The Coast

Obviously, not much has been happening lately.

Until this past weekend! Our daily grind of being at school was interrupted by a nice four-day weekend. We caught an early morning bus to the train station, made it just in time for the train, and took a three hour journey across Korea. We went from Seoul to the southeastern coastal city of Busan. (Since Korea is about the size of Indiana, imagine a trip from Gary to...somewhere near Louisville.)

We were quite excited to see what Korea looked like outside of Seoul. Our only other trip was at Christmas time, when we headed through the snowy countryside to the northeast coast. Instead of new countryside, we simply discovered that almost every city in Korea looks...the same. Really. Some cities are bigger, so the buildings are naturally taller. But, everything else truly looks the exact same. Similar architecture, similar look of being somewhat dirty all the time, a few western-type shopping marts with "Mart" in the title, and a handful of giant high rise apartments.

Even so, the land outside of the city was looking a bit greener, evidence that Spring really is here. We passed an occasional farm, which had some farmers working by hand in their fields. The terrain got hillier as giant hills (or miniature mountains, you decide) were just surrounding us on all sides. Finally, we reached Busan.

With the help of our Busan-native friend, we had proper instructions for how to navigate the city. From our first subway ride, we noticed that the atmosphere of Busan was much more...relaxed than that of Seoul. The people were more casual, and maybe seemed more like the surf crowd of California, compared to the city slickers of New York. Now, neither of us have ever been surfing or to New York, but you understand the comparison.


We rushed to the hotel, which was a quaint and perfect refuge tucked away in the busy markets of a busy area of town. We rushed because we wanted to make it to the beach while there was still 'good sun'.

Made it to the beach we did, and we quickly realized that only foreigners wear shorts and swimsuits to the beach at this time of year. All of the locals had on pants, long shirts, and even coats. Though the wind kept us from swimming, it didn't keep us from soaking in whatever sunshine we could. Oh, and there was some kind of parade? It consisted of kids marching, holding banners. We still don't know what they were doing.


We walked some side streets until we found a random amusement park, which had more resemblence to a carival. The only thing tempting was the giant ferris wheel, which took us to the top. There, we saw an amazing view of the city, including a beautiful bridge.





We had a delicious Korean dinner and then, after walking around the markets, decided to treat ourselves to Cold Stone. You got it--we each had a delicious, over-sized "gotta have it" cup of creamy, tasty ice cream. Don't you just love vacation food?



The next day was cloudy, so we skipped the beach and caught a bus to a historical city about an hour away. There, we met some tourists from Israel and visited a Korean traditional food and drink festival. This is one of my favorite Korean foods, which comes in many different varieties. It is called "Dok", and is sometimes like a giant noodle when mixed into dishes, and other times more like a tasty, chewy sweet treat, as seen here. Always chewy, it is just dry rice that has been ground up and then pounded into a sticky, thick delight.


After the festival, we wanted to explore some of the historical sites of the town. The plan was to rent bikes and explore, but this is what Ben found first.

We were both nervous, mostly Jen, because this was our first time on a two-wheeled, motorized vehicle. What fun! Luckily, they provided oversized helmets and goggles.



We managed to find our way to some historical mansions, over 200 years old. They had gardens, multiple buildings, and traditional Korean architecture.

We scooted our way across town and found a nice park. While walking around, Ben found a tiny walkway and insisted that we go through. I wasn't convinced that it led to anywhere...

but I was wrong.


What a fun adventure for the day in a city that still preserves it's history and rich traditional culture.

Day three was nothing but rain. We found our way to the fresh fish market, which was just incredible.


Row after row of vendors, each having tanks full of fish, eels, and other sea creatures that we have never seen before.


A trip to the second floor meant lunch! We were beckoned to eat at different vendors' restaurants, and made our decision by choosing the table that had a nice window view overlooking the Port of Busan.

We knew we would be well fed, but we never imagined this:

It just kept coming...

and coming...


there was so much! We were eating for about two hours!
We had fresh raw fish, cooked fish, shell fish, giant shrimp, crab, fish eggs, our favorite seafood pancake, and so many side dishes. We will probably never have such a fresh meal again!

It was still raining, so we decided to do what everyone should do on a rainy day: see a movie on the big screen. Our train home wasn't departing until late evening, so we had to stay entertained. It was simply too wet to do anything outside, so we saw a movie and then had some coffee.


Thanks to Korea's fantastic public transportation, we managed to make our way throughout the city of Busan, and even to a city an hour away, all without incident. Of course, we relied on maps and some English signs, but overall it was a wonderful trip.