This was a last minute, spontaneous trip with my German friend. She speaks Korean well, so I felt traveling with her outside of Seoul would be a lot more comfortable. The city Gangneung is another city in Korea, and in very close proximity to Jumunjin Beach, home of a famous bus stop that was a BTS album shoot location. It was on my bucket list of places to visit, so I found a friend and we took a cheap 5 hour bus on this random Friday to explore. She loves history, so when we arrived in Gangneung, we went to see some temples and visit a small museum. Afterwards, we headed to Jumunjin. We walked along the beach, which was very clean and well-kept compared to others I’ve seen outside of Korea. It was relatively empty since we went in the middle of a weekday, which meant we could frolic about as much as we wanted. We had to wait in a short line to take pictures at the bus stop, which is now treated as a landmark with a sign indicating its significance as a “BTS bus stop”. After that, as were walking back from the beach, we were approached by a man who wanted to take a photo with me. I decided to comply because I was in a good mood, even though my friend was confused as to why he wanted one in the first place. I explained to her how common it had become, especially outside of Seoul, for people to gawk and stare because I was black, and how I’d rather they come up and speak with me rather than point and stare.
It gets dark early around this time of the year, so we headed back to catch our bus home after eating a hearty meal. I was happy I had found someone to travel with so last minute, and was glad I could finally cross this spot off my “places to visit” list.
