Busan

Paradise Calls

There were two cities that I was particularly recommended visiting. In fact, I was not recommended anything really. A few words about Seoul from a few people. Jeju Island from a friend. Many destinations in my head that I thought of visiting. Cause hell, I'm heading for vacation right? But still not too much time or strength or really capabilities to analyze what is worth visiting. The thing is, it takes time and that I preferred to spend on brainless fun. Or with a larger fraction of it and catch up with stuff that I just wanted to do and see. Korea was a part of it. But I kept it undisclosed until the very last minute. Same went for literally anything associated, let alone Korean BBQ, which I really experienced when I experienced it. But visiting cities requires at the very least some preparations and so I received last minute advise from internet sources and friends who have visited Busan. As it turned out, that was enough. Well, that and my feet did the rest.

Of Sun and Scorching Sun

I came into Busan as part of a larger, more ambitious trip. I wouldn't call it particularly thought out, although assembled and stitched up pretty well based on an environment I have created, consisting of my flexible Korail Pass, still to be used around 2 times. As an idea, I would move out in the morning, reach Busan around noon via KTX, pierce wide through most of its attractions, pack myself into the last train to Seoul, check something out there, move on to Gimpo airport, throw myself across to Jeju Island, chill and see stuff, pack myself back and fetch me back to an airport close to Daejeon. That having said, Busan was first. And for some reason, this time I woke up later than usual as for such trips. Locking myself onto reaching the train station around 11, getting late for the connection I was hoping for but catching up with a few friends in the process, after all it wasn't just me who was discovering Korea on the weekends. As a result, I reached Busan afternoon but that still left me with +10 hours of venturing around, which turned out ultimately as clearly enough. There is also so much a pair of feet can bare, even with my combination of hiking shoes and the rest. In the end it turns out that even the pair of socks you wear will matter. But I had to also consider the extra 8-10 kg I was carrying around, with all my hardware to capture the audio-visual feast I was to experience.

The KTX train to Busan was gorgeous. That is, the view was. The view on any train route in Korea will make you awe in astonishment. Not all the time of course but in such volumes that even with my chronic lack of sleep due to studying, personal stuff or socialising (I think that was it why I got up so late, was it a late-night beer?), these views will keep you up, out looking and perhaps turn you back in-out from snoozing but you will remain, back gazing at the spectacle of mountain ranges, crossovered with signs of urbanised Korea, others depicting not quite and rural fields of... oh well. Anyhow, eventually it was the urbanised world after all, Busan, with yet another, fairly big train station. Upon alighting the train and reaching one of their main, inviting halls, a bit less although still quite inviting glassed terrace gave a glimpse of what the city has to offer. Which was primarily buildings, roads but still, with a bit of those ranges and sea, just at the back, enough to make you feel, that perhaps you made the right decision of coming here?

First Phase

But let's continue.

Time to leave the station, I guess. As huge as it seemed, there was just one way of leaving it, that is towards the main alleyway from which buses frequently departed towards the marketplace area. That place is where I was headed, to get a niff of local life. Although how local could be local? Considering the time of the year, many tourists just as myself could be attacking the area, which triggers unpleasant tendencies. But Busan is a port city. They wouldn't care less if there were tens of thousands swarming the area, yet alone the marketplace. I could have taken a metro but what can you possibly see if you did that? So with the bus, I made a short trip to the fishmarket, BIFF and marketplace, not quite in this order, with me hovering around as again I was left without money in my pocket. Must have been the effect of the beer yesterday. Strange, as I would have sworn I made a stop at 7/11 with the right atms at their disposal and so I began hovering around in search of yet another 7/11 with the right Lotte ATM. That company, Lotte, by the way if you imagined companies as Pepsi, Coca-Cola and more, having one particular owner, an equivalent of that would be Lotte. Except, Lotte will name everything as Lotte, put their Lotte Malls and even towers and populating districts, especially notably in Seoul, with their Lotte Tower showcasing Lotte World. But that's for another post. They have yet another world of theirs close to the marketplace, though. But strangely the ATMs were out of order.

The marketplace and BIFF square were very densely populated, along with the fishmarket on the opposite side of the street. BIFF Square wasn't huge and I would not even call it a marketplace area either. Surely they had street vendors but where do they not in many South Korean cities? Some of their foods were really tasty. The wafflelike thingo for 1K wasn't particularly great but the nutty treat for 1.3K was genuinely good. All thanks to my man Umakant who told me of its sole existence and the treat it was. After having shifted around a notch, trying to get a grasp on what is that I am particularly exploring and I eventually got a bit of cash and went towards a fish market... which was, in fact, a fish market with an even larger fish market enthralling the space to the west of it. I'm not a fan of these markets, somewhat an inner mental vegan gets triggered in me, seeing all these creatures live or dead and the stench was a bit too much along with the conditions in which the seafood was sold. But, that having said, it was something about the authenticity of the market, that could appeal to some. After all, these forms are hardly known for me, having experienced markets in Europe or Australia. But here was Korea, a hypothetically high-tech country in mind that eventually crashed against a rather older form of Korea, that prevailed, disregarding the technological advancements that have risen the economy to new heights.

