Visiting Ulsan

So this weekend was my first journey outside of Gyeongju. I went to Ulsan to visit Adri! There were many options on how to get there, luckily someone sent me a super informative website in English. I discovered that the "slow train" (slow as in not the KTX, so regular speed) was both faster and cheaper than the bus. It cost 2600W and took 45 minutes, which is pretty amazing. In Montreal a bus ride would be more expensive and could be longer depending on where I was going.

Ulsan is a LOT bigger than Gyeongju. I could tell instantly, as there were the neon lights and tall buildings I had imagined were abundant in Korea. There was a weird vibe, however, and no foreigners would talk to us or even smile back. It was strange. Very "I'm doing so well here in Korea I don't even need your kindness".

We went out for dinner Friday night. We went into a market and to my amazemeent, we were surrounded by tanks of hagfish. After studying these ancestral chordates, it was very neat to finally see them up close. However, I told Adri that this was one Korean item I NEVER EVER wanted to eat.

Guess what we ate?

It's amazing how much we don't realize we can't communicate. I suppose all my foreign travels have been in places where I was able to say a sprinkling of words and get by. Only when we sat down did we realize we couldn't say a single word. So we did our usual just point at a random item and smile.

Yeah. Guess what our random item was?

Hagfish. It was hands down the most revolting thing I have ever ever eaten. In fact, part of it was still moving when placed on our table. I kid you not. 

After being such difficult patrons due to our lack of language, we felt obliged to eat as much as possible. Luckily, the flavour wasn't actually bad (it didn't really taste like anything) but the texture and smell were so horrendous we had to leave most of it on the plate. Emergency trip to McDonald's ensued.

The next day we spent shopping around. First we went to a giant Home Plus near Adri. This store has everything useful, including a food court with plastic models of the food and a number ordering system. This system is literally heaven. We got a nice meal of seafood soup, bulgogi beef, and this glorious looking fried spam:

We did not eat this.

Next we decided to go see a movie. We asked for a ticket of a movie in English. The next movie was in 40 minutes and it was The Expendables 2. Do not see this movie. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. If you saw this movie and enjoyed it, I'm afraid you are incredibly stupid. This made the Jersey Shore seem intelligent. It was atrocious. And yet... we could not look away. Hilariously bad. We weren't sure if the jokes were as bad in Korean because no one else was hiding their faces in shame (yes the jokes really were THAT bad)

When we finally made it back to Adri's, we essentially walked into the flames of hell. I had somehow managed to turn on her heating and the floor was being pumped with 40 degrees water. Oh dear.
We proceeded to sweat for the remainder of my visit.

Pretty much: we couldn't catch a break. Luckily, we still managed to have an amazing weekend. I look forward to her visiting me :)

Adorable Gyeongju mascots: Shilla King and Queen

Super high tech viewing of student elections

Random snapshot of Korea: golden tires