Korea Day 4 - Travel to Seoul

Leaving the "love shack" aka the Angel Hotel we headed to the underground which is conveniently and also, somewhat chaotically located within the undergound mall. This houses a vast array of stalls named with odd combinations of English words that makes one wonder what the shop really is trying to market. These stalls reside next to vendors with their wares splayed out on the ground, racks and portable tables clamouring away about the deals they have to offer. Once we make it through the throngs of the what appears to be endless teens and Busan yuppies, we arrive at the underground turnstyles. We once again take a few minutes to situate ourselves and determine which direction Busan Station is. During this time, an elderly gentleman with "cracking" English (as Matt would say) approaches us to offer his wisedom of the underground. He points us in the right direction and proceeds to wait around until we have waved and he is sure we are safely on our way. What a nice way to say goodbye to hectic, yet entrancing Busan.

Once we arrive at Busan Station one of the first things we notice is how much more understandable the train timetables are to read compared with Japan. Platform numbers align with tickets, times align with the English translation above it. Our trip to Seoul is going to be alot more stress free than our trip to Kyoto. At the station we decide to grab a quick breakfast at Paris Baguette. This chain cafe/bakery can be seen throughout the urban areas of South Korea and offers patrons a wide selection of pasteries, cakes, sandwiches, brewed beverages and a fairly good selection of American and international jazz music playing over the speakers. Once our Americanos are cleared from their mugs we head up to the KTX for our 3 hour journey.



The train does not offer the same luxury and comfort as the bullet train in Japan, but it does the job nonetheless. We whizz by endless mountains through the countryside. We are reminded once again of our friend Kim we met on our hike in Busan. He often exclaimed his pride for the beautiful landscape of his homeland. Seeing the view from the train, it is quite hard to argue. Lush green, rolling hills and moutains dotted with farms and rice paddies in between. Postcard perfect... though, we have discovered that about 90% of South Korea's population lives in some sort of high rise apartment building so every so often we would see a collection of massive apartment blocks resembling what Rockaway Beach might have been.

Once we arrive at Seoul Station we quickly learn that the iPad is not going to connect to the Internet, no free maps of the city are in sight and we are best catching a cab. We dodge one gypsy cabbie's advance, let out a sigh for the first real taste of the homeless population which would make even the most hardened US urban dweller ponder grabbing for their spare change and finally pile into one of the nicest, cleanest cabs I have ever had the pleasure of being carted around in. Hyundais are prevelent around Korea, but they seem to be getting the good stuff over here compared with the US selection. Leather interior, fancy body work, built in GPS... Felt more like a Lexus than a Hyundai. After telling the driver the name of our hotel, he lets out a more than a confident exclamation of the establisment's whereabouts and proceeds to navigate the yet again wild traffic of Korea. When we arrive, we ask again if he is sure this is the Hotel Mare... he nods emphatically, but we're wary. This sense of forboding is confirmed when we enter the hotel and are informed it is Hotel Dondaemun, not Hotel Mare Dondaemun. The clerk writes down something in Korean for us to show the cabbie of our next chariot and we prepare ourselves for our true journey to our hotel.


In the new cab our cabbie utilizes a phone-in translation service which correctly assists him in dropping us outside the correct location. The Hotel Mare has seven floors and an exterior that resembles a Hobbit skyscraper. We get our key and proceed to room 602. Every room has a wooden door that gives one the sense you are in a hallway of saunas. Luckily, no coals were burning when we entered the room and we pleasantly found a 50 inch plasma TV and disco light to get our time in Seoul off to a ripe roaring start. To top in off - channels in English! I love a Japanese game show more that I should probably admit, but I was missing hearing the mother tounge. After some brush up on our CNN news and Bones mystery we headed out to a little street up the ways known for its eating establishments.

The street was drapped in colored lights making it resemble a feast day celebration in the North End. I think this was just the standard dress of this little night haven. We decided on a place with set menus and wooden tables and we were served some of the best food we had eaten so far in Korea. An amazing, spicy seafood soup and a national favorite - bulgogi. After this fantastic and unassuming culinary experience we moved on to another place where we sampled some flavored soju and then it was off to bed... Tomorrow is all about downtown Seoul and... the TOWER!