Geumjeongsanseong, a Mountain Fortress

We decided to do touristy things in Pusan. We arrived in Pusan in the late afternoon on a Thursday, after a somewhat long, bumpy bus ride from Gunsan. We hit a lot of traffic coming in after a 4 hour ride, so we were eager to get off the bus. We had booked a hotel online while we were in Gusan, trying to stay at least one step ahead of ourselves and going with recommendations on location from a IKAA conference friend. We ended up staying at 2 or 3 star hotel in central Pusan, Seomyeon district. Korea has hotels called "love hotels" marketed for couples and supposedly cheaper than others but we didn't find out that worked for us. It seemed like the cheaper hotels tended to be run by families, and you can never beat the service they provide. The owner was a sweet elderly man and his wife helped maintain the hotel. They lent us an umbrella during our stay, provided us toast and eggs (that you had to cook yourself on a hot plate) for free in the morning, and let me come into his office when the computer wasn't working so I could buy our train tickets to Seoul. All the four and five star hotels made us buy everything, so it was almost worth paying less for a cheaper hotel.

When we arrived Pusan we had a few errands to run, we were short on cash and somehow between Seoul and Pusan, Erik's phone would not charge, and my phone stopped working. Any task in Korea is an adventure. We walked into a SK mobile store and the people there would not help us, so we walked next door (for some reason there were four SK mobile stores lining this one street), and the guy there couldn't speak English as well but was willing to help us. He fixed my phone and was able to tell us that Erik's charger was no good. His charger drained his battery instead of charged it. Luckily we have the same charger so Erik was able to use mine. By the time we finished with our errands, it was 9pm and we were starving. We hadn't had breakfast or lunch. We found this westernized Korean grill house that looked like a Japanese style home with an owner that was very sweet. We hung out there for a few hours. My friend who lives in Pusan met up with us.

The next day we decided to go see the fortress on the top of a mountain. The sky was totally over cast but we hoped that it would burn off by the time we got to the top of Geumjeongsan. We walked up a fairly steep hill after taking the subway. It was very humid out, so we walked slow. The breeze on our face while riding the cable car to the top saved me from wanting to turn around. There were only a few people on their way up. I had heard about Korean hikers and how they get completely decked out when they hike. All the rumors were true.

View from cable car of Pusan, looking north east

Catching the breeze on the cable car

For the first 50 m our hike was fine. As soon as we left the landing spot and got to the edge of the woods all the signs were in Korean symbols. That should have been a clue that maybe this wasn't going to be so easy. But Erik forged ahead and I followed. We got another 125 m into the woods when we ran into a Korean camp site. That's when I decided to turn around and go another direction. Eventually after about 45 minutes of hiking on dirt and rock trails, up and down hills, through a misty forrest we found our way to the South Gate of the fortress. Ta dah!

South Gate

Along the way we had found some carved Buddhist figures on the side of the mountain.

See the carvings?

We realized once we passed the gate that the inside of the fortress walls looked exactly like outside the walls. Why did we hike up this mountain for this? We were those tourist hikers that I always despise when I walk around the parks in California. I was wearing a skirt and sandals, and Erik was wearing flip flops and shorts. We didn't look like we belonged at all. So we ventured in for about 10 minutes then decided it was going to take too long to get anywhere substantial. We also had a late start to the day and we had so many other things on our list to do and see. I didn't want to admit but my feet were starting to hurt. I could feel all the rocks right through my shoes. I kept telling myself this is therapeutic, it's good for me to walk almost barefoot. NOT. I totally got a blister on my foot.

Erik really tired after our hike

The fog had started to burn off, a little bit. The view from the cable car was stunning.

Looking south east

Me!

Looking straight down (can you tell we were high up?)

Pusan from the cable car

At the base of the mountain was a park, with many deserted snack shacks, a sad looking children's amusement park and a few old people hanging out under the trees for shade and relaxation.

Inside the park