems like a place people went to hang out with their friends or significant others.

There were a bunch of different saunas of varying temperatures. They each had a theme, and described the various health benefits from that room. There were salt rooms, ion rooms, steam rooms, and more. It was crazy. The spa was three floors. 

 For extra fees, you could have various massages or oxygen treatments. There was also a tarot card reader.

Eventually I tried out the women's baths. I didn't stay long because I started to get germaphobic.

 Then I showered and went to check out Haeundae Beach at night, briefly. It reminded me of Waikiki. 

Mike said the mosquitoes in Korea were awful. I thought I missed 'mosquito season' because I was totally fine in Seoul. In Busan I got eaten alive. I have over 20 mosquito bites. I hate mosquitoes. They love me. 

I work very well with deadlines, and I'm a very plan as I go traveler. I tried really hard to plan this all in advance, but I actually work really well booking things at the last minute. I like it because it gives me flexibility if I need to change my plans, and also the pressure of 'if you don't book something now you won't have a place to sleep tonight' helps me actually book places.


Food

Shrimp fried rice at Busan Train Station

Stir fried noodles from Shinsegae Department Store

Hostel breakfast

Dessert

I'm not really missing American food here (yet). I mostly just miss the ease of ordering food and finding something that I know I will like. I do like the food I've had so far. I've been exposed to some Korean food before coming here, which helps because it helps give me an idea of what I will like. And knowing how to use chopsticks. I could imagine it would be challenging if you were from somewhere that had never exposed you to this type of food or eating with chopsticks. Except most restaurants use metal chopsticks which are heavier and more slippery than the wooden chopsticks I'm used to. But I've finally gotten the hang of it!

They really are flavors I've never tasted before though. It's good, and I've liked pretty much everything I've tried so far. I'm trying to slowly branch out and try more and different Korean food and get braver. A lot of stuff at markets or in restaurants I've never seen before, and if the sign has no translation sometimes I have no idea what it is either, which is an interesting experience. 

Even things that seem like they would taste the same everywhere, don't. I got a chicken ciabatta snack at a coffeehouse and the chicken had Korean like spices. (Kind of like how foreign food gets an American spin in the US). 

The only Korean product I've really struggled with is alcohol. I'm still adapting to that taste. The beer is good, and interestingly the bubbles are bigger than the ones in other beers I've had. Two items I've sought out that I've struggled to find here are wine and dark chocolate. I didn't realize how abundant wine and chocolate is in Europe until going somewhere where it really isn't.

Kelly in Korea: Seoul Searching

While I wish I had taken more advantage of the lack of responsibility and time I had before I start graduate school, I am glad that I am taking this trip.

I have put significant more time and effort into planning and organizing my trip to Korea. I am sure there was probably a more efficient way to plan my trip, but I am new to this.

They say you learn about yourself when you travel, and one lesson I've learned glaringly clear over and over again is that I am terrible at planning.

Photo credit: Mom! 

I flew Singapore Airlines to Seoul. I flew on Singapore Airlines because it was the cheapest flight I could find, which is how I choose all of my flights. In Europe, this meant spending five and a half weeks flying low budget no frills airlines whose only job was to get you from point A to point B. Anything beyond that cost extra. 

I felt so spoiled on the Singapore Airlines flight. They gave out free headphones, blankets, and pillows. Free food, snacks, and alcohol. They even gave out hot towels! 

I landed in Seoul Wednesday evening and took the train to the stop closest to my hostel. I used the directions I had screenshotted from the hostel website and got very close, but couldn't figure out exactly where to go. My hostel is in the area of Seoul called Hongdae, which is near Hongik University and is a really trendy area with cafes, bars, shops, clubs, restaurants, and a ton of young people milling around. 

I overheard some people speaking English, so I asked for their help in finding the hostel. One of the guys was very friendly and helpful. He was Korean, but had gone to university at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. He called the hostel and walked me to it so I wouldn't get lost.

Traveling reminds me how much of my life is easier because I maintain my lifestyle. When I travel, everything gets disrupted. So I spent the first night reorienting myself. In this order I needed water, a bathroom, food, a shower, clean clothes, and sleep. It's like the travel version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

The hostel has a terrace with a great view

 No shoes indoors, here is the shoe 'closet' outside the hostel. 

Fingers crossed no one steals my shoes!

This hostel is quite different from the average European hostel I've stayed in. In western hostels my grungy backpacker look blends right in. In 20 people to a room coed bunks everyone has the same lack of privacy. So I walk around in a towel, or I walk around in my pajamas, and no one even looks twice. While both single and mixed gender rooms are available both in Europe and in Korea, from what I've seen, it seems like single gender rooms are more common than mixed in Korea, while the opposite is true in Europe. 

This hostel has Korean style mattresses, which are thinner and firmer than the average American mattress. People are also more trusting here than in Europe, or things just get stolen less. There are no keys for the bedrooms and no one uses the lockers.

