listo para empezar

I'm in the K Motel in Busan (decent, away from the main street by a block or two, and W50,000 a night, or currently about $35 USD), barely 3 km from my starting point. I'll grab a taxi in the morning and go over there; the route I'll be walking is 29K already, so walking 3K from my motel to the start, then doubling back to redo part of the route I'd just walked would add an extra 4K to that, and tomorrow is going to be about seeing whether I even have it in me to walk 29K. In other words, I don't want to push things.

Final prep in Seoul was the usual mad rush, but I got it all done, so I ought to have a nice apartment to return to. Garbage is thrown out; the toilet valve is shut off; things are about as neat and tidy as they're going to get in my cramped, little space. Good thing I don't have much in the way of possessions. I said goodbye to my place, dropped off the food waste in its yellow bag, then hit the subway with plenty of time to spare to catch my 1:50 bus from Seoul's Express Bus Terminal. Figuring out whether my bus to Busan was in Spot 1 or 2 was as easy as asking an officious-looking guy there. Spot 2 it was. I was over 40 minutes early, so the bus that was in Spot 2 wasn't mine. Your bus ticket provides all sorts of clues to help you figure out which one your bus is; one important clue is to look at the bus company's name (there are many), which in my case was Dongyang ("East/Eastern"). This company name will also be written on the bus itself. So I stood and waited for a Dongyang bus to appear. All the chairs were inside, so standing was the only option. 

In other news: Spring (the tee company) did finally get back to me about my 2025 walk tee shirt, which I'd ordered in late September. It should have arrived by October 10, but there'd been nada. I waited until the 12th, then emailed Spring. Customer service took over a week to get back to me, just to say they'd gotten my emails (fucking auto-reply). Almost another week went by before a human told me that they'd been taken over by another company, hence all the slowness and confusion. I canceled the order, but I will likely try to order a new shirt after the walk. For this walk, I'm wearing an old, 2023 walk shirt that shows the Four Rivers path.

And the shirt attracted attention, as often happens. It may be my best design ever. Two 20ish Korean guys came up to me; one of them spoke very good American English while the other one hung back and, when he did speak, demonstrated that he was several levels of proficiency below his friend. They asked about the tee shirt, and I gave them a brief history of the routes I've walked, and even blabbered about how I'd like to do the Four Rivers again for a fifth time next year (which, frankly, may not be possible). As often happens, the conversation bled over from English to Korean once they realized I could speak the local language. The guys seemed friendly enough, and they had enough nunchi (social perception) to know when to end the conversation before wearing out their welcome. Some people just blabber on and on obliviously, unaware of their imposition.

Also while I was waiting, a not-so-good-looking French family (no father) came to the platform, all big butts, frizzy hair, muffin tops and jowls, and I listened to them talk without letting them know I understood them. We all ended up riding the same bus together to Busan. I was tempted to ask whether they lived in Seoul and were visiting Busan, or vice versa, or if they were visiting Korea. I doubt that last option: they seemed to be familiar with the Korean express-bus system. 

As usual, the four-hour ride south was murder on my own fat ass— not because of the fat but because of where the fat wasn't, e.g., my coccygeal region, a.k.a. the butt bone. The French family was mostly quiet the whole time; the mom muttered "Finally arrived!" when we pulled into the Busan Central Bus Terminal. 

I had plotted the route to the K Motel a few days before, so I knew to hop on the Orange Line (Line 1) and go an hour from Nopo Station to Hadan Station. Up several flights of steps (agh, my heart), and down an alley 200 meters to my motel. Despite its hidden, disreputable-seeming location, the K Motel was right across the alley from, of all things, a Hound Hotel, a very nice chain that I'd stayed at a few years earlier at the end of a different walk. I was surprised to see such a nice hotel in such a seedy location; maybe the hotel had been established here long before the neighborhood had become saturated with nightclubs, karaoke rooms, and streets littered with trading-card-sized ads for "Thai massage" (heh heh).

So here I am. I'll finish this entry up before 9:30 p.m. and be in bed by 10 so I can get up at 3:10 a.m. to begin my journey along the Nakdong River. What follows are all the photos from today's trip south. Don't get spoiled: today is only Day Zero of the walk: from Day 1 to Day 20, I'll be uploading only ten images per day, with the rest being uploaded once I'm back in Seoul. 

saggy walk stats, about to become muscular for three weeks

Danger Guy!

red bus = not my bus

The previous bus occupying Space 2 has shipped out.

Space 2 for Busan and west Busan

Cue all the zombie-movie jokes. 

pre-launch

sunset view from the bus

yet another word for "waiting room": 대합실

Hadan Station, Exit 3, where I popped out

not, as it turns out, the door to the motel's lobby

keto dinner—chicken and water

interior shot; you know it's a love motel with all the mirrors

another shot of my motel's interior 

a peek at the bathroom; slippers are a Korean standard for wet floors

Righto—so I'll now retape a toe and hit the hay. Night. 

ADDENDUM: Uh-oh. I just realized I'm wearing the wrong walking shoes. 

Well, I've worn Skechers on long walks before. Just pray for the condition of my toes.

conversation-starting tee design