Across Open Ocean (The Trip: Part 3)

The ferry trip was my favorite part of the whole vacation. As first, I was a little disappointed with the cramped quarters, but then I realized you could go outside on the deck. It was absolutely beautiful. The day was bright and clear. In any direction, all you could see was open ocean.

But what was most incredible about the trip was seeing wildlife. There were jellyfish, some very large ones, in fact, swimming through the water for almost the entire trip. It was amazing to see how many of them there were. But even cooler than that were the flying fish. I noticed just a few here and there at first. I wasn't even sure what the were in the beginning because they were so small. But every now and again some bigger ones would jump out of the water to get away from the boat, fly for 50 feet or so and then plunge back into the ocean. A few times, even whole schools jumped out and dove back in. It was like my own personal nature show.

I also got used to the rather cramped quarters. Each little cubby had a fold out mat, a blanket, and a pillow, so sleeping was easy. You could walk around the ship into the bigger areas, and there were even rooms for video games and movies.

We pulled into Korea after about five and a half hours. This was only the third time I had seen Busan, the city in which I now live.

Unfortunately, Damian and Dy's first impression of Korea was a poor one. Upon disembarking, we came across a Korean couple in the parking lot. The man was yelling and seemingly trying to pull the woman into a car. The woman didn't seem to want to go. They were speaking so quickly, I didn't understand a word of what they said, so I had no idea what was happening. At first, I thought he was trying to rape her, but then he started hitting her--not slapping, I mean closed fist hitting. And what made it all the more odd is that they were wearing matching shirts.

None of us really knew what to do. Luckily, some employees of the ferry terminal came by and Dy ran to them and pointed out the situation. A woman from the group ran to the couple and said to them (in Korean), "stop, you are upsetting the foreigners," as though it would have been okay otherwise.

What a first impression.

Anyway, after a little trouble, we found a semi-cheap, semi-decent hotel and bedded down for the night. The part of the city we stayed in was a little scummy. I wasn't sure how much of the city was like that then, but now I know that most of Busan isn't like that; it's only scummy like that near the ports.

After a few errands I had to run in Busan, we headed back to parts of Korea I know a lot better: Daejeon and Seoul. I was back on my home turf.