One of the cardinal rules for budget travel is to plan out your itinerary to minimize backtracking because the cost of transportation from place to place can make a real dent in the budget. On the other hand, when one is hanging out in a small country for more than a month, one sometimes finds oneself shuttling back and forth. And so, Friday morning found me packing up and heading to the Busan train station to journey back to Seoul for a week. I left Seoul because I was lonely and bored and tired of the pollution, but there are compelling reasons to return. At the same time, there are reasons to get back to Busan as soon as possible.
Anyways, at the Busan train station, I had to wait in line to buy a ticket from the counter because the handful of self-service machines were credit card only. Despite the wait, I had basically perfect timing to hop onto the “cheap” train, though I suppose I should actually try the KTX express train some time. It doesn’t seem worth paying double the price to save 2 hours, though. I grabbed a coffee and a donut from Krispy Kreme before settling into my seat on the train. I napped, listened to podcasts, and studied Korean on the ride, which passed quickly.
The sun was setting behind an overcast sky as the train pulled into Seoul. The cold, drizzling rain made me question myself as I found my way to a bus stop to get the the Airbnb I booked. I found the address (though I wish the map had told me the “short cut” was over a hill when I could have walked around) and let myself in through the pass code. At this point, I feel safe in generalizing that no one in Korea uses keys. Every apartment has a smart lock. I spent the weekend in an apartment hosted by a young Korean couple with a passion for surfing. They were still at work when I arrived around 6 and I vegged out for a while until my growling stomach forced me to seek food.
I went to a weird tonkatsu restaurant. It was on the second floor and painted in primary colors. A number of kids were running around while their moms were collecting empty beer glasses. It seemed like both a bar, offering reasonably priced draft beer and a kids restaurant at the same time. I had a cheese tonkatsu, which tasted like a giant mozzarella stick, though on close inspection there was pork inside. When I returned to the apartment, my hosts were back home, eating pizza and watching Big Bang Theory. We briefly said hello, but it wasn’t a situation to hang out together. I watch half of Loving Vincent and passed out early
| Train ticket | 28600 W |
| Krispy Kreme special | 4000 W |
| Cheese tonkatsu + beer | 11500 W |
| Airbnb | 87.66 USD |
My hosts were out the door before I got up in the morning. I made a coffee, but didn’t want to hang around the apartment too much so I located a McDonald’s on the map and took a walk. I passed through a park — actually the same railroad park from the Hongdae area (I wonder how far it stretches) — and generally got an impression of the neighborhood between two stops of the subway. I hung out in the McDonald’s until about 11 and popped by a eMart Supermarket to pick up a salad for lunch.
I took a nap and went to a coffee shop to work for a couple hours. The coffee was a bit expensive, but it was a really cool cafe/photo gallery. I would have liked to stay longer but it was the high afternoon and the AQI had dropped to an acceptable level for exercise. There is a stadium and park in the area, so I jogged over there and did laps in the stadium while a soccer game was underway. I just assumed it was open to the public, but when the game was over and all the players were leaving, I left too because I would have been the only person left in the stadium. I headed into the park afterwards, but it wasn’t so good for jogging because it was basically just a big hill. However, there was a massive collection of exercise equipment on top of the hill, including free weights. I ended the run and lifted weights for about half an hour.
On the way back to the apartment, I wanted to grab a sports drink and snack, but time was tight. I had an appointment at 7pm to meet my high school classmate who I see every time I visit Korea (and had blown me off when I was in Seoul a few weeks ago). We went to a restaurant that was more like a Korean pub in the sense that the food was mediocre and mainly served to accompany the alcohol. Her friend who owned the place kept commenting on how handsome I was, which I guess might have been weird, but in all modesty, I’m used to that from China. We went through a couple bottles of Makgeolli, a Korean rice wine, though it might be better to think of it as a rice beer, and a couple dishes including fried tofu (supposed to be “pancake” style but, whatever), Korean sausage stir-fried with veggies, and some cold noodles.
