A weekend in Busan

Following the chaotic day at school, it was time to take Megan and Nate to one of my favorite places in Korea: Busan!

We left Jeomchon right after I finished school on Friday and began the somewhat long journey to the country's south.  We arrived tired and hungry, and began our search for some western food. Sorry Megan and Nate, but when you take the country kids to the city, we can't help but get our western food fix!  After finally getting some delicious food we began our search for a motel.  We were staying by Haeundae Beach, which we assumed would have more motel options than it actually did.  We finally gave into our exhaustion when we found a place with a cheap price and made the unfortunate mistake of accepting the room before taking a look at it first.  The result was a room that was in pretty terrible condition, which can best be illustrated by the fact that there was a cinder block in the toilet.  Sorry again Megan and Nate, I swear that I've been to plenty of motels in Korea, but this one was definitely a first! Despite the room's less than desirable condition, I think we all slept pretty well given the circumstances.

When we awoke the next morning, we got ready to make our way to one of Busan's most famous temples, Haedong Yonggungsa Temple.  This temple is right on Busan's coast, and has stunning views all around.  Out of all the temples I've been to in Korea (which is quite a few by this point), this one was by far the most beautiful I've seen thus far.

Just beautiful!

From West High to Korea...who would have thought?

Friends from home meet friends from Korea.  I love having my worlds collide!

After soaking up the beautiful views of the temple, we went back to our room and got ready to hit the beach.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, so there was no better place to be than on Haeundae soaking up the sun. After all, no vacation for Megan and me would be complete without some beach time. 

  

As evening approached, we changed and got ready for dinner.  We headed over to Gwangalli Beach, where we had a beautiful beach view for dinner.  We got to watch the sun set, and see the bridge light up as the sky became dark.  After hanging out with the wonderful view of Gwangalli right in our sight, we caught the last subway back to Haeundae, where we naturally chose to end our night with noraebang.  

Beautiful view at Gwangalli

Megan's first experience with Turkish ice cream

Not a bad view to have while grabbing a few drinks!

After singing all of the classics (and then some), it was time to hit the hay.  Sunday we made the journey back to Jeomchon, and Megan and Nate hit their one week anniversary in Korea.  Halfway through their visit, there was still lots of fun to come!

Only in Korea: Drink Fast, Die Sexy

This is another gem from our trip to Busan last month.  We were walking around when we saw these signs.  We almost didn't notice them, but man we were glad we did! My favorite was the last one that said "Drink fast, die sexy!"  Korea certainly loves its alcohol.

Not just any drink, serious drink! 

Mmmm vodca!

It's the Korean way!

Only in Korea: Coffee Shop or Pro-Choice Slogan?

Last month when we were walking around Busan we were walking by one of Korea's millions of coffee shops when we saw this sign. 

Apparently Korea takes coffee very seriously.  

A quick weekend in Busan

This weekend I took a trip to Busan  for my friend Jackie's last weekend in Korea. The weekend turned out to be a bit chaotic, but it was awesome to spend some time on the beach, especially since the weather was equivalent to NH's weather in April.  We spent our day by the beach and ended our exploring by trying some chicken feet.  Yes, chicken feet...because when you're in Korea, why not?  They didn't really have much meat on them, which was strange...I mostly felt like I was just sucking off the super spicy sauce.  Apparently they're supposed to be good for your skin though, so I'll let you know if I see any improvements in that department.  Overall, it was a memorable weekend, although by the time I got back home I was completely exhausted.  Not too much else to say, so I'll leave you with a few pictures of beautiful Busan.

Yes, that is my friend swimming in the water.  And yes, all of the Koreans are wondering why the crazy foreigner would ever go in the ocean in February. 

Mmmmm chicken feet!

A night in Busan and a movie in Daegu

After taking a few weekends to stay put in Jeomchon, it was time to take a trip again this weekend.  The destination for the weekend was Korea's second largest city, Busan.  Busan is located on the southern part of the country, and it typically a very popular summer destination on account of it's beautiful beaches.  Of course, it's also an awesome place to visit in the winter because it's much warmer than other parts of the country (especially areas like Mungyeong, which are in the mountains!)  When it came time to plan where one of my friends was going to celebrate his 30th birthday, he chose Busan, and needless to say I was pumped to visit this city that I have been hearing and reading so much about essentially since I first started researching Korea.

I originally had planned to head down Friday after school, but last week was quite hectic and exhausting at school, and I elected to change my plans and head down with another group of Jeomchoners on Saturday morning.  We took a train directly from Jeomchon, and it took a little over 3 hours to finally get to Busan.  Although the ride was somewhat long, I was in good company, so it wasn't unbearable.

After getting on the subway and dropping off our stuff at the motel, it was probably close to 4:30.  I definitely didn't anticipate it taking us that long to finally get to our destination, and I readily admitted that I should have just made the trip Friday night.  Oh well,  You live and you learn!

We met up with the rest of our friends at a place right along the beach.  By that point the sun was beginning to set, and it was beautiful.  My hometown is only an hour away from the beach, and the town that I went to college in was right on the seacoast.  I love the beach, and I have to admit, although I love Mungyeong's central location, I was hoping for a placement in a town closer to the coast.  I love Jeomchon, but I'm a tad jealous of people on the coastal cities.

Anywho, given it was a birthday celebration, we spent the night bar hopping.  It was a lot of fun to spend time with everyone.  Although I didn't see a lot of Busan, what I did see I really enjoyed.  Although it is a big city, it didn't feel quite as crowed as Seoul.  Overall, I really hope to go back to Busan sooner rather than later so I can spend more time exploring other parts of the city.

Sunday we slept in for a bit, then one group of people headed back to Jeomchon, and I headed to Daegu with three of my friends.  We decided that we should take advantage of being near major cities and seize the opportunity to see the new Hunger Games movie.  Unfortunately, Jeomchon does not have a movie theater so anytime we want to see a movie it requires a trip to one of the larger cities.

The ride to Daegu from Busan was only about an hour by the train, and got dropped off what I'm assuming is the downtown area.  Deagu is the third largest city in Korea, and although it's only an hour away from Jeomchon, for some reason I hadn't been there yet.

We made our way to the movie theater just in time to get tickets and get settled in before the movie.  Of course, this wasn't just a regular movie, we were going to see the film in 4-D.  Yes, not 3-D, 4-D.  What is a 4-D movie you ask?  It's reminiscent of those rides your go on at Disney World--your seat moves, you get air blown on your neck, water is splashed on you, and scents fill the theater.  I thought we would be wearing the 3-D glasses as well, but it wasn't so.  I guess you have to go to a 3-D/4-D movie for that.  Ummmm what?  When did seeing movies become so complex?  Remember when a movie was just a movie?

Anyway, we all enjoyed the movie, and we finished just in time to make it to the bus station and get on a bus back to Jeomchon.  All in all, we were back home around 8:15.  Not too bad.

Overall, it was another great weekend with great people.  I know I say this frequently, but I am extremely thankful for all the people I have met over the past few months.

This weekend was also a reminder that I still have so much to see.  I love the Korea has so many cool places that so accessible via public transportation.  At home I am only an hour away from Boston, but besides Boston the next closest major city is New York, which is quite a distance.  In Korea, there are about 10 cities with populations of 1 million people or more.  Some of these are satellites of other major cities, but regardless, there are so many places to go and they're all only a few hours away and inexpensive to get to through public transportation.

 Although the cold weather had already been pulling me into hermit mode, my short glimpses of Daegu and Busan reawakened my curiosity for Korea.  So much to do still, and so much to learn.