The bus dropped us off at the international bus station in Tirana early in the morning. A large uncovered parking lot with ticket stalls advertising destinations all over Europe, from Greece all the way to Germany. I dared not think how long a journey from Tirana to Berlin would take. We decided to walk to the central square, Skanderberg, less than a kilometer away, to stretch our legs after the 10+hour journey on the bus.

We had planned to go to South Korea from Japan via ferry but the added cost and time of traveling from Osaka to Fukuoka, plus a two-day layover in Fukuoka until there were seats on the ferry made that option less appealing. Jeju Air meanwhile offered a direct flight from Osaka to Busan for less than $50. So we flew to Busan, a busy port town at the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula and the second largest city in South Korea, spent a few days there then took the train to Seoul before flying off to Taipei.

In short, South Korea is busy, bustling, modern and polluted. So polluted, in fact, that some days we felt short of breath and unable to do much. By the end of each day I could feel a thin layer of smog blanketing my skin; my fingers felt cruddy from all the fine dust. It really made being outside for more than an hour really unpleasant. They’re blaming China for the pollution, but really, the frenetic pace of industrialization of the country (and the resulting energy consumption from the domestic coal power plants) probably bears a good proportion of the blame. 

But besides the pollution here are a few memorable things about our time in South Korea:

“Better BBQ than Texas…”