Missed Trains

During another Korean long weekend, I went with some friends to Pusan, on the south coast. The trip was excellent. Hae-une-dae (not to be confused with Hyun-dai) beach is awesome. However, I have never seen so many people packed on a beach before. It is truly amazing. While I was there during a busy long weekend, I have heard that even on a normal day it is pretty busy.

When we first arrived there it was raining. We got there at 4 am on Saturday morning as we had taken the midnight train. Since we had nowhere to sleep, not even the beach as it was raining, we went to a naurae-bong (korean koraoke) for 2 hours. After that we hit the DDR machines in an arcade. By that time we were all thoroughly exhausted and decided that we could not possibly hold off getting a hotel any longer. We looked and looked and looked for one. Finally, we got one room - for eight people. We all crashed. Two people were even half in the hotel room's closet. It was a sardine can, but we did not care as we were so tired. That entire day was pretty much spent sleeping. The next day, however, the sun gods smiled down on us. There was hardly a cloud to be seen anywhere and it was hot. We vegged on the beach all day as little old men and women came by trying to sell us coffee, beer, or fried chicken. (Strange items for a beach, aren't they?) It was a good day...until I came out of the sun and noticed that I had sustained a very bad sunburn, especially on my face. In fact, when I took my sunglasses off it looked like I was still wearing white ones. Arrrgghhh. Someone could have told me my face was burning... Other than my scorched face, that day was good. That night we hung out on the beach and watched as Koreans set off fire crackers. You could buy them in little booths along the beach; it was the strangest thing. The beach was very busy until early in the morning, as adults and children alike strolled around. The next day was more of the same. at the beach, and then later retreating to downtown Pusan to tour around. Pusan is a decent city, but not nearly as nice or vibrant as Seoul.

Then we migrated the smoking exits. While most passengers just go there for a quick cigarette during the ride, we sat there huddled on the steps at the train doorways for nearly 4 hours

The next phase of our adventure began when we arrived at the train station that night. Our train was to leave at 12:15 Tues am. However, when we got to what we thought was the gate it read 12:30. We all made the mistake of assuming that the train was delayed. At 12:30 we tried to board the train. Well, as luck would have it, we were at the wrong gate and ours had already left! At 12:15, and there was only standing room seats on that train. So there we were with no choice but to stand up for a 5 hour train ride back to Seoul! While it was bad, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. For the first hour there were actually some vacant seats, until a load of people got on at one of the stops with tickets for those seats. Then we migrated the smoking exits. While most passengers just go there for a quick cigarette during the ride, we sat there huddled on the steps at the train doorways for nearly 4 hours - standing up at every stop so that people could get on or off the train (we felt like stowaways)...but anything is better than standing.l So, that was our trip back. I was really tired by the time i got back to my apartment at almost 7:30 am. The plan had been to sleep on the train but considering the circumstances that was impossible. I was dead tired all day at school.