19 April 2023
Train from Busan - the sequel
Busan to Seoul on the KTX
Now I am back in Seoul. I will be here for 7 nights. It will be my final stop on this holiday.
I am staying in a very well located hotel in Myeongdong, the same one I stayed at when I was here in 2022. It is very far from where I was staying on the other side of the river at the start of this journey.
Getting all the way from one end of Korea to the other on the bullet train is really fast and easy. 2.5 hours, and even then it seemed to spend more time stopped at stations than actually moving.
It may be only a short trip, but most people feel the need to consume a 4 course meal onboard. With enough plastic to make their own train. Can you really not go 2 hours without eating an entire formal meal?
Once I arrived at my hotel, they had an entire gallery wall full of signs about their bed bug defence measures. This bed bug thing is the new hot topic. Korean news has outbreak maps, which almost always cuts to a shot of an Air France plane landing at the airport.
Before heading to the train in Busan, it was time to do an early morning hardware market lap. There are markets for everything in and around Nanpo.
I decided to examine some of the movie related hand prints in BIFF (Busan International Film Festival) square. I thought they would be all Korean, but no, this one is Ennio Morricone, the recently dead greatest of all time! He was here a long time ago as his hand print still says Pusan, before they updated the romanization to reflect how it is actually pronounced instead of how an archaeologist wrote it down when he heard it once 3rd hand from a Chinaman in 1855. I am allowed to say Chinaman because I am describing someone from a period where that term was not offensive.
I took this photo as I arrived 7 days ago, so why not take it as I leave. Since then I have been up that hill behind the buildings here. When I get bored I can do a forensic analysis of what has changed in a week.
The inside of the Busan station is good, a couple of levels of restaurants.
It also has a huge viewing deck area, but there is still no view, just a huge empty construction site that has been there for many years now. Also, still lots of pollution.
The inside of my train for today. It filled up. I am travelling poor person class today as the difference in fare for the longer journey was too much for my tightassedness to cope with.
And now, sadly... the final hotel shots. This is a modern style room, the hotel is quite new. They gave me a welcome pack with some snacks. All have already been consumed.
The room is so new, that it has only a shower, no bath. What if I need to take a bath? I missed my chance... I missed my chance.....