The actual fish market, the one recommended by wikitravels and tripadvisors was there, though. And it looked much more civilised and interesting actually. With the myriad of... should I keep calling this seafood? After all, all was intended as seafood. Technically, I could have bought something on the spot, took it upstairs and asked it to be cooked. But once put against all of the creatures presented there? It was like a zoo, except that all of it was intended to become food. Which I did eventually get upstairs, with their classic pancake/eggs with mixed seafood. It was actually good but not worth the price I paid and still it was one of the cheaper choices presented. Now I knew why at each 'restaurant' stall I was being invited to take a seat. That was the end of phase one.

Phase Two

Now once I had my belly full, I could start making my way to the art village. Technically, Gamcheon Culture Village, which is actually a heritage site. At least it feels like one, it might not be one, though. To do that, I had to take yet another bus and upon reaching the, well, start of the area, I was presented with a choice, that was really rather presented just in my own eyes. For some reason, I also wanted to see the city and there was, technically, a path leading towards a park. On the other hand I could dedicate myself to roaming the village. Out of the two, I went with the park, despite I had some bad experiences with parks and peaks in this country, as they usually lead towads... well, no particular views whatsoever. I took the risk, after all, what risk was that? And so it took a while, like usual, a bit of walking along a foresty area. But I was quite quickly rewarded with glimpses and then halfly, unconstrained view of Busan. The temperature and humidity quickly reminded myself via excessing sweating that, it is going to be a hell of a walk and that perhaps I should plan this a bit better. But I continued and upon venturing into a few side tracks... I discovered... not quite what I wanted. But it was still surprising to find out, that in literally, nowhere, the rabbit holes lead me to.. here, for instance: a volleyball pitch, public gym and something that I have not ever seen before. I mean, have you ever seen weightlifting equipment, as in weight/barbells in its all natural form? I mean, as those used as actual rocks. And natural benches to lift those up? And that all of this, remained where it was and was quite eagerly attended always by at least a few people?

Now this view actually repeated itself a few times upon me detouring into the unknown paths. One of the main attractions was however, a open sculpture park. Some of the sculptures, really really good. Koreans can honestly do those to a very nicely perfected level, detailed, surreal at times and powerfully striking if needed. I was very pleasantly surprised by how they managed to populate this park. But I still did not get to see anything from it, despite that it was undoubtedly a hill. I decided to venture off to yet another path. That lead towards yet another... public gym. But I didn't rest at that point, I thought, hell, there must be something. And so I kept on going, went into somewhat a trippy area with grass growing higher than myself on each side, then a few more steps, yet another detour and I arrived at a destination, with a clear, almost entirely unobstructed view on two contrasting sides of Busan. A treat, that I was after for the past, well, almost an hour now. And considering my feet and the altitude I climbed, I also had to rest now.

Phase Three

At some point I decided to start moving. It was getting dangerously late and I still had stuff to see and no clear idea of how I should really leave this hill. I could have made my way back but the route would have taken too long. Could I potentially cut through right to the village? And so what I did, was I went along with a somewhat, something that one could call an offroad, descended a bit and then climbed a bit and ended up in a totally different area. One, that amazed me a bit even more than the other one. It was quite unfortunate, as the positioning of the sun showased the ugliness of a concrete world, which Busan in parts certainly is. With the scorching orange reflecting from Busan's main roads, rooftops and a terrible fog obstructing the wonderful view. I could not quite make of it, was it the smog or just a fog as any? All I knew, was that post-processing these photos will prove difficult. And in the end, an Enfant terrible got born out of it. That having said, I was still astonished, as I had a totally clear view over a totally different part of the city. I would have preferred one over the culture village but that was a very nice Korea to see. And again, some of the, I'd call heritage part of Busan, was within the view too!