Also, most European hostels charge for extras, like renting towels, doing laundry, buying soap. Here it's all free. They have communal soaps, shampoos, and toothpaste in the bathrooms free for anyone to use. A laundry machine, and complimentary towels. (Although they are hand towel sized.)

It's a pretty small hostel, only 18 beds. There are several girls who are staying here long term. Some are from France and one is from China. They are here for several weeks in this one hostel and have made it their home base. I think the longest I've ever stayed in one hostel is four or five nights. 

I do like hostels though. As much as I get freaked out by safety or cleanliness, I like meeting and talking with other travelers. It's usually a pretty laid back place to stay full of other young people.

My first day I decided to explore Hongdae. I got to see a lot of Hongdae because I got lost a lot. The maps I have are proportioned disproportionately, so some parts are a lot closer than they appear on the map and some are much, much farther.

There are a lot of cute shops in Hongdae. There are clothing stores, jewelry stores, lots of cute sock stores, and all types of street food. It all seemed very trendy. I really like Korean fashion. 

I went to a Hello Kitty cafe for a necessary caffeine fueling. It was cute and very pink and everything down to the water pitcher was Hello Kitty.   

 Even the bathroom!

While I was shopping, a Korean guy approached me and asked if he could walk with me to practice his English. I agreed and walked with him until the train station. He was nice, but spoke very little English. 

I then took the train a few stops up to shop at a street called 'Street You Want to Visit' near Ewha Woman's University. There were also a lot of cute shops here. While researching Seoul, a lot of websites mentioned that the shopping in the city is superb and I just assumed that meant that there was a lot of it. The shopping really is superb here and it's more than just a quantity of shops. There definitely is a quantity, but there is also quality and variety. From what I know about capitalism, Seoul really seems to excel at it. Employees at stores seem to really care about their jobs, or at least customer service. I walked into one cosmetics shop and was handed a mini shopping basket and a complimentary bottle of water.

Selfie encouraging art installation on 'Street You Want to Visit'

I then took a walk along the river which turned out to be a lot longer walk than I planned because there was a very large park with no access to the street. The park was lovely though, with bike paths and walking paths running parallel to the river. 

 

 

 There was a guy waterskiing on the river too!

My feet hurt immensely after all the walking, so I took a break at the hostel before heading out to see North Seoul Tower. My plan was to go a little before sunset so that I could see the view during the day, see the sunset, and see the view at night. It turned out that everyone in Seoul decided to go to the tower Thursday night so it took a lot longer to get up than I actually budgeted. 

There is a cable car that takes you to the top of the mountain. The view from the top of the mountain is also really great. There were lots of restaurants and families and couples hanging out. There was even a live band for a little bit. 

I then took an elevator up Seoul Tower. There are 360 degree views of Seoul. The window panels have the names of cities that are in that direction and how many miles it is to them. It was packed up there. 

Seoul is SO BIG. It is one of the largest, most sprawling cities I've ever been to. And there are so many skyscrapers and lights! Seoul reminds me a bit of Paris. Paris has one fifth of the population of Seoul, but they're both cosmopolitan feeling cities with great and extensive metro systems. 

 And I could see for miles, miles, miles

 My hostel lends out free selfie sticks, hence the higher quantity of selfies (major downside of traveling alone is not having anyone to take your picture). Luckily, I blended right in, almost everyone, even those who weren't alone, was carrying a selfie stick.

I started my day at Gyeongbokgung Palace. I spent awhile walking around the grounds.

Selfie Sticks are also for discouraging aggressive pigeons 

I then walked through Bukchon Culture Village, which is very hilly but also right next to the palace grounds. It was very cute.

I went to a 'Tea Museum' that charged 5000 won entry fee (5 bucks), but came with a free cup of tea, however if you wanted to see the exhibit you were charged extra fees. I stuck with the tea and the view. I thought the juxtaposition of the old city to the new one was very cool.

 

I then went shopping in Insadong and had dinner. Insadong is fully of tourist oriented shops selling all kinds of kitschy souvenirs.

Then I went for a walk along the urban stream, a renovated waterway in the middle of the city. It's called Cheonggyecheon Stream. You can normally walk the length of the 11km stream, but they closed all of the staircases because of the rain (I asked at the tourist information booth).

Food and Alcohol

So far, the most challenging part of being in Korea is the food. The majority of this problem comes from the language barrier. I can't read or speak a word of Korean. So I am unable to go to restaurants that don't have English translations or pictures. I could, but I'm not a very brave eater, so it would be quite risky. There are not a ton of restaurants with either translations or pictures. Seeking out the ones that do is challenging. I order food by pointing and smiling and hoping for the best. 

There is tons of street food and I haven't put a dent in trying it all yet. My first day, I got an assortment of seaweed rolls from a street vendor. 

