We have the luxury of time to enjoy our last few days in Busan before we leave on the overnight ferry back to Fukuoka Japan. This includes savouring the hospitality of the Commodore Hotel and its special charm. Upon returning from our trek along bike route of the Nakdong River, we have realized that in a short time, we have become very comfortable here in S Korea. We still have much to learn…including the language, but we are enjoying the people, the culture and the cycling.
Busan has a campaign to celebrate their city. The slogan you see around the city is Busan is Good, always accompanied by flowers.
Beef soup with condiments, some pickled..some spicy, and a fried egg. We had gone for a walk and ended up at the train station. They have some great restaurants there and we tried this lovely place run by two women. The food was great.
The menu was (thankfully) in English and Korean. The only difficulty was that we didn’t understand the process of how to order. Barry went up to the counter, tried to order and give her money. She tried to explain (in Korean) and finally gave up. At this point, Barry suddenly remembered that there is often a board at the entrance where you made your selection and pay the machine. All sorted..we had our meal in no time.
Having our own Pocket Wifi has made such a positive difference in our travels. We love having a private and secure source of internet for banking etc. It is lovely not having to deal with inconsistent internet at hotels, etc.We picked it up at the ferry terminal and will drop it off when we depart.
This is the pocket wifi we own and have been using for Japan. The company is Mobal and much of their profits go to establish schools in west Africa. We ordered the pocket wifi online from Canada and it was waiting for us at our hotel in Osaka.
Today is the day we take the ferry to Japan. We have some hours before we will leave, but it feels like we just want to relax at the hotel and not rush about. We can work on the journal, have lunch in the lounge and just enjoy where we are.
Haven’t been eating burgers in Japan or Korea, and this was a good place to start. They were delicious. Barry’s was called The Tower and it included a fried egg, pineapple slice and more.
Ready to head out for the ferry terminal. Glad we decided to relax at the hotel as we will be waiting several hours at the terminal. Since it is an international crossing, it is more complicated.
Farewell to this landmark building which has become our home base in Korea. We have grown to love it here. The staff are fabulous, the building is a unique and beautiful place of history. We have made good memories here.
South Korea’s cities are dominated by towering sky scrapers. These turquoise coloured buildings are a landmark which stand out. We could see these from our hotel, a few km away and very close to the ferry terminal.
We have observed the construction ongoing of this pair of skyscrapers in the past few weeks. Now we know it will be called Lotte Castle. Lotte is also the name of the premier Department Store in Korea.
As requested we have arrived early so that we can deal with the trikes. Our ferry doesn’t leave until 10:30 pm, but we were asked to be at the terminal by 4:30. We will be taking them to the inner sanctum of the cargo area where our trikes will be put in a truck for their ferry journey.
Watching the truck driving on the ferry (in the photo below), we still wonder why we can’t just ride them on as we do on ferries in Japan. When we mentioned this as a possibility, we could see that this is something that isn’t considered here. No problem.
Travelling days like this are basically more about waiting than doing. Taking this ferry is similar to international flights with customs, immigration and the need for patience. The ferry is full. We will disembark tomorrow at 7:30 am.
