Train to Busan

As we leave the Love Motel the following morning, I have wisely adorned my borrowed thermals (thanks Geoff!) and I am feeling much more comfortable. After grabbing some breakfast, we head to the train station. Jiran's friends have told her that the standard seats on the KTX train aren't really designed to accommodate foreigners of my height. We opt to buy the more expensive seats and find our way down to the platform. After poking my head in the window of one of the standard carriages, I am forced to agree, it seems unlikely my knees or shoulders would have fit in the dimensions of the small seats.

Our carriage on the other hand is rather spacious, so I stretch out and we are soon hurtling across the Korean country-side. The KTX train is similar to the Japanese bullet train, reaching speeds of 300kph, it travels almost the entire length and bredth of the country in roughly 3 hours. I took some pictures out the train window but everything flew by so fast and the window was a bit reflective, so it was a quite tricky to capture the desired effect. But early impressions of the Korean country is that it is highly mountainous, there hardly seems to be any flat land at all. We sped past, lakes, snow capped mountains, cities and small villages on our journey.

We arrived in Busan and caught a taxi to Jiran's parents place. Her parents dont speak any English, so it was going to be the first time that my minimal Korean was going to be seriously tested. The taxi driver thought it was quite amusing as I practiced saying something to the effect of, "Hello, my name is Mark. Its a pleasure to meet you". He thought it was a bit strange that I was meeting her parents as only her boyfriend. Apparantly, in Korea it is common for a boyfriend/girlfriend to not spend any significant time with their partner's parents until after the wedding. But Jiran had been instructed by her father that when she came home, she should bring her degree and her boyfriend. Feeling pretty nervous as we stepped out of the taxi and into the parking lot. Jiran's father came out to greet us and there was the embrace and crying as Jiran hadn't seen her parents in over 18months. Then he turned and shook my hand and I stumbled out the words I had been practicing on the trip.