160 mph to Daegu

We are in Daegu now, but we did some stair-climbing this morning before we left Busan. Our hotel was right next to Yongdusan Park, yet we hadn't visited it. So this morning before we left, we trekked up the stairs into the park. Almost all parks are on the top of a mountain, it seems! 

This was a much smaller park than the others we have visited, but it had an observation tower. This is the view from within the park of the statue of General Yi Sun-Sin, a very honored Korean admiral. In the 1590s, the General led 13 Korean ships against 133 invading Japanese ships... and beat back the Japanese without losing a single Korean ship. I'd say he deserves plenty of statues around the country. This area also has a shrine, a huge bell that was rung by a log, and a clock with its face made of flowers. The most significant part of Yongdusan Park, however, was the observation tower. We rode the elevator to the top for this view of the harbor.

The observation deck gave us the 360 degree view of Busan. My camera couldn't capture the entire view even of the harbor. We couldn't see it from the ground, but a lot of the rooftops are painted blue. The hike up to Yongdusan Park was indeed worth it. 

We checked out of our hotel and headed, via subway, to Busan Station to catch a KTX (high speed) train to Daegu. Busan Station should have been a destination itself, as it has a pool with fountains set to music on its front pavilon. We watched the dancing water for a bit before we headed inside to purchase our train ticket. The station had good signage and we had little difficulty getting our ticket, even though the clerk spoke no English. She turned her monitor around so we could see it and point to what appeared to be our best choices. For about $15 US each, we had first class tickets on the express train, reserved seating, that left in 12 minutes for the 55 mile journey. Twelve minutes was plenty of time to go down the escalator to our train as there was no security screening to delay us.

I didn't get very many pictures as we traveled for two reasons. When a mountain was in the way, the train went thru the mountain, not over it. There were many mountains in the way, so a significant portion of the trip was in tunnels. The second reason was the speed of the train, 265 km/hour which is about 160 mph. Anything near the train went by too quickly for my little camera to capture it. Most of the view was of terrain like in the above picture. I know the speed of the train because it was displayed on an overhead monitor as we traveled.

Once in Daegu, we rode the subway, which we caught at the KTX station, to the stop closest to our next hotel. Unfortunately, I did not know which of the 20 exits from the subway station to take! I chose poorly that time, but we did what we always do, asked a young person at a bus stop. The boy whipped out his smartphone, input the hotel address (which I had written in Korean script), and showed me the map pinpointing the hotel. So, back down into the subway tunnels and we came out on the right street and found the hotel. The hotel lobby is fancier than at the previous hotel, but the room itself is less elaborate. No heated toilet seat and bidet or rainhead shower. I does have a bed and Phillip said the mattress is the softest one yet on our trip.

Although we had steps and walking in the morning, we weren't at all tired so we headed out to eat dinner and check out the neighborhoods. We had bibimbap and kimbap for dinner at a small restaurant then stolled about some more. I saw a group of boys, four 14-year olds clustered around a food vendor. Sugar pancakes! Yes! The man asked us if we were American (was it my ballcap or trekking pants that gave it away?) and I said yes, that we were from Texas in America. The boys, who were also waiting for their sugar pancakes to finish cooking, got very animated and talkative. The vendor joined in and I realized that the boys were fans of Shin-Soo Choo, the right fielder for the Texas Rangers who is from South Korea. A very nice encounter, and a great sugar pancake, hot off the griddle.

After we returned to the hotel, it began to rain so we didn't venture out again. The weather is expected to clear overnight, so our next few days here in Daegu should be fine.