Couchsurfing comes through for us again!

Just after I lamented in a recent post that I was a little frustrated with couchsurfering, one of the hosts came through for us in a big way!

But before we get to that, I need to update you on the last three days...

Of course we've already told you about our Templestay experience, and if you haven't read it yet you should go back and do so. Really, a once in a lifetime type of event.

Let's go back to Friday evening, the 17th. We were staying with Tom and Elicia, the young couple who are living in Korea, teaching English. They made us dinner that evening, and we stayed up too late again because there just wasn't a lack of things to talk about.

But, we had to get up at 7:00am in order to catch our bus to Busan! Man, we didn't want to get up. And we had had a few late nights in a row, so we were really tired.

We said our goodbyes, and Tom was great to drive us to the bus station. We can definitely see that we will meet these two sometime in the future. I wonder what part of the world it will be in??!! Thanks for hosting us Tom and Elicia...we really enjoyed our short time together!

Fortunately, it was a direct bus from Yeosu to Busan. It stopped a few times along the way, but we didn't have to get off or transfer or anything like that. Tom had bought the tickets for us the day before, and we learned that different departure times are different prices. The cheapest was at 8:40am, so that's the one we took. It was 14,000 won ($15.40) each for the three hour or so journey.

Our trip from Yeosu to Busan.

We slept a lot on the bus. It's not the most comfortable sleep, but at least it was some shuteye! Good thing, because there wasn't a lot of sleep to be had for me at the Templestay Saturday night. Ruth says she slept okay though.

At this point, we still didn't know exactly where we were going to be staying in Busan after the Templestay. Then, I received an email from Kim! I had changed our couchsurfing profile so that others could offer a place to stay without us first requesting it. And Kim responded! He's a 28 year old Korean who's family also owns a studio apartment that's empty and up for sale...and he said that we could stay there! Wow!

We were lucky that the bus ended up at the Busan Central Bus Terminal, which is actually located at the north end of the city. It's also located right at the end of Subway line #1. 

Ruth, on one side of the gate, and me waiting on the other side. We couldn't get our transit pass to work for both of us! I ended up leaving through the handicap gate! We need to buy a new card, I think! They're supposed to be rechargeable, and ours has enough money on it, but it would only work for Ruth. Strange!

Mexican restaurant in Korea!

So, late Sunday morning after our Templestay, we headed back to the subway where we figured out how to meet Kim at 2:00pm that afternoon. We had arranged a meeting spot at a subway entrance near the studio apartment. Sure enough, Kim showed up right on time and we walked over to the flat. Nice little spot, and it suits our needs just fine!

Kim is an electronical engineer, and his parent's house is nearby. He says we should be able to meet them, but they don't speak any English. Very nice young man, and he had some time to show us around, so we decided...on a hike! We were already pretty tired after having hiked the mountain that morning, but this hike had a special ending, and it really wasn't that far.

Turns out he works for Korean Broadcasting Corp and one of his days is spent on the top of the mountain overlooking the city where he works at a signal tower. It's secured, and you can't normally enter, but he was able to get us in to get the view from the tower! Not many people get to see Busan from up there!

The city of Busan. See the red circle? That's the mountain we hiked on Sunday morning with the monk.

Busan is about 3.5 million people.

Kim took us to Pork Soup restaurant. He said it's famous in Busan, and very popular. It was busy, even at 5:00pm, and we got the only open table. By the time we left, there were people waiting outside. Ruth thought hers was a little bland, but I really liked it. The pork was boiled, and was so tender. Besides the soup, you put a piece of pork on a piece of lettuce and roll it up along with onion and garlic and other things. Yummy!

We needed a day off, and so today is pretty much what that was. Besides, it was raining most of the day. We lazed around for the morning, and then we took the subway downtown and wandered around a bit. Nothing too strenuous, and we were back at the apartment by 4:00pm for a nap!

One end of the Lotte department store was open and we went up for a view from the 10th floor.

Ruth.

Shellfish anyone? So many different types of seafood. Never seen anything like it!

Kevin with another bull , this one is very healthy!

Just a reminder to our American readers that you can do any of your Amazon shopping through our links here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth. 

Just click this link and see how easy it is! Click here to shop at Amazon.com