Final Night in Seoul and the Train to Busan

After our trip to the border, we spent our last night in Seoul meeting up with an old college friend. He had made a trip to Japan a few years before and I met up with him in Tokyo with a few other college friends. We made plans to meet up at his work place in the Yeouidong area of Seoul.

On our way to our meeting spot, I noticed the pedestrian lights were on the ground as well as in their normal spots. I thought it was the coolest thing.

We were a little early and because it was ungodly cold, we hung out in a coffee shop across the street until my friend got off work. He got us some tickets to check out Aqua Planet 63.

It also had a mermaid show. It was entertaining to watch Russian girls swim around.

After that we went to a Korean BBQ place and then to another restaurant after that for some chicken and beer. If there is one thing you must do while in Korea is order Chimaek (치맥). That means chicken and beer.

Then on our way back to our hotel I saw these across from each other in the train station:

If you don’t watch Korean dramas, you won’t know the relation between these two. They were father and daughter in the drama Reply 1988. It’s my favorite drama.

The following day we took the train to Busan that appeared to lack the zombies. I’m well trained in counter-zombie tactics as I played Humans vs Zombies for several years before and during college.

We started exploring the moment we got there as our flight was early the next morning.

A statue of Yi Sun-sin at Busan Tower. He was a naval hero in the 16th century.

We went up Busan Tower to get a good view of the city which it became a tradition of ours to go up someplace high at the beginning of the year.

Yongdu means dragon’s head and san means mountain. The mountain is supposed to resemble a dragon’s head, hence the name Yongdusan Park.

We then made it back down to the streets for some shopping…

…and to eat some tteokbokki. It was so packed that it was hard to eat but damn is Korean street food amazing.

It was odd to come across Texas Street when it didn’t really look American let alone Texan. It was across the street from a Chinese street. I guess if any part of America was going to face off against China then it would be Texas.

Our hotel for our final night in Korea had a heated floor. It was nice as Busan was cold but it did a number on the chocolate in my backpack that I had forgotten about. At one point I wanted to exchange some coins for a 1000 won bill so I could have all the different won bills as my wife and I have currency from several different countries. Those are from her travels as I haven’t traveled as much as she has. In my broken Korean asked the front desk woman if I could exchange the coins but she refused saying: “I’m not a bank.” I seriously have terrible luck with older Korean women.