Day 12 - Strangers on this road we are on... Wait, but don't I know you?

Sitting at Hakata ferry terminal, I was about three hours early for my ferry. Naturally, no one else was there, giving the massive building a very eerie feel. I wandered around a little bit, getting lunch at an upscale restaurant on the top floor with rather subpar dining before I settled down on a bench. Within the next hour, hordes of Korean tourist groups with giant visors, giant suitcases and giant perms came flooding into the terminal. The once hauntingly, lonely terminal floor suddenly became a lively, rather loud beehive of activity.

I glanced at my ticket which was kind of coolly labeled seat 1A. It was a very relaxed three hour ferry ride into Busan that felt more like a plane ride than a boat ride. But that's because this was no ordinary ferry; it was the hydrofoil beetle! Meaning it rides above the water! It more or less looks/works like this:

Here's a friend I made:

Arriving in Korea, it was wonderful being surrounded by a native language that I could understand (even at an elementary school level). The subways were a cinch and I found my hostel in no time. It was located in the middle of a university town, full to the brim with bars and clubs and karaoke and internet cafes. The hostel itself was simply a converted apartment. As I was being shown into my room, I noticed a couple sitting on the floor. In fact, they were very same German couple I'd shared a room with the first nights in Tokyo! A "Hey, don't I know you?" was exchanged and followed by loud exclamations ranging between, "Oh my God!", "Such a small world..." and "I swear I'm not stalking you." I found out that they were going on a bicycle tour throughout all of Asia and had just finished Japan. How sweet is that?

The couple was sitting on the floor consulting a map and speaking to a girl about my age. We introduced ourselves; her name was Anna from Germany. We decided to get some dinner together so we ventured out and picked a Korean barbecue joint, soon finding out that they specialized in duck and pork. Luckily, neither of us are picky eaters, so we dug in and I taught her how to eat Korean bbq with all the fixins (for a free Korean food consultation, contact me via email and pay for the dinner). We talked, and I learned that she had been working in Australia for a year after finishing the German equivalent of high school. After a year of hard, manual labor, she was on her way back to Germany for university. What brought her to Korea was simply curiosity and a when-in-Rome spirit. She had a connection in Korea and figured it'd be a shame to be in a country without actually seeing it. We became fast friends and made plans to go out to Beomeosa Temple and Haeundae Beach the following day.