I could not stay for too long. In fact, I grew worried of myself as I was on feet for long and my body started letting me know, that it would wish to replenish some fluids. Like with a bottle or two. I mean, with these heats, anything can be possible and despite that I rather know my limits and usually feel like a quite durable fella, I was all alone after all, standing on a cliff with a descending room of hundreds of meters down into the rest of the park. If anything did happen to me, it would be rather be the end. A rather pleasant end, with a view like this. But I felt like exploring more so I took a few final pics, decided to take a further route down, came back, took even more pics and then proceeded to descend towards the unknown but likely the village. That trip was eerie. It went through yet another spot, as it a crossover between a small gym but also as if a hatch, vacated living space. I felt like I should probably keep going. And so I did, for the next 15 minutes, as the trip was rather wild, with a few detours out of which I had to carefully consider which could take me quickly to civilisation. And I popped up at as if a parking lot. Connected to a private area and then a road, which was like an overpass of the village itself. Cool! I Thought. I'll just take a quick stroll along... oh, actually, you know what? Nah, I'll just get into one of these, likely private alleys... which was not. Which took me through a maze of very narrow streets, of small blocks of buildings, equipped with gardens and at times not. With a scooter somewhere but how did they get it up here? With so many stairs and narrow streets, which were clearly just for pedestrians. Every now and then I passed by the village's dwellers. The entire thing was built on a hill and it heavily reminded me of: Italy, in terms of narrow streets and distinct feel - more predominantly Napoli, Portugal in terms of the colorful rooftops, in fact I can't say exactly why Portugal as I'm not entirely sure now in terms of the rooftops but there was something Portugese feeling about all of this - predominantly Porto-ish (as city). And then some of the things I saw on a Polish travellers adventures in the... was it Turkey? This was a truly distinct experience and it took another 10-15 minutes of descending but an experience totally worth doing, especially that it took me to the main street where I got myself with a bottle of Pocari, a bottle of another ionised water, a frozen mango popsickle and... yeah, I'm at Gamcheok Culture Village.

Phase Four

I'll be a bit dissapointing now and won't tell you much about the village, at least not any further in such details. It's hard to put it into words, as it was a bit of a harsh mix of artsy stuff blended into a, potentially traditional landscape. A bit of ascending, a bit of descending. Getting lost among the quite nice buildings with many shops just simply being closed at this particular time. I think it was around 5 or close to 6 even. There was an influx of tourists here, though. Naturally, as the traditional route for tourists would be integrally, in this area, obviously somewhere were buses would stop so that you could truly detour and not bother too much the locals. So after having seen a bit of murals, sculptures, more murals, paintings, graffiti, nice objects. Yes, this was a lively place, positive place, I liked it! Most certainly a highlight. I just wish my feet could support more. Which they naturally could. But it was not about the distance anymore as much it was about the amount of climbing and at this point, it was not just my feet I had to worry about but my legs, which I could consider as the terminator steel grade, considering how much they could put up with but even those, could eventually fail, especially considering I had Seoul tonight and Jeju tomorrow on my agenda. So it was rather straightforward from now on: get on moving, see a bit more on my way to getting the bus and the hell outta here!

My last stop, considering the scarce time I had, was to get to the beach. At first I was like, why should I go to the beach, I'm not like going to take a swim or anything with all my equipment, right? But feeling my feet yearning for some sort of a water source, just probably to chill, as my hiking shoes for some reason might either have problem with ventilation or just capturing heat from the ground, so this time I figured, hell, I'll just chill my feet in the water today. Which I did, eventually, after taking a combination of trips: to the KTX station and a dedicated bus, which totalled in over a 45 minute trip, during which I saw nothing, cause these buses were built to not show much. Still, I managed to get to destination and see a gorgeous beach, with a lively area spanning around it and especially further deep, with clearly lively nightlife, rich with street vendors, lightning shows (!), artists and musicians, showing off their skills and gathering crowds to see them do stuff. On the beach? Bit similar, with lesser crowds, lesser stuff happening but a rich view, literally, of an again, gorgeous beach, fairly chill East Sea water and skyscrapers, off a rather businessy district western side and an overblown, probably even urban skyscrapers, that were in its very words, actual skyscrapers, looking rich and overlooking perhaps not so rich at the moment, as the structures were still under construction. And yet, making a striking impression, with the contrasts it presents, although none really existing, at the very moment that was.

Epilogue

But that very moment, could not last for too long. As I practically really had just an hour, as I had to take under consideration potential traffic congestion. That did not happen and so I concluded my trip, with a very tasty persimon smoothie and a last KTX for the day harbouring me straight to Seoul for around 1.30 am. I just had a bit of time to detour and see the Design Plaza, which was turbo average, if a structure that any student in autocad could design is called neofuturistic, then check me out from Architecture and Design please. Well hey, maybe it really looks astonishing while the lights are on? Cause when they're off, the place seems dead. Even with a few people playing a public piano located on site, still feels dead. And the heritage area mixed into this and the garden area. All felt dead. So to escape from the neofuturistic depth of death, I quickly made my way to 7/11, then to the nightbus taking 1h 30m to arrive at Gimpo airport and ziu, did all the stuff necessary, ziu ziu, Jeju you! Felt like sleeping but the marvel of this world view from the sky kept me awake.

And then? Well and then.