Bus to Busan

Today was not a particularly productive day! I had to make the trip to Busan, and I already saw everything there is to see in Gyeongju and then some, so my initial plan was to make the trip early. I was about to text my Airbnb host to ask if maybe I could check in a bit earlier when he texted me telling me I actually had to check in a bit later. Well, there went that plan!

Now that I knew I had the whole morning to kill, the thought did cross my mind to go to Golgulsa, the mountain temple where the monks do exhibitions of their martial arts, sunmudo, but that seemed overkill so instead I went to the cinema! The Megabox theater, which is around the corner to the Lotte theater, had a 10:10 showing of The Marvels. I walked into a completely empty theater, to two girls behind the counter who couldn’t -or didn’t dare- speak a single word of English. I’m not exaggerating: I asked if the movie was in English and they froze even at that! I had to take out my phone to interpret for the first time this trip. I’m using Papago, the Korean translation app, because everybody online says it’s better for the Korean language than Google Translate, although I’m pretty sure you’ll get by with either one just fine. Anyway, through the app, I asked if the movie was in English, and they said yes, so off I went to a fully empty theater room with huge comfy seats (they all had USB chargers) and a freezing air conditioning. The rustling of popcorns behind me alerted me to the fact that a couple walked in after me. The movie was fun, if nothing to write home about (except in the sense that I am writing about it right now!).

After the movie, I walked over to the intercity bus terminal. Everything I had read online while planning said that the buses from Gyeongju to Busan take only one hour, are very frequent, and don’t get full, so there’s no need to book in advance. That goes against every fiber in my being, because I wanted to book my ticket the second I got off the train on Thursday, but I decided to go with the flow. Well, when I went to buy tickets at the (surprisingly easy to use, English-language) kiosk, I discovered that almost all buses to Busan were fully booked, except for the very next ones, and one last seat on the 14:00 bus. I almost panicked, but quickly realized 14:00 was in fact pretty much the perfect time for me to arrive in Busan in time for my check-in but not too much later, so I bought it with relief for 9,500 won, or €6.75. I then went to have spicy Korean ramen for lunch nearby (just 5,500 won/€3.89) and then to recover my stored luggage from the hotel, also nearby. The bus terminal neighborhood is seriously a great place to stay in Gyeongju -although I think the commercial centre on the other side of the parks would be pretty convenient too.

It made me a little bit nervous that the bus didn’t arrive until two minutes before departure time, but it did arrive, and I had a big seat with plenty of legroom for myself so all in all not a bad way to travel!

The trip ended up taking 1 hours 15 min to the Busan bus terminal near Sasang Station, and from there I took the subway to the apartment in Seomyeon. I couldn’t see the sea just yet, but if Gyeongju is a city close to the ground, with no building taller than three floors, Busan is the polar opposite, with lots of high rises, for businesses as well as apartments. In fact, if you go on airbnb, it’s funny to see listing after listing for seemingly the exact same apartment, because there are towers with literally five hundred one-bedroom apartments near the beach that many people rent out.

Busan is geographically challenging for the traveler, because it is an enormous city and its popular sights are all apart from each other: whatever neighborhood you end up choosing, you will end up being 45 min to an hour away from the other areas by public transport. Most Airbnbs and hotels seem to be at Haeundae or Gwangalli beaches, because there’s so much summer/beach vacationing in Busan, but I suspect those areas must be pretty dead in November so I chose to stay in Seomyeon, which to my understanding is the closest thing Busan has to a city center. At least I know I will have easy access to shops, restaurants and cafes, and the subway!

My apartment turns out to be in floor 32 (my ears pop whenever I use the elevator) of a 50-storey tower. It’s also very hi-tech, with lots of consoles and gizmos to regulate everything. There are instructions just to turn on the lights!

Anyway, I unpacked, rested a little bit, watched the sun set from my vantage point, then went out to check out Seomyeon. What I found was a huge commercial and entertainment district, crawling with people, amid a barrage of K-pop tracks and jingles coming out of every store. It felt even bigger than Myeongdong, maybe because the streets are wider, maybe because I just came from sleepy Gyeongju, where all the houses are tiny and the restaurants all go to bed at eight.

Although the assault on the senses is considerable, one thing I liked about my walk is that the shops seem to be more varied than Myeongdong: clothing stores, souvenirs, cafes, restaurants, and yes, cosmetics, all together in the same streets.

There were tons of people coming and going, but all of them Korean, except for exactly two other white people that I came across all afternoon. I didn’t even hear Chinese or Japanese spoken, unlike in Gyeongju. This is shocking to me; neither Korea in general nor Busan in particular are secret, hidden places. The numbers say there’s lots of tourism, so where’s everybody? Where are the Europeans, the Americans? Maybe they come in the summer or during another high season?

Anyway, I had a good time walking around, making note of places that I can come back to another day. The temperatures here are significantly warmer than in Gyeongju -this morning there was snow on some cars! Snow!!- feeling like a warm summer day at like 13°C. I tried to have dinner at a nice Thai place on the way, but it was full, so I desisted and bought a sandwich at a convenience store for dinner. I hope to have better luck tomorrow!