As the winter break draws near, I get more and more excited about having time to travel around Korea and visit cities that I normally wouldn't get a chance to see. In America, it can be difficult and expensive to travel a lot around the country and take two or three days in a city and move on somewhere else, but in Korea, as it is only 1/6 the size of Texas, most places are quite close together. But the transportation system in Korea is something else completely.
Now I haven't gotten to travel too much yet, despite being here for almost 6 months. But when I do, I have to use the public transportation system. I don't and will not ever have an International license to drive in Korea. First off, they are crazy. Secondly, I don't have a car. But mostly, they are crazy.
The public transportation system is great. You can basically get anywhere in the country between the buses and the trains. The buses tend to be cheaper, and intercity buses are usually pretty nice. And if the trip is longer than three hours, there is a stop at a rest stop for about 20 minutes. Those trips can get really long though. When I took a bus to Jinju for the lantern festival, the bus ride was like 6 hours. That was after traveling the three it took to get to Seoul. I haven't taken the KTX train yet, but I have used the ITX train to Seoul before. The ITX was really nice. It used the same tracks as the subway system, just made fewer stops and had better seats. You do have to pay for tickets for the train, but it's not too expensive, and the trip is quicker than the bus. And it doesn't make me as nauseous.
There are also many apps that can help you get around too. The kakao apps are great with metro, taxi, bus, and maps. Naver also has a maps app. They can help you create a plan to get where you need to go that includes all of these different types of transportation. I am definitely going to miss this when I return to the US.
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