After a very long day traveling back from Beppu to Seoul, I left Korea on the 27th. Happily.

On the 25th, I woke up early and got the 4:00am train to Fukuoka City. The train wasn't a bullet train, but instead reminded me of one the Amtrak train I sometimes take from Chicago to Macomb, IL. It was hard to sleep in however, and so I gave up trying to snooze. Instead I planned my last 36 hours in Seoul. (And, as I am writing this retroactively, was key to such an amazing time in Hong Dae, near Hong Gik University.)

Once in Fukuoka City, I had to get to Hakata Port. I had three hours to do so, but thought it would be best to get going right away. I found the bus to Fukuoka City (the bus stop hidden next to a Starbucks), plus two new friends, both teaching English in Busan. Adam was from St. Louis, MO and Jacob was from somewhere in Germany. They had missed the hydrofoil ferry the day before because of weather, and were hoping to get back to Busan that day. They certainly earned the "good luck" by giving me a few quick tips on getting through customs.

There were 250 people waiting at the port, from the prior day's canceled ferries. But, I did have a reservation, and got on the 9:30am. I was happy to leave the packed port, but sad for my new friends, who would be waiting most of the day at best. The ferry ride this time was very bumpy. I have been on several small diving boats in the past that really beat this, but there are only 200 people on this ferry, and it still seemed small. After 3 hours we finally arrived in Busan.

Ahh, Korea! It felt like home!

In Busan I jumped on a shuttle bus to the train station and sat down. For about 90 cents the shuttle would take you to the train station. I was planning on taking the local subway train to the Bus station. A nice guy from Toronto joined on this short journey. He taught in Hiroshima, and was in Seoul to see some friends (and I suspect, gambling. He mentioned it several times.) So, we got off at the train station and he suggested I look at the cost of a train. It did save 2 hours of travel time. It was only $5 more, so I "splurged" for it. I could think of plenty of nice things to do in that two hours once I had this backpack stored somewhere. :)

Next... Adventures in Seoul!