David Grajal

The second long weekend of May we visited Donghae, a really small town for Korean standards (Only 100 thousand population) . It’s located in the east side of Korea, around 4 hours and a half from Seoul by bus. Instead of using the bus we choose to come here using the train because we already had the tickets. On the train, we enjoy the company of authentic Koreans and we were 7 hours surrounded by drunk people and kimchi.

We arrived at Donghae in the night and after a cab ride we arrived at Patrick’s home. Patrick and us were swapping our apartment that week (our first experience as hosts in Couchsurfing) so Patrick was in our appartment in Seoul while we were at his in Donghae. The next morning we visited Donguae’s caves. The caves are in the middle of the city, close to Dongae’s downtown and were discovered in 1991!!.

In the afternoon we went to the beach, we rented an ATV and were playing in the beach with it. It was cool although we has problems because we didn’t know how to start the engine after it stopped!. After coming home we went out for beers.

The next morning we were supposed to go to Ulleungdo Island far to the east (eastest point in Korea), a place that is supposed to be really interesting nature wise. We called the tourism information center and they told us that the ferry leaves the port at 10am, but when we arrived there, we discovered that the ferry had left at 8am because it was Sunday. This is an example of how Koreans treat foreigners, you need to have lots of patience with them sometimes.

Instead we went to the Mureung Valley, a mountain that was declared the main attraction of Korea in 1977 (and it was also declared the second one the same year, another example of the wierdiness of Korean people) and we were hiking in the forest for a few hours. Hiking seems to be the main physical sport here and there were lots and lots of medium age and old koreans wearing professional clothes. We reached a fall after 2km of hiking and visiting temples in the valley and then returned, not before chilling out for an hour in the big stone that served as bed for the valley.

Jumping in the Mureung Valley

David the explorer

After this trip, we have already visited the east, west and south of Korea so we only left North Korea.
We will be there soon!

1. Unlike Japan, there are lots of young people and there are lots of kids
2. They drink a lot. Maybe too much.
3. As they drink a lot, Soju is the best selling spirit drink worldwide. And it is only sold in South Korea!
4. They like dating a lot. There is no Korean without a girlfriend.
5. As there is no Korean without a  girlfriend, they don’t need to spend a lot of time buying clothes. Couples dress in the same clothes, some times matching, most of the time identical.
6. It is normal for friends to be holding hands. Even the same sex.
7. Koreans like to use the last tech they can afford. They are not shy about last-gen gadgets (videogames, cellphones or pmps) and they like to see movies and soap dramas on the subway.
8. Korean food is tasty and spicy. Very strange for my western Europa taste. They eat silk worms from street vendors and I don’t like them (I only know one Korean guy who likes them)
9. You can’t buy whatever you want in a restaurant, no dog meat in a Korean BBQ restaurant
10. Karaoke is a normal friend activity.
11. If you are Korean you like to protest publically.
12. Koreans wear T-shirts with English sentences they clearly don’t understand.
13. Renting a room in a store to see a movie with your partner and having sex there is perfectly normal and expected.
14. Koreans like to buy lots and lots of shoes.
15. Korean girls are skinny and they spend half their wage in make up. Maybe the other half on shoes.
16. Korean boys are skinny and they spend half their wage in presents for their girlfriends. Maybe shoes.
17. Unlike the rest of the world, it may be cheaper to get a cab than the subway. Seoul subway is very dense but slow, maximum velocity in busy areas must be 40km/hour.
18. They are extremely polite and foreigner friendly.

Jaimi and me went on our second adventure in South Korea to Busan, the biggest port city in Korea. It takes 3.5 hours to get there on the bullet train (and costs 100,000 won return) which is a sweet ride to the tip of the country.

This was also our first couch surfing experience which is a great way to meet others with adventurous minds that are willing to host you and/or show you around their city. We stayed with Pablo who is a Puerto Rican English teacher who has been living in Korea for almost 12 years! He was also hosting 2 others at the same time as us – a Canadian and a Thai-American – and we had such a great time sight seeing and exploring together.

Couchsurfer meeting

Although Busan is the second biggest city in South Korea, it’s dramatically smaller compared to Seoul. Busan it’s only 4 million people.

We only managed to spend about 2 hours on our last day on the beaches since the beaches are quite far from the downtown area. It seems that most people either stay by the beach, or in downtown.. it’s quite hard to do both due to the distance.

Pablo lives close to the downtown area so we spent a lot of time hanging out with other couch surfers and local Koreans. We visited Bemoesa Temple on our first day, which is in the north of the city at the base of Geumjong mountain. It was built in 678 during the Silla dynasty and is one of the most popular temples in the country. It’s gorgeous since it’s surrounded by mountainous scenery.

