Advertisement
Published: October 17th 2008
DSC00926
Thomas fast asleep on the bus to Busan.On the first weekend in October we hopped a bus and headed down to Busan to spend the long weekend on a beach. After a couple setbacks in Daejeon (wrong bus terminal, missed bus) we finally ended up at our destination just in time to catch the last few rays on Haeundae beach as well as a beautiful sunset. The boys went for a quick dip while I opted for beachcombing. After we got some dinner at a local restaurant we grabbed a couple bottles of wine and headed back to the beach for a relaxing night of drinking on the beach. Thomas and I attempted to find a motel to sleep in but since there was an international film festival in town, there were absolutely NO hotel/motel rooms to be found anywhere. We returned to the spot on the beach where Bo and Jeff were planning on camping out and joined them for the night. Since Thomas and I did not have sleeping bags we wore as many clothes as we could and wrapping raincoats around us for heat. Needless to say it was not an ideal sleeping situation and we hardly slept, but the view from the tent in
MS043112
Jeff enjoying some fresh ocean air and his novel. the morning was fabulous.
Day two we met up with Lauren and hiked Geumjeong Mountain (801 m) and around the 8.8km fortress wall which surrounds the mountain. Once we reached the South gate (the end of our hike) we took the cable car down the mountain which provided us with a great view of the city. Once back in the city we opted for sheltered accommodations for the night so we went to Vesta Spa & Jjimjilbang where for 8$ you had access to a full spa (5 different temperature hottubs, cold tub, showers, saunas, and my favorite and outdoor hottub on a balcony overlooking Haeundae beach). You have to be pretty open minded however, as no one wears clothing in the spa. It was a little weird at first but after about 5 minutes it seemed completely normal and I started to wonder why people would want to wear clothes at all in a place like this. After we were done in the spa area, Lauren and I put on our pjs given to us by the spa and went up a floor to a common area where both men and women were allowed. There were more saunas
MS032936
Haeundae beach in Busan. On the hill in the distance is Vesta Spa, the jjimjibang where we spent our second night in Busan. The patch of sand in the forefront of this photo is where we spent our first night. here as well as a restaurant and another balcony. Once it got late enough you could grab a couple blankets and a "pillow" (more like a yoga block) and set up your make shift bed in the huge open communal room where everyone slept together on the floor. It was quite the experience! It felt very cozy and comfortable except the occasional kick to the head or an arm on your leg during the night as we were packed in pretty tightly.
On day three we went back to the beach to enjoy a little more relaxing time before we headed to the Jagalchi fish market which housed the largest selections of seafood I have ever seen. Live fish were everywhere, including the floor where some fish attempted to make a desperate escape before being chopped up and sold. After a few hours of wandering around dt Busan we jumped on a train and headed back to Daejeon feeling both refreshed and exhausted.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.092s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0541s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
