Busan: The Journey

Last weekend, I went back to the vibrant, beach city of Busan. It had been roughly four years, since the last time I had been. I had only ever been to the famous area of Haeundae beach.

No this time me and a girlfriend were heading to a different area. So, I could truly see another side of Busan. We were given a three day weekend and decided to leave right after work, which turned out to be such a struggle..

We left work with our bags backed and ready. We made our way to a different are to catch the metro straight to Gangnam, but once we made it…My girlfriend NT realized she forgot her wallet. So we had to take a taxi towards her area and then catch a the metro from her area to transfer. It was a process, but we made it to the Express Bus Terminal with about thirty minutes to spare. Sadly enough my cravings for food were not met, and there were so many long lines. So I just grabbed a few snacks from the convenience store and we boarded our bus.

The week prior, I was in charge of finding accommodation. Yes, there were a bunch of places in Busan but not necessarily towards the area we were going to be exploring which this time was not Haeundae beach area. The majority of places were not comfortable with our arrival time of 1 am because it takes roughly four hours from Seoul.

Well we hit traffic really early on in our trip, which took us five hours to arrive. And once we arrived Busan Bus terminal, it was surrounded with hungry vultures that were in the form of taxi drivers. But what else were we supposed to do? So we boarded into a taxi, and finally reached our destination.

It was shady to say the least. The car turned into a street with a ginormous and tacky sign that read, ‘Texas Street’. Later, I would learn from research what exactly this place is known for. And if you are familiar with the red-light district in Itaewon, it serves the same menu. To be honest, I don’t like being in these areas. They make me feel uncomfortable, so I didn’t want to exit the cab…but I had already pre-booked this place.

Now, you’d think the struggle would have ended when we finally arrived to our destination. If only it had. We walked in and were greeted with nothing. I called out a few times, and heard only soft breathing. Their was an attendant. We called, nothing. I called out, nothing.

Finally after what felt like an eternity, which must have only been ten minutes. I was able to wake the attendant and were given the key.

After about a six hour journey on an early Saturday morning, we were beat and quickly fell asleep, knowing full well later that day would be just as tiring if not more.