These guardians are in the entrance of the Buddhist temples

After a pretty mellow night of drinking with some new friends we decided to spend the next day doing what all Koreans love best – relaxing at the spa which is called jimjilbang in Korean. We went to Heosimcheong which claims to be the biggest spa in Asia (capacity of 2000 people). Since this was my first time at a jimjilbang, I had nothing to compare it to but the experience was truly unique and amazing.

Five hours at this spa was super relaxing and after exfolliating my body I had never felt cleaner in my life!

Pablo insisted we had to try the fish at Jagalchi fish market, the biggest fish market in Asia. Again, another great new experience because the one thing that I’m not good at is trying new food. I was quite confused when the cut up pieces of octupus were still moving (very tasty indeed). And I ate a lot of different raw fish which were very slimy.

I had a lot of new experiences on this quick trip to Busan and I plan on visiting again in the summer so I can lay on the beach before starting a new adventure taking the ferry over to Japan.

After almost two months of living in Seoul, I frequently lose the notion of where I’m living until I leave home and I realize I’m surrounded by Korean script in the streets. Living in a country with an alien language is an extraordinary experience and is helping me to understand the world (even myself!) better than ever.

That’s how Hangul looks like

It’s not easy though, It’s specially frustrating when Koreans don’t understand super basic English or corporal language and it’s even worse when you don’t understand what the people are saying to you.

If I’m listening to very complicated English conversations and I’m tired, my mind starts wandering because I get lost. But here the problem is a bit different. The Korean guy can be saying something as simple as “do you want a bag?” in the supermarket or “Do you want a cup or a jar?” in the bar. And you don’t have any idea or what they are saying! It’s completely frustrating.

We are used to living comfortably in our country where we always understand everything, but when there is a huge language barrier, you need to put yourself in the place of the other and think: “If I were him, what I would say to me now?”.

Namdaemun Market

I’ve been always very easy going and open minded but everything reaches new levels when you need to speak with people whom you have basic communications issues with. Placing myself in the position of the other is a good way to discover the real me. Furthermore, I’m starting to question myself if it’s worth to use as many superficial words as we use when speaking our native language.

At least Korean people have lots of patience. If you try to speak or understand them in their own language, they are really nice. Even when you are trying to communicate with them in English they are nice. They are usually shy because they are afraid of making mistakes but when they open their mouths, they usually use perfect grammar and good pronunciation.

In contrast, if you are in Spain you can’t expect the people to even look at you a second time if you are speaking English or even if you are trying to speak Spanish with a strange accent… unless you have huge boobs! If that is the case, they will speak with you in Korean if necessary!

The best way to describe Korean food is spicy and colorful. Also, It tastes strange but once you are used to it, it is really tasty and healthy.

We Spaniards tend to think that Mediterranean diet is the most healthy diet because lots of scientific papers said that. In my experience, that is not true. I mean, if you were following a 100% Mediterranean diet means that you are eating small quantities of meat and fish, and tons of fruits, fresh vegetables, grains and carbohydrates.

100% Mediterranean diet is very balanced. It’s common sense that a balanced diet is healthier than eating at the same fast food restaurant every night around the corner!

The problem is that we stop following the real Mediterranean diet the moment we start to eat meat and fish every day. Classical Mediterranean diet is fresh vegetables and carbohydrates based but since we have become richer, families now spend more and more money on expensive products like fish and meat instead of relying on cheap beans, potatoes and grains. Moreover Mediterranean cuisine is normally oily when cooking meat and fish and everything together means that we eat too much fat.

On the contrary, the diet in Korea is based on rice and vegetables. Rice is eaten steamed or fried or in forms of rice cakes or noodles. Meat and fish is expensive and usually there are small portions but there are few dishes where meat is the main part of a dish. The exception are the Koreans BBQ, restaurants where you are given the meat in raw form and you prepare and cook it by yourself.

In Korea there are hundreds, thousands of restaurants. Virtually every corner has a restaurant or a street food store. And all of them are extremely cheap.

These days I’m having lunch (a good meal) for 2 eur!

The food prices in the markets are almost the same price as in restaurants, so the Koreans tend not to cook at home and instead, have a great time having dinner with friends. In the evenings all the restaurants are full of people, normally in groups of 4 or 6 people all together enjoying food and soju. In Korea, social relationships are established during eating. Lots of food. And lots of alcohol.

In Korea every time your boss wants to go out, all the office is forced to go with him for dinner. But the boss (who is the boss because he is the older guy) treats all the people for food and soju. If you don’t want to be seen like a problematic guy, you are forced to go. I love this system, after a few bottles of soju, all the problems that you can have with your coworkers are diluted in alcohol. If someday I have my own business I’ll apply this principle (drink more!) to solve all the corporate problems.

Actually it’s common to see drunk executives in the subway and in the streets after 10 in the night. Some of them in very bad condition. In Korea it’s accepted to go drunk or with a huge hangover to work if the night before you went out for dinner with your boss.