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, and I spent a slow morning snacking on cheesecake in a beautiful coffee shop. I had planned to next go to a temple and a hike, but when I went to the bus stop I found out the bus to the temple only runs every 2 hours-ish and I missed it by 30-ish minutes. The buses here are a bit challenging as they dont seem to have posted time tables anywhere. I imagine Koreans must know what the time tables are for something like that, but even when I translate their websites I cant seem to find schedules beyond things that say ‘comes every 90-120 minutes’ or ‘12 times per day’ neither are super helpful in planning. Either way though I decided I didn’t want to wait for the bus to the temple nor did I feel confident that I wouldnt have an issue getting stuck at the temple if I did catch it, so I decided to go to a different area I had wanted to go to, a UNESCO world heritage wetland. It’s a huge wetland leading to the ocean where thousands of ducks, geese, cranes, and other birds come to breed and rest and eat. It was some really nice trail and I spent the evening walking them. I also saw a bunch of golbies, which are fish that walk through the mud and are super cool to see. There were heaps of them everywhere. 

While walking around there I ran into my French roommate and we decided to spend the rest of the evening hanging out. We went to a view point for sunset and watched as loads of ducks flew by in the setting sun. It was a cloudy evening so everything was shades of pale blue-purple and it was a nice evening.

After the sun set we walked back together and rode the bus back to the hostel and then I split off to get some dinner at a bimbimbap restaurant which was light and scrumptious. The restaurant owners kept adding more food to my plate and giving me treats and I was very full at the end despite only spending $5. It was a great day. 

The next morning I had plans to head to Seoul for my last 3 days in Korea (and probably my last updates on here for a few weeks). I got up and walked to the train station, about a 20 minute walk. I knew the train wasn’t until 11 and it was 9 so I figured that would give me plenty of time to get a ticket and settle in. It’s a good thing I was early though, because the tickets were sold out. One annoying thing about Korea is you can’t buy tickets online in advance if you aren’t Korean so you have to buy it the day of, but that risks not getting a ticket… which is exactly what happened to me. I took a second to re think my plan and decided to take a bus back to the bus station (right next to my hostel). I figured there are enough inter-city buses there must be one going to Seoul and hopefully it wouldn’t be sold out as well. I got there, and while the first 2 times were sold out, there were spaces available around noon so I booked my ticket and get to grab a coffee and wait. Satistified I had a ticket, and only slightly annoyed at having wasted the last hour dragging my stuff all over town when I should have just gotten a bus in the first place which is slightly slower, but more frequent and quite comfortable. Anyway, it all worked out, and I’m happily headed to Seoul now as I write this.