Train to Busan

We got coffee to go from Twosome Place and drank it on the way to Isaac Toast to have sandwiches. The workers there were very confused by our strange demands (Guy wanted no sauce and no cheese, Leia no sauce.) They did manage to get it right in the end, yet we pledge with EgguDuroup in the great egg toast war. We walked back to our hotel eating our sandwiches. 

Loaded up with our bags we walked to the subway to take line 4 to Seoul station, to catch our bullet train to Busan. Guy stopped for a kimbap in a shop so small that he couldn’t fit inside with his backpack, which Leia watched out on the curb while the kimbap was rolled. The train was relatively full, yet it was a comfortable ride that passed quickly and smoothly. There was wifi, though shaky, and people were quiet.

Our hotel in Busan is a basic apartment hotel with small apartments: there’s no front desk, and Guy had to message the property to get the door code as we arrived a little before the check-in time. They are meticulously configured to maximize the tiny space and storage. The toilet is practically in the shower, in its own little room with no curtain or door. The kitchen has all sorts of secret compartments like a van: there's a fold-out table that blocks the entire entryway when open, maybe for ironing, and some kind of rack beneath it that can extend to block the kitchen and freezer. At first the wifi didn't work, but Leia fixed it by fussing with a fire hazard of cables and boxes behind the TV, because she's a genius.

Leia decided she wanted beef BBQ so we had to leave eel alley where our hotel was and walk through pork BBQ street to reach a beef restaurant surrounded by others like it. It was nice and spacious, and an excellent deal: 600g of assorted beef, plus pickled sides and salad, mushrooms for grilling, tofu soup, and a bottle of makgeolli, all for about $50.

For dessert we walked from the beef BBQ alley to the cafe district, a brightly lit happening city center with many cafes and bakeries, good for dates. Leia stopped into a store called “Butter” that sold stuffed animals, and a jewelry store full floor to ceiling of earrings with low mirrors labelled, “Don’t wear earrings!” Why are they selling them then? Some people are likely to wear them!

We popped into a board game bar on the second floor of the building. It was pretty cheap to stay and play for an hour, and you even get a drink, but all the games were in Korean. We didn’t stay but like knowing that this place exists.

We stopped in a cafe that specializes in croissants to have a salt bread, not a croissant, and then went to get a giant pistachio cream croissant from another bakery. That one had a thin, pretty young girl working at it, just like a real French bakery. Guy wanted tea with his pastries but it was hard to find: he got a lemon honey tea (just that in hot water) from a coffee roaster.

We then looked for teabags in convenience stores, which was challenging: we stopped at every one on the walk back. There was none in most stores, but we found some in the fifth convenience store we checked. We went back to our cozy hotel to do some laundry, and booked a flight and a cooking class for the coming days of our trip.