Lost in Busan (and in Translation)

On the 24th I made my first trip out of this city, I went to Busan which is about an hour away by bus. It is the second biggest city in Korea. It was huge, apart from the B.D.O it was the only time I have ever been amongst wall to wall people. I thought I was getting a bus to downtown Busan but I obviously got on the wrong one as after more than an hour the driver started glaring at me, nodding in my direction to the other passengers and generally giving me the creeps so I figured I could be a dorky tourist with my guide book and try to work it out with an irate bus driver or jump off. I saw a Lotteria coming up and as I had had no brecky I choose the latter option. Lotteria is the Korean version of Mickey D's and Burger King. I had an Octopus burger with a shake and fries. I don't recommend it, or the shake but the fries were sweet as.

So there I was, trying to hold down a processed 'pus burger with a chocolate milkshake, in a city of 4 million and only two smokes left in my pocket. The night before, I had been watching the Discovery channel and an ad came on that said "Don't look back, one foot forward and if lost take a breath and start again" so I did. I decided to just walk, it was only 10am, I had all day so I sparked up a ciggie and walked till I came across the subway station. My bible, The Lonely Planet Korean version and it's supplement the L.P Korean phrase book (Thanks Mum) had a subway map in it so I checked it out and decided to first go to ㅐㅜ초대ㅝ뭏 (Oncheonjang) where there was reputedly the largest spa in Asia there. That was really the whole point of me travelling to Busan. I had never been on a subway before but I figured it was only an underground train so it couldn't be too hard to work out. 45 minutes later I had sorted out the change machine, the ticket machine, worked out what line to head for and which stations to transfer subs (Can I call them that?) held my breath and jumped on. I was expecting a dirty filthy carriage like I see on american films with a black guy with a knife down his undies ready to yell out "Gimme all ya money" what I got was a pristine, immaculately clean brand spanking new ride. I was well impressed with it and the fact that I worked it all out with out using my bible or asking for help, which doesn't really work any way as they all say yes to every question made it all good.

When I actually got to Heosimcheong I was not only disappointed, I was fucked off. I made an effort to go some where and it turned it to be a bigger version of John Beaumont's pool. He taught me how how to swim, GOOD GUY, and this so called largest Spa in Asia was just a big N.Z heated pool. It even had the disgusting chlorine smell.

I was flabbergasted, I was thinking like a Kiwi, that I would be going to an outdoor hot pool, that I could soak myself in with what was normally considered a HOT pool, hot natural water... I was wrong. Oh well whatever, nervermind.