We tried to organise a special combined ticket deal that includes Korean trains, the ferry to Japan and Japanese trains. It was introduced when there was football in Korea some years ago. But you can only buy it in country, for cash, in time for a travel agent to mail the tickets to you. We weren't prepared to risk the mail from Seoul to a hotel that doesn't speak English well enough to read their own guest register. (Jo's co-author, Farhat was told last night that we had not checked in.)
We found the conference venue. It is a huge place in the middle of a new high rise area which reminds me of the smarter suburbs around Washington DC. I cannot imagine how such a place could be squeezed into Darling Harbour. As it is about an hour from our hotel, by metro, we decided to hang around for the opening ceremonies in the evening. (So that dress won't get worn.) To fill the time, I visited the Busan Art Museum which was just across the road but still I missed it. It was empty. The next exhibition will open on August 31. It has 11 exhibition halls which makes you wonder what kind of shows get installed.
At the opening we were entertained by the Korean Angels who did that glide in the lovely, long robes and flashed their fans in a way that would drive a butterfly to distraction.
Our way home was enlivened by my leaping over turnstyles. We couldn't decide which track we should be on and I, stupidly, fed my ticket into the gate. Farewell ticket. Several nice staff ladies waved us through with their magic cards. We got to the right place in the long run but there was no nice lady. So I jumped over. After my last visit to Seoul in winter, I was rather dreading the smell of garlic in the subway. But either I am part of the smell by now or the air conditioning really works well.
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