May 14th. Musical Chairs

 Well not quite. But that is later. Woke up in Busan going to Seoul. But first to our favorite breakfast place. CLOSED. Not a good start. Taxi to Busan train station. Taxi takes us long way around claiming is was because of traffic when I challenge him on it. I do still know my way around Busan still. 

Get to train station and in line for tickets around 10:30 am. “Three reserved seat tickets on the KTX (high speed train) please”.  All sold out till 7:30 pm. What! On a Tuesday. So I buy 3 standing tickets. Here is how it works. 

You get on the train and sit down in an empty seat. If someone comes along with a reserved ticket for that seat, you get up and try to find another. It gets especially nervous time at station stops with people getting off and on. My seat changes. 3. Mary Ann 6.  The other alternative is just standing. It pays to buy in advance. 

But we get to Seoul where we are meeting back up with Jessica who flew in from Japan after roaming the Japan countryside while we were in Busan. 

We met at Busan station with Meghan and Mary Ann Hangry. There are really no nice places to eat at in Seoul station so they eat the pastries Jessica pocked up in the station. 

As you can there is really nothing to take pictures of so far. We taxi to the traditional Korean house we stayed in with Gary and Tripp. The owner is waiting there for us with a surprise. 

She is making Korean pancakes and has taken a class on making Korean traditional rice wine “Makoli”, which she is serving us with the pancakes. So once again Korea changes colors from rough to very tender in a second.  Korea is like that. 

We have a long wonderful talk with her and when it comes to trading names (Mary Ann, Me and Jessica have Korean names) only Meghan doesn’t have a Korean name, I ask her to give one Meghan. She gave her Mon Sihwa.  Meaning Persimmon Flower. Very beautiful. And in the center of the house’s courtyard is a grand persimmon tree. What a great moment. 

This is a very nice house.  

Still full from pancakes we all need a walk. And fortunately ChungGaeChung Stream is. 5 minute walk away. Back in the 1960’s an elevated highway was built over the stream that had flowed through Seoul for centuries. In all fairness it was more sewage than stream so it was covered up. Fast forward to the 1990’s and urban renewal created what is there now. 

Mind you this flows through the middle of a modern city. But is 20 feet below the city street surface with various entrances every 200 meters or so. 

We are all hungry by now so we go back to the street surface and walk for what seems like miles before we find a place everyone likes. For me it was OK.  But now it is dark and I want to take everyone to the source of the stream ( not Nile). But first we bump into this. 

This is the old East Gate, one of four gates each one facing North, South ,West or East where people could enter the walled city of Seoul. 

And so we taxi off to the source of the stream. 

A taxi home after a more than full day that actually ended pretty nicely. 

Good night