If you've been following me lately, you know I have been preparing for a getaway.
This weekend I had the joy of going to Busan, SouthEast of Seoul in celebration midterms being finished. I had been in anticipation of this trip all of last week as I couldn't wait to get away from my room, my study area, my books, and even my school. Yes, you do get sick of spending so much time on campus.
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| KTX Platform at Seoul Station |
Day 1
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| Foreigner Special Compartment |
My friends and I got the KR Pass for foreigners (unlimited 3 day ride pass that can only be bought online) and headed out early Saturday morning. An important piece of information you should know is, despite the great deal your getting on these KR passes, there is a catch that we didn't know until we got on the train, and that is, you only get a seat
if there is a seat, if not, you stand, or sit at the compartments in between the trains. As it was the weekend, we were forewarned that all the seats are usually taken, but if your lucky, you can sit for a while before the next stop where new passengers get on. We were a little surprise this information wasn't made known to us prior to buying our tickets, but we made the most of it, laughed at our situation and endured the approximately two and a half our ride.
Arriving in Busan felt so good, but it still took another 40minute by public transit to get from the KTX station to where we were staying at, the most popular beach in Busan, Haeundae Beach(해운대).
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| Haeundae Beach 해운대 |
Finally, after settling down, we decided it was time for lunch. One thing you notice about Busan is that even though it is the second largest city in Korea, the population is obviously smaller as everywhere you go, even on the trains, its not as crowded as it is in Seoul. As Haeundae is a popular tourist area, the lineups of seafood restaurant in the area were literally in competition for our buisiness. Adjummas would stand outside their door and wave towards us and call us '"아가시" ('agassi' meaning young lady) to get our attention and draw us in. We were all so indecisive and at one point we even walked out of one
restaurant as quickly as we walked in due to the lack of interest in
their menu (they were actually quite assertive in deciding our food of
choice). We settled on a restaurant that had the most business of all
(when in doubt, always go to the busiest one!), and had a steamy hot,
delicious, fresh seafood stew between the five of us ($40). Octopus,
clams, shrimp, crabs, and fish satisfied my omega 3 cravings as Korean
food lacks seafood in their dishes. This restaurant was actually
published in the journal, sovno wonder they had business without even
competing for it. It was worth every won and I would highly recommend
it to you if you're in the area.
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| Gwanganli Beach광안리 |
After some exploring in the area for some time, we headed to Busan's
second most popular beach, Gwanganli (광안리), known for the Gwangan Bridge
that lights up at night. It so happened that there was some sort of
festival going on and we walked into a parade about to start. Many tents
selling food was also set up on the beach, and thus, there was much
more people than expected. Our getaway was mainly for us to just relax and be at peace from all the buzz in Seoul so we took the time out
to take photos, play, and enjoy the view while resting on the beach
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Around dinner time, we ventured to Millak Fish Town Center (민락 희 타운 흴 어판매시장), which was located at the far left end of the beach if your facing the bridge from the beach). This was a place we had researched where you can buy your fresh seafood on the main floor, and they will prepare the fish for you to eat upstairs at an additional cost/person. I had thought it just be a two story building, so I was a little taken aback when I realized this place was a whole building. I have to admit it got intimidating too because once we entered, all these ajummas at their respective fish stations are calling out to us and once again, competing with each other for our business. We somehow ended up at a nice looking adjumma station and she just started grabbing fresh fish from her 'tanks', weighing them, and tell us the cost. She was more fierce than she looked when she took one of the fish fighting for its life in one hand, and took a knife in her other hand, and slit its throat. We ended up spending $50 (2 kg was $40 for this adjumma, varies from seller to seller) on four fishes and 3 baby octopuses (one was thrown in for free) since we wanted to try eating them while they were still moving.
