Korea 2024 - Day 8: The Train to Busan

This day was intended to be a leisurely travel day...and it was.  My train wasn't until noon, so I got up at a reasonable time, finished packing up and bagging up my garbage...and headed to check out at around 10.  The nice people at the hotel told me that I could store luggage with them until my return on Wednesday, so I had packed up my dirty laundry and other things that I didn't need in Busan into my big suitcase and left it with them to store.  Happy day!

Made it to the station with plenty of time to spare.  Found a place to sit, bumped into a lady from Portland, Oregon and had a chat...then headed to my platform.  I was in the last car...which was at the front of the train.  Found my seat without incident and settled in for the ride.

Here is my bullet train to Buson.  It was completely zombie-free.  I took the time to type up two Blog entries during the ride.  I'm almost caught up now!  One more to go.

Found my hotel without incident as it's a short walk from Haeundae subway station.  I had decided to stay at the most touristy beach.  I have a room with a partial ocean view...yay!

After settling in, I decided to take a walk around to see what was nearby.  My hotel is on, and my room overlooks Gunam-ro, what we would refer to as the "main drag" in Jersey beach slang.  Most of the traffic here seems to be taxis and the insane delivery motorcycles.  At the beach end of the road, I stumbled upon yet another celebration for Buddha's birthday.  

I decided to head up the street to see what I could see. 

I found an alleyway lined with food and shopping.

I finally found a hotteck place as I had been dying to try this street snack.  It's fried dough stuffed with honey and other things.  I chose honey and cheese.  Traditionally, I think it's honey and nuts...which I will try later.

They serve it in a little paper cup as it is fresh from the fryer.  I had to be patient or risk burning my mouth.  It was delicious and I can't wait to try another filling.

I did a tour of the alley, which was lined with seafood eateries, all displaying tanks of live eels, fish, and shrimp.   I was unfortunate enough to witness the skinning of a live eel.  I shudder just thinking of it...  

I then headed back out to the main drag and just wandered about.

I believe we have a purple tinged arcade here...

There are fortune tellers EVERYWHERE.  Here are three in a row.

Here we have some buskers.  Most buskers here are singers, you don't see many with actual instruments.  Just K-Pop wannabes singing to pre-recorded tracks.  They were pretty good honestly.

Back past Buddha's birthday pagoda, all lit up and pretty. 

Down to the beach.  Which is VERY brightly lit.  You can wander the beach anytime, 24 hours...without concern.

 I wandered a  bit taking some photos, which turned out kind of strange/surreal with the lighting and low exposure.

After I had gotten some sea air and exercise, I headed back to the hotel.  I slept for 9 whole hours.  Next adventure is checking out the markets in downtown Busan.