The day after our DMZ tour was our travel day from Seoul to Busan. Since it was only a three hour train ride from one city to the other and the trains ran ridiculously frequently, we spent the morning and early afternoon in Seoul. After three straight days of waking early, walking around and being on our feet all day, and late nights, we decided to sleep in a little on our final Seoul day. We ate our final breakfast in the basement breakfast room, and once again Lars was there but this time with his family. We met his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. Since it was later in the morning and we had to share tables with other people, we sat at a table with a middle-aged guy. While I don’t even remember his name, we started talking and found out that he was from Nashville…our neck of the woods! He was taking a year of his life off to travel around Asia.
After we gathered our things and checked out of our hotel, we headed to the palace that was close by. While it was a little lame and basically just reconstructed old buildings that showed how people lived way back when, my favorite part was dressing up. We wandered into one building where a lady was waiting with the traditional Korean clothing, hanbok, and for about $3 we could dress up in those clothes. I eagerly agreed, followed by Mollee and Melissa. I was basically a rag doll as the lady lifted my arms, twisted me around, and did whatever she needed to in order to put the hanbok on me. After we were dressed, she gave us fifteen minutes to wander around the palace area to take pictures. I felt like a lovely Korean princess (minus the whole me not being Asian thing)!!
Before we left Seoul, we decided to have lunch at the Pizza Hut in the train station. We were impressed with the amount of chain restaurants in Seoul—Taco Bell, Starbucks, Burger King, Smoothie King—but the place that we absolutely said that we had to go before leaving was PIZZA HUT. It was like being back in A-murr-ica…..thick bready crust, greasy cheese, and best of all: no mayo, corn, or shrimp on the pizza!
On the train ride to Busan, we slept, chatted, and read until we arrived around 5 PM. From there, our first goal was to find our hotel. We asked the information desk, and they told us that it was very close and gave us maps of Busan and several touristy things to do while there. While the hotel had a phenomenal location so close to the train station, it was also very, very shady. We thought that we had already paid for the room with our credit card, but once we got there, the lady at the front desk (who spoke no English) wouldn’t let us have the keys until we paid in cash. She kept holding a pre-printed sign out for us that said “I like cash.” Great, lady. I like cash, too! Ian quickly got online to look at our credit card statement, and for some reason, the payment never actually went through, so she was in the right. We paid for our rooms and went upstairs to check them out.
I remember thinking as I first walked in the lobby and seeing the fish tank and thinking that it was a classy place. After the whole “I like cash” situation, we rounded the corner and very, VERY soon realized that it was anything BUT a classy place. There was a bed sheet covering….something on the staircase, and our rooms were a joke. While I will admit that they were spacious, that was about all they had going for them. Our room was in desperate need of remodeling. The dingy wallpaper and bed sheets screamed pre-war, the dull carnation pink decorated bathroom was….different, the mirror had a giant rust patch in the middle, there was a mysterious water puddle between the toilet and tub (that NEVER went away in our entire time there), the floor was hot to the touch in certain places (probably due to faulty wiring), the headboard was cracked (and suspiciously in the shape of a head), and the “free PC in the room” advertised online was an ancient monitor that probably still ran Windows 95. Our room also came with complimentary items. For example, we had half a tube of toothpaste waiting for our use laying by the bathroom sink or lotion and tissues, both conveniently located on the night stand. Despite how icky our room was, Melissa and Mollee’s was even ickier. They could overlook the creepy paintings hanging on the wall, but the blood Melissa found on her bed sheet was gross. Even worse was when she looked under the bed and found a collection….a bra, Vaseline, and a couple of dirty tissues. UUUGGGGHHHH!!!
That night we went out to explore the city. Chinatown was only a block or two from our hotel, so we wandered down those streets for a while. They eventually ran into Little Russia. There are a TON of Russians in Busan, and the stereotype of “mafia drug lord” kinda still holds true. In Busan they aren’t thought of too kindly and run a pretty big prostitution ring. We learned from our friend, Erin, that if someone approaches you in Korea and asks if you are Russian, you need to say “No.” By asking that seemingly innocent question, the person was actually asking how much….as in prostitution. *gasp* The more we walked around, the more Russian we saw on store signs and even saw Russian prostitutes hanging around outside a club. We decided to walk out of that part of town and find a nice dinner spot.
After another delicious dinner of Korean BBQ, we grabbed a few drinks and desserts to take back to the room and enjoy. We ended up staying up to midnight laughing and talking in Melissa and Mollee’s room.
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