It was our first weekend out of Seoul for a while and it was
to visit Petro in Busan for her birthday. We took the train and it was my first
time on the KTX (Korean Train Express) Korea’s high-speed train. It’s basically
the exact same as the National Rail system in the UK… except that it runs on
time, is reliable, is quick, they offer good customer service, the prices don’t
rise every week, and the trains aren’t cancelled if there are a few leaves on
the track. Basically the same.
We arrived in Busan and met Petro and the rest of the
peasants. Many drinks were had and we checked-in to the pension at 3am.
For those that don’t know what a pension is, it’s a cheap
guest house. It’s one room where by you sleep on the floor. When looking for a
room price often dictates where you stay and sleeping on the floor is generally
fine but with copious amounts of alcohol and an uncomfortable night led to the
worst hangover I’ve ever had. That’s not an exaggeration, it was the worst
hangover I’ve ever had. I felt horrendous. People often say that, it’s an overused
phrase, but I felt so bad that morning that if someone had given me a rope I’d
have made good use of it. It was a life low point. If I got hangovers like that
every time I drank I would give up alcohol.
Busan is on the coast, and when you go you have to go to the
beach. Unfortunately for us it was pissing down with rain and was bloody
freezing but in true British style and bit of rain wasn’t going to stop us. It’s
the equivalent of going to Brighton or Skegness, you have to go to the beach
regardless of the weather. After the beach we went sightseeing around Gamcheon
Cultural Village, a quaint place full of colour, art, and too many stairs.
We meandered around an interesting market and I stepped back
into the 90s. We found an electronics shop that haven’t updated their stock since
1990. This was their shop window.
Seriously how do they make a living? Who still needs to buy
a CD Walkman, a Dictaphone, a cassette player, or an old CRT television?
Seriously? When was the last time they sold something? It was probably when Will
Smith bought a cassette player when they were filming the intro for The Fresh
Prince of Bel-Air.
Afterwards we found The Pub. A pub actually called The Pub.
That’s such a great name. Karl and I have been thinking of opening up a decent
British pub in Seoul and that would be the perfect name to steal. We also
considered that once our pub is established of branching out into the exotic
dancing industry and we were going to call the club The Titty Bar, two perfect
names for two perfect places. One day… We arrived at The Pub just as my hangover
wore off.
The drinks kept on coming and we had another night out in
the university district of Busan. We went down to the beach armed with
fireworks to celebrate Petro’s birthday with a bang! This seemed like a nice
idea but 15 or so drunk people letting off explosives is actually a stupid
terrifying idea. Worse of all someone had the brainwave to give the big-headed
mong (Karl) the fireworks. This is a man who I hardly trust to hold a cigarette
in his hand let alone gunpowder and a lit fuse. Luckily everyone came away
unscathed.
Not entirely sure where we went after the beach but it was a
good night and like most good nights there was the lure of a kebab. Upon closer
inspection Karl and I noticed the chap selling the delights of the intoxicated
was Turkish. Regardless of how drunk we get our hatred for Turkish people will
never diminish. Karl and I have made up our minds and we have sided with the
Cypriots, for this reason we refused the kebabs despite how delicious they
looked. Along with Bof (the influencer), as a unity we also hate all things
from Wolverhampton, Tottenham, and Derby, the four worst places on the earth.
Another night on the pension floor and to my delight… no
hangover! This time around it was Karl who had the hangover and I was laughing
at him. We stepped outside and to our surprise it was warm and there were clear
skies. Not only were they clear but they were also blue, I didn’t think blue
skies existed in Korea, as it turns out not all of the country is filled with
pollution. We went back to the beach to retake all the pictures.
We headed to the pub for lunch and again in truly British
fashion we had fish and chips by the seaside. One of the best parts of the
weekend was seeing Karl’s cheeky smile when he realised the pub did gravy. The
northerner went ahead and ruined his meal by flooding his plate with gravy, it
was moronic but he was in heaven.
We opted for an afternoon cruise along the coast to finish
off the weekend. It was delightful. The water was a little choppy which led to
a rocky boat ride. Throughout the cruise they played some dodgy music, it
almost sounded like weird Northern Korean propaganda music, we were supporting
the regime and riding the waves at the same time!
We docked and made it safely back onto land. We all survived
a Korean boat trip.
We walked down the beach and we noticed this guy.
Yeah, that’s a man in a thong. I mentioned earlier that there
were blue skies and it was reasonably warm but it wasn’t that warm… actually
scratch that, it’s never that warm!
It’s April in Busan, not July on Copacabana Beach! There are children about,
put that away!
We said our goodbyes and made our way to Busan Station to
get the KTX back to Seoul, we checked our train tickets and realised that we’d
missed our train by about an hour and a half. We never thought to check the
time we were returning to Seoul, we really are a pair of mongs. We had to buy
new tickets which meant we were standing for two and a half hours on the way
back north. All-in-all it was a great weekend. It was awesome to catch up with
Petro, Leon, Michael, Mikey, and meet many more new friends!
Yes, I know… ooooh! New friend friends!
