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Suncheon

  The next stop along my route was Suncheon. I mostly picked this spot out of convenience, but it was a nice city to stop in for a couple days.   The first day I just kinda wandered around the area, I wasn’t quite sure where I was going and was a bit indecisive so I ended up just wandering the town with no real plan, which truthfully is a great way to explore. I ended up seeing some really beautiful parks, as well as a bit of a tourist quarter, and an area around a middle school which had lots of small kids a few of whom hid behind their moms nervous to say hello to me, but clearly wanting to. Of course, they all got a piece of chocolate for their bravery in saying hello in English.  In the evening I returned to my room where I chatted with my two roommates, a French and a German girl. They were both interesting and nice and we discussed plans for a few days and ideas and it was nice to have people to bounce ideas off of.  The next morning they both got going early, before I got up,
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Tongyeong

Next I went to the town of Tongyeong-si. It’s an island town a ew hours west of Busan. There are many islands around it and it has a very terminal to take people to a number of them. I took the bus to Tongyeon, and when I got there, likely looking confused as I tried to figure out where I would get lunch my bus driver came up to me. He asked if I needed help finding my next bus and I explained that I was trying to figure out where to get lunch and he offered to join me. Never being one to turn down a Korean picking the restaurant and ordering for me I obliged and we went to the restaurant across the street. I got this cold noodle bow which was delicious and really interesting. It had glass noodles and was served in a cold broth with pork and hard boiled eggs and lots of veggies, but what made it really interesting was that it also had tons of tiny flakes of ice in it to keep it cold. I’ve never had iced soup before, but it was really really nice and I image in the summer it would be fa
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Busan

The next stop on my journey is Busan, the second biggest city in Korea. I’ve been told it’s actually the most visited city by international tourists, but a quick google search did not corroborate that fact, so I’m not entirely sure it’s true. Nonetheless, it’s quite a popular place to visit by tourists and it’s a very large city. I stayed in the market district, with its large flashing lights and copious street vendors. It was a bit exhausting at times, but it does make for a more comfortable place to walk around in the evenings when you are in a location that is fairly full of people.   The first day in Busan (pronounced Pusan) I wandered the streets around my hostel. Often on travel days I’m a bit uninspired to travel far from my hostel cause I need to drop off my bags, then go back to check in between 2-5pm and then go back out or lug my bags around all day. So I usually just drop by bags off whenever I get to the city, usually around noon-ish and stick around until 2 when I can c
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Daegu

The next town I headed to was Daegu. This was a bit of a choice of convenience. My original plan was to go to Busan next, a major city, but when I went to find places to stay, all the cheap places were booked out. I set myself a strict $55/day budget (average) for this trip, and finding hotels in my price range, was unattainable for the weekend. Most places I stay here are around $13-20/night and hotels around $20-40/night. I’m not staying anywhere flashy or fancy, thats for sure, but they are probably the equivalent of a quality inn, a good enough, clean room in safe and convenient neighborhoods either close to the bus station or close to the city attractions. Unfortunately for the weekend, hostels were going for $100/night, to share a room. So, I looked at the train route and the stops and started looking up the cities along the route to spend the weekend. Which is how I ended up in Daegu.  Daegu is the third largest metropolitan area in Korea. So, maybe I should have heard of it bef
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Gyeongju

 My next stop is Gyeongju. It once was the 4th biggest city in the world and was the capital of the Silla empire, but you wouldn’t really know that from it today. It is called the museum without walls, and is a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s a really beautiful city to walk around in. So much of the historic architecture is preserved in the city, traditional ‘Hanook’ houses stand still, many have been turned into inns, restaurants, and cafes.  There are large grassy hills, maybe 20 meter in height, all around the city. These are old burial mounds of royal/important people. The city is designed around them with green spaces, palaces, pagodas, temples, and museums scattered throughout the area free to wander. It’s a great place to experience history and look into culture. As I wandered through one of the historic palace grounds I was greeted, quite literally, by a hundred or so middle school Korean kids on a school trip. They wandered freely in the old palace grounds, playing and laughi
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Sokcho and Seoroksan NP

My next journey was Sokcho and Seoroksan National Park. The plan was simple. My bus was at 10:30. Maps projected it taking 45 minutes by bus to arrive at the bus station. I decided to leave at 8:45, giving myself double the projected journey time… it was not simple. I arrived at my first bus stop with all my stuff on my back, crossing the street 3 times before I find it. I looked at the Korean sign and saw the bus number written on the sign. “Good I’m at the right place” I thought. I read the bus comes every 10-15 minutes. Not a problem. Others waited with me. I ask a Korean girl if I’m at the right stop. She says yes. 10 minutes pass and I think ‘wow I must have just missed the bus’… 20 minutes pass and I think ‘oh the buses must be late’. 25 minutes pass, the bus drives by, it does not stop. Myself and 3 Koreans start to run after it. It continues on. I run after it until the next bus stop. It doesn’t stop there either. The stress begins. ‘Not to worry’ I think to myself. Maybe the n
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Seoul

The next few days I would spend traveling around Seoul. I stayed in a hostel in Myeongdong which is near the heart of the city. Myeongdong is probably the Seoul equivalent of Times Square in NYC. It has huge malls and department stores, big Christmas displays, and crowded streets filled with local and foreign tourists. It’s a good central location, although a bit hectic, especially on the weekend nights.  The hostel was nice. It’s my favorite type of hostel, where the bunk room has a bunch of cubicals. There are 2 main types of hostels there are rooms that have a bunch of bunk bends in the room, or there are cubicle rooms. The cubicle rooms are far superior. The best usually has 3 walls and you enter your cublicle from the foot of the bed and have walls to your left and right and a curtain at the foot you can close. Usually there is space for your backpack in the cubicle as well. Bunk bed hostels are more common, usually slightly cheaper, and definitely less nice. It’s jusually just 4
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