We had a great talk, discussing work, ethics, and life philosophy with barely any reminiscing about El Paso. That’s really good. On three visits over four years, we’ve gotten to know each other quite well, graduating from relying on common history for small talk to freely shooting the breeze.
My friend picked up the tab for dinner on condition that I buy the cocktails at the bar. Southside Bar, opened by a couple Texans, was inconspicuous on the fourth floor of some random building along the main street. The place was full of expats enjoying their Saturday night. I didn’t even look at the food menu, but I saw some nice looking tacos and heard the wings are good. The cocktails were crazy expensive, but properly done with two full pages in the menu for their original creations.
At some point, my friend’s boyfriend joined us and we joined the table where his best friend and business partner was drinking with his fiancee and its getting hard to describe the situation without names. In any case, it was a lot fun and we didn’t leave until 2am. Fortunately, though my airbnb isn’t in Itaewon, it is close enough to walk home, which helped me sober up enough that I wouldn’t wake up my hosts when I stumble in.
| McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast | 5800 |
| Salad | 3980 |
| Latte | 5200 |
| Cocktails | 76000 |
I definitely had a bit of a hangover in the morning and lounged around until around 11am, when I needed to get some food in me. I went up and down the street looking for some hearty Korean fare, eventually stopping at a place specializing in “Hangover Soup.” It wasn’t my intention, but the place was packed, so it had to be good. And, seriously, when I say specializing, I mean that was the only thing on the menu. After waiting a few minutes for a table, the hostess sat me and another guy together. Recalling the soup as I write this, I could go for it again.
Afterwards, I hopped straight on the subway to head to the World Cup Stadium for what is now my Sunday in Seoul routine of sauna and swimming. I had good soak in the hot tubs and half-napped in the common room. While lounging around, someone I had matched with on Tinder that morning asked if I wanted to grab lunch. Since I had already had lunch and hadn’t gotten to my swim yet, I proposed dinner instead. So much for grabbing a salad at the Home Plus (which surprised me by being open on Sunday when it had previously been closed). Why is it suddenly so easy to be all social and meeting people when it was so hard last month?
The pool was pretty crowded with a bunch of kids fooling and some people getting private swim lessons. A kid moving crosswise in the middle of the pool ran into me on one lap. Pretty much all the lanes had several people hanging out on one end or the other and I was surprised by the size of some of the swimmers. I don’t want to be fat-shaming or anything, but I’m kind of used to small skinny people in the pools, which makes it easy to share with 4-5 people in a lane. Anyways, I set a new personal best record, doing 40 laps or 2000 meters.
I wanted to hang out and study Korean for an hour before going to my date later, but I was really wiped by the exercise. So, when my date texted to ask me to hurry up, I got dressed and hopped on the subway to go all the way over to the Coex Mall in Gangnam. It was, let’s say, an interesting encounter, where I was more like a girlfriend or therapist helping her analyze/interpret a situation. TMI. We split a half BBQ chicken, half original New York cheese pizza. I’ve been craving pizza, so that hit the spot.
I finally spent all the T-Money on my transportation card, and had to top it up. So, that 50 bucks lasted about 6 weeks. Not too bad.
I caught a bus back to my airbnb so I got to enjoy some night scenery from the windows. My hosts were sitting at the table drinking wine and listening to old Korean music when I got back and I joined them. We chatted for a couple hours before going to bed. They are good people.
| Hangover Soup | 7000 |
| Spoland | 10000 |
| Pocari Sweat | 2000 |
| Tmoney | 10000 |
| Pizza | 16000 |
| Soju | 1550 |
It was an expensive weekend. Not just traveling back on the train, but staying in an apartment (versus a hostel) and dropping big bucks socially. Maybe it is better to be bored and lonely. Ha!
| Total: | 1687.5 RMB 251 USD |
Running Total: 12721 RMB (USD 1894)
Daily Average: 259.6 RMB (USD 38.65)