I tried not to think too much about what type of meat was in them, but then I found these little guys and that was the end of that meal.

I cheated last night and got a chicken kebab from a Turkish food stand and it was absolutely delicious. 

Yesterday for lunch, I got an egg and pumpkin sandwich. I like egg, and pumpkin, and sandwiches, although together it was interesting. And a lot crunchier than it should have been.

For dinner I ordered a very Korean meal. The main dish I ordered was a pureed soy bean stew, I think. It came with all of this, and for only about 8 bucks. 

 

 I had no idea what it was or how to eat it.

I'm sure I looked like an idiot trying to eat it all with the chopsticks and spoon they gave me. 

There was rice, seaweed, several types of kimchi, stew, and rice wine. It was wildly spicy and mildly sour. I think it was all you can eat, because I finished one dish of kimchi and the waitress came back with a fresh dish. I couldn't finish all of that food though. I definitely have a western tongue and my palate hasn't quite adapted to the Korean flavors yet.

I drank a whole jug of water to wash down the spiciness.

I really try to avoid all American chains while abroad in order to use every opportunity to try local cuisine. American chains are not prolific (with the exception being 7-11), but I've seen quite a variety. I've even seen knockoffs (a store that looked exactly like a Ben and Jerry's but was called Monsters) and ones like these:

 

Rain

Before I left, my weather app told me that it would be 80 and rainy on and off while I was in Seoul. 80 was fine, but I was really looking forward to the rain. When I got here, I checked the weather forecast again and it was sunny all week. I am the bringer of drought, apparently. It's been 80-90 degrees since I've been here, sunny, and humid. It's super sweaty weather. Today I saw a glimmer of hope in the dark clouds growing overhead. It sprinkled a little bit while I was at the palace.

When I was at Insadong, it started actually raining and everyone lost their mind. I was so surprised at everyone's reaction. For a country with a several month monsoon period you think people would be better equipped to handle the rain. This wasn't torrential downpour, either. It was like a sprinkle on steroids. The raindrops were fat, but were sporadic at best. People covered up their stands in plastic wrap and closed up shop. People dove for cover under overhangs. People ran down the street holding whatever they had overhead to block the rain, purses, newspapers, coats. They even went through the trouble of locking up all the stairwell entrances along an 11km stream because it was raining. I must have looked crazy to everyone else, just walking down the street like the weather hadn't changed at all. If anyone asked why I would possible want to walk unobstructed in the rain in a tshirt, I planned to tell them that I was from California and hope that would suffice.

After these last few days of so much walking, all I know for sure is my feet hurt.

European Reflection

I am still in the process of finishing this extremely late post, but I wanted to post it so that I can talk about my Korea trip and then I can go back and edit this one later. Just so it's in the correct order when I go back and add more.

I am fully aware that I'm a huge procrastinator, however late this is though, I did want to include a quick debriefing of my European vacation.

Thirteen cities, twelve countries, five and a half weeks, and two backpacks. 

I got to go to Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Vatican City, France, Germany, Austria, Scotland, England, and Sweden last Fall and I loved every minute of it. I added three new countries to my list and lots of new sights and experiences.

I flew home from Stockholm in late November last year with my significantly dirtier two backpacks stuffed full of smelly clothes and souvenirs I had accumulated.

I was worried when booking the trip that I would get burned out on traveling. It turned out that five and a half weeks was not long nearly long enough. 

I am so thankful I went to Europe last fall. I had an amazing time, and amazing experiences. And it was really fun. While I had to serve a lot of sandwiches to recover from that trip financially, every city and sight was worth every overpriced penny.

I miss daily cappuccinos and evening glasses of wine. I miss cobblestone streets and old, established cities. I miss being on the move.

I miss eating fresh baguettes with cheese and turkey for meals. I even miss holding up packages of deli meat in Sweden and asking as politely as I could, "Excuse me, do you know what type of animal this comes from?" 

When I lived in Edinburgh, walking was my almost exclusive mode of transportation. I walked to the grocery store, to work, to friends apartments across the city. One of the things I miss the most about living there is walking around the dark, misty city with one earbud in listening to my iPod. While I love the sounds of the city, sometimes it's nice to have a soundtrack to your commute.

Traveling also allows me many opportunities to listen to music. While walking around, while on trains, while writing postcards in my hostel bunk. I wanted to share my favorite songs to listen to while traveling.

Traveling Playlist 2014
Atlas Hands - Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Featherstone - The Paper Kites
I Forget Where We Were - Ben Howard
Below My Feet - Mumford and Sons
Holland Road - Mumford and Sons
Step Out - Jose Gonzalez
Dirty Paws - Of Monsters and Men
Lakehouse - Of Monsters and Men
This Is What It Feels Like - Armin Van Buuren
Budapest - George Ezra
Blame It On Me - George Ezra
It's Time - Imagine Dragons
The Unknown - Athlete