I took the subway to Haeundae and walked around. Haeundae is Busan's famous beach neighborhood, made more famous by the recent blockbuster Korean-made disaster movie of the same name, that's been the big summer blowout hit in Korea this summer. Anyway… I decided I wasn't that interested in the beach. I walked west, and noticed a sign for a trail up a mountain called Jangsan (장산). I thought, oh, what the heck. Busan is littered with mountains kind of similar to the way Seoul is (or Los Angeles, for that matter), and the city kind of sprawls around them. It's almost a Korean urban archetype, that's dictated by the peninsula's topography.
I walked up the trail, and realized I'd only brought one small bottle of water, which I finished quickly. I became thirsty. And it was longer than I expected, although not that much… about 2 kilometers from the trailhead, I would guess. But all uphill. Very tiring. I was hoping someone would be selling water at the top of the mountain. If it had been Japan, there would have been vending machines — Japan has more vending machines than people, I think. I did, actually, find a vending machine not far from the top of the mountain, but it was only for lousy instant coffee. I didn't buy any. I headed back down.
I misread a sign (and I wasn't carrying my guidebook or map, which is kind of a tendency of mine when I'm out being a random wandering tourist). And so I got a little bit lost. Not really lost. I knew where I was, when I came to the next sign. But it turned out I'd gone down the back of the mountain. That meant I could either go back over the top of the mountain (4 km), or go around the mountain on a trail I saw on the map on the sign. I opted for the latter, because it seemed less strenuous.
When I had walked back around the mountain in a bit of a circuitous way, I ended up well to the east of where I'd started, and so I had to walk through some neighborhoods to get to the subway station that was closest. Net result: I walked a lot — I would estimate about 15 km from subway station to subway station, total. I bought some gatorade at a convenience store. It was a good hike, and I took some pictures from the top of the mountain (and a small amount of video, but I'm running out of storage space for video). I'll try to post some later.
Tomorrow, I'm going to Pohang, not far northeast of here, from which I take the ferry to Ulleungdo. Ulleungdo is a small island in the middle of the East Sea (called the Sea of Japan on most western maps, but calling it that is against the rules while in Korea). It's quite isolated, and I've long wanted to visit it.