Each fish station had their own respective restaurant upstairs, hence the size of this building. We went to the ninth floor where her affiliated restaurant facing the beach was, and waited for our fresh meal. It cost an addition $5 for us to have our fish prepared and an extra $3 (all together) to eat the fish cook rather than just as sashimi. Also, fried cocoons tend to be a common 'snack' here in Busan, but we were quite surprised to see it served as one of our side dishes. None of us dared to try it and the waitress took it away from us upon noticing this.
The live octopus was a whole new experience to us, minus the Korean of the group. It looked really gross at first to see these chopped up tentacles still squirming around, but with a new found courage, we tried it and liked it! Octopus actually doesn't have much taste to it itself, and its flavor was found in the sesame-soy sauce/ spicy gochujang mixture we dipped it in. Next was our platter of fresh fish and I couldn't ask for a better way to eat our seafood than as one my favorite dishes ever, sashimi. The texture was so smooth and wrapping it in mint leaves and lettuce (Korean custom) and adding some gochujang was delicious. Our cooked fish was fried and salted with salt similar to kosher salt. It was a little salty for me, but the fish was well cooked and tasted fresh.
After our hearty seafood meal #2, we were ready to head back to the beach to take some photos with the bridge that was suppose to be lighted up. However, stepping out from our seafood adventure, we noticed the bridge didn't light up yet, despite the sky being covered in darkness. Instead, fireworks were lighting up the night sky (most likely because of the festival we assumed), and we were so stoked to see them as we had wanted to light fireworks on the beach if it was permitted (fyi: its not permitted in most circumstances), so seeing the sight of them made us acknowledge that everything happened in our favor that day! The bridge lighted up afterwards and we took more photos in memory of our day.
Day 2
Rise and shine to an early start and wandered to the other side of Haeundae Beach. The sun wasn't out, but it felt warmer than the day before due to the humidity. It was a very calm and slow day for the most part as we wanted to take it easy and not have a rush or full on itinerary.
In the afternoon, we headed to SeaCloud hotel for Seaside's church service, the more recent church plant by New Philly, the church I've been attending. I can finally say I've been to all three campuses: Hillside, Itaewon, and Seaside! I met so many wonderful people and it was such perfect timing as all three locations will be joining to have a church wide retreat this coming weekend.
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| $7.50 |
After a great message, we headed out to a Japanese restaurant with our new and old friends. This eatery was actually really close to our hostel,
Pobi Guesthouse, which was convenient for us to grab out baggage and head back to Busan Station to catch our train afterwards. For the price of sushi and Japanese food in general, the pricing was decent and went from $5 for a small plate of sushi to $20-$25 for a platter, depending on the size and types of fish. There was this sashimi salad bowl some people ordered, and I wish I had ordered it if I had knew about it because it looked so yummy. It's basically a mixture of salad on top of a bed of rice and sashimi and you mix it all together with gochujang (Korean hot pepper sauce).
Before we went to catch our train home, we wanted to get some souvenirs as Haeundae and Gwanganli didn't sell any (though, you would think they would since they are hot spots for tourists). We were recommended to go to Nampo-dong, a shopping area similar to Myeongdong in Seoul with international brands as well as Korean labels. Having to go there with all of our baggage was a hassle already (since we were head to the train afterwards, Nampo is two stops away from Busan Station), but running around trying to find souvenirs didn't make it any better. We seriously could not sight any souvenirs until I asked an adjussi selling street food. He directed us to take an escalator heading upwards to find a place that sold souvenirs, but this escalator led to 2-3 more escalators (some which didn't work), and another few flights of stairs, eventually leading us to Yongdusan Park (용두산 공원). We burned off our calories for that weekend alright, but it was funny how our unplanned plans worked out because originally, we didn't plan to come to this park where Busan Tower was unless we had some extra time, but in all spontaneity we found ourselves here and were able to snap some photos. After much seeking, we found the souvenir shopping center, but unfortunately, it was closed already.
All in all, it was a wonderful getaway and I would definitely recommend Busan as a destination to hit up when your traveling in Korea.
P.S. I love the new layout for Blogger, posting photos and editing them is so much faster now.
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