Travel Day - Trip to Pohang

I actually began this post on Saturday afternoon, while on the KTX.  Here's what I wrote:

As I type, I'm actually sitting on the KTX, rumbling through city and countryside.  But what a journey to get here!  Our train was scheduled to leave at 4:30pm.  We had planned to leave at 2:00pm, figuring that 2.5 hours to journey to Seoul Station was enough.  We didn't foresee getting turned around at Bupyeong Station, and ending up stopped at Yongsan Station, though!  With somewhere around 70 lb. of luggage each in various suitcases, just getting on the 91 bus from the SUNY Korea bus stop was a struggle.  My roommate was the only one with the foresight to walk in the road rather than the sidewalk, since the sidewalk is separated from the road by a wildgrass section almost like a hedge.  Once on the bus, we took up most of it...

Don't worry, we moved once we figured out how to compact our bags.

We did a slightly better job on the crowded subway.  For this leg of the journey, we took the subway from Campus Town to Bupyeong.

I suppose it's worse during weekday rush hour, right?

We got a little lost at Bupyeong, but with our resident translator's language skills, we managed to get both directions and elevators to our next train, this time, to Seoul Station.  While waiting for the elevator, I took some photos of the shops.

Bright, glittery, and packed with the latest in clothes and jewelry.

10 minutes into the train ride, however, the idea of riding the express train was floated, and we agreed to get off at the next stop to switch to the next train.  We waited at the subway station with our sea of bags, trying not to take up too much of the rest benches.

4 people, 4 backpacks, 7 suitcases.  Yea.

While on the train, we crossed a lovely bridge into Seoul.

Teal?  Turquoise?  Sea green?  Whatever the color, I love the structure of the bridges here.

The problem came when  we reached Yongsan Station.  It turns out that Express trains only run to that stop!  A conductor luckily came down the aisle and asked where we were headed.  We managed to get back to the stop before and catch the next train to Seoul Station, but we had lost some time by then...

Too late!

Our resident translator managed to get us tickets for the next train, at 5:30pm, though.  With the cancellation fee split between the four of us, it wasn't too bad, and we did enjoy the comfortable seats on the train.  At this point, I realized that the internet wasn't all that reliable, and never published this post.

It really does look like an airplane on the inside, only more space and softer seats.

Interestingly enough,while we were waiting for our train to Singyeongu (closest stop to Pohang), I noticed that the station looked almost exactly like Jamaica Station on the Long Island Railroad.

Great minds think alike..?

Another view once on the platform.

This is going to be familiar once I get back to New York...

We also got to Singyeongu in time to catch the 8:00pm bus to Pohang.  Um, there are no pictures of the bus, the taxi or our somewhat arduous trip up the various hills of POSTECH to our dorm, because both of my hands were occupied, or, in the case of the bus pictures, it looks a little psychedelic.

In any case, we all survived the journey and managed to get ourselves unpacked enough to sleep.  More on the rest of the previous week soon!