13 November 2022
Grey day for a train ride
Seoul to Gwangju on the KTX
Now I am in Gwangju. I have been here before, in 2015, but I stayed on the other side of town then and mainly travelled to this side of town where the shopping area is.
I remember last time I stayed in colourful love hotel land which was.. unusual.
Getting here today was a 2 hour train ride on the same same bullet train that I did not even bother to photograph.
The train was full, but silent, still I assume I will get COVID from the trains eventually.
Once arriving in Gwangju I had to take the subway across town which was very easy, and then I was still too early for my 4pm check in time, the latest I have ever heard of. Once I was allowed to check in the boss man made me go through some English laminated flash cards of all the things I would not do. He made me promise that I would not have a party in my room, literally, he showed me the card and looked at me and said 'PROMISE!'.
Anyway, the photos today are boring so there is that.
I had hours before I checked out of my room in Seoul to go to the train, so first I checked on the sewer walk from above. So grey today.
Apparently it is Gundam week in Korea, but I suspect this may be every week.
I did find a new overpass thing I had not noticed before that goes a really long way above the streets.
Eventually it was time to go to Yongsan station, just 3 stops on the subway from my hotel, and more Gundam. The giant robot killing machine with the heart of gold.
A general view of the station area, this station is most like a mega Japanese station, there are numerous stores and entire eating floors. That is what they call them, the sign says eating floor.
The Yongsan area is going through a big renewal. I remember from my first trip to Korea, in 2012, that this area was full of old discarded trains, and across the way there were no tall buildings. It was the computer market area. I think all that is gone now, and a department store is going to be built in that empty area in the foreground.
The roof of the Yongsan station has many different roof gardens. It was cold today in the grey. Under 10c I reckon.
First photo from Gwangju, across the road from my hotel, another sewer stream to explore!
And finally, my room. Standard type of business hotel room, with their branding on everything including the walls and ceiling. Also theres a full size ancient PC that you can see the mouse for on the left, these are quite common in Korean hotel rooms, they run very old windows so that very old internet explorer still works to log into very old starcraft servers or something like that. Now to think about dinner, I am hungry as I dare not remove my mask on the train to eat.