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That Friday seemed like the longest day ever. We couldn't wait for school to finish as we had a busy night ahead of us, concluding with the welcoming of our highly-anticipated visitors from Mike's family!
Mike had spent the day checking the flight status of the family's flight from Detroit to Japan to ensure that things were on schedule for their 9:30pm arrival in Busan. After confirming time and time again that the flight was ON TIME, we hopped on the subway to pre-check into the hotel in Haeundae we had reserved for them for their stay. After getting checked in (and being upgraded to an ocean-view room complimentary for Larry and Christine!) we took the subway to the airport and anxiously awaited their flight's landing. Checking the board, we see that their flight has landed and slowly people begin to trickle out the doors. Each time the door opens we crank our heads to see if it's familiar faces coming through the doors. After about 20 minutes, an airport employee brings out a sign saying "THE DELTA AIRLINES FLIGHT FROM DTW TO NRT (Tokyo) WAS DELAYED AND THE FOLLOWING PASSENGERS DIDN'T MAKE THIS CONNECTING FLIGHT" and sure enough right
at the top of that list is Christopher Smith and 3 other names we recognize. Are you KIDDING me? After everything today, they won't even arrive until tomorrow morning????Bah!
Defeated, we decide to go back to the hotel, determined that at least one of the nice hotel rooms won't go to waste that night. Turns out the crew was re-routed to Seoul, spent the night there and then flew into Busan Saturday morning at 8am. So we wake-up early to catch the bus to the airport, which we think will be faster than the subway. Well, if the person working at Dunkin Donuts hadn't been so slow, we might not have missed the first bus. And if we had not missed the first bus, we might not have gotten stuck in traffic on the highway. And if we hadn't gotten stuck in traffic on the highway, we might have made it to the airport in time for their flight. BUT NO! Instead, we missed the bus, got stuck in traffic int he next one and arrived at the airport about 1hr15 mins AFTER their flight landed, including getting a phone call from them wondering where we were! Some welcome
we gave them! Oops. I blame Dunkin Donuts completely.
For time's sake, we took 2 taxis to the opposite side of town, Haeundae, where the hotels were. Of course, my taxi beat Mike's taxi there. Taking only a few moments to drop their bags and freshen up, we ushered them out the door, excited to get started on the day's activities. We had a quick lunch at Burger King of all places - welcome to Korea, have a burger! Then decided to proceed with our plans for day - Jinhae for the cherry blossom festival!
Now, Mike and I had been to Jinhae the weekend before and what a difference! This time, we waited in line for 20 minutes just to get on a bus because there were so many people waiting to go! They packed the buses so full for the ride there that it was quite stuffy on the bus and it didn't take long after we were stuck in traffic (again!) in Jinhae before we decided to hop off the bus and proceed on foot! The cherry blossoms in Jinhae were spectacular! Fully bloomed, white little flowers with a tinge of pink at the centre...what
a sight! Their arrival was the perfect timing for these budding beauties.
We started at the stream where the cherry blossom on both sides of the stream formed a full canopy of white and a gorgeous view. Unfortunately the day was cloudy but other than that, it was a great day! After we had our share of flower staring, we headed to the festival area where we wandered the aisles, giving our visitors a taste of real Korea! They tasted the delightful waffle folded in half with honey and sugar, as well as smelled the not-so-nice-smell of roasting bondegee, aka silk worms! Gross you say? YES, I say too, but Koreans love this little stinky snack and it is featured prominently at any gathering!
They also got to see some Korean funnies: couples wearing matching clothes, the extreme high heels that the women walk around in, eating corn-on-the-cob off a stick, and of course, the stares from everyone around you! After everything that happened on their travels here and a long first day in Korea, everyone was tired and ready to go back to Busan before dark! When we got to the bus station (which we couldn't find
Mayberry's/Smith's invade Jinhae!
Uncle Larry, Aunt Christine, Mom, Christhe weekend before, even when we asked and it turned out to be half a block from where we asked the people!!!) there was a HUGE line of people waiting to get back to the city, so we waited our turn and were even MORE exhausted when we got to Busan finally! Being so tired, everyone agreed Korean food maybe wasn't the best option for food - we all just wanted food we knew and would like, so we ate at Pizza Hut, guaranteed to satisfy!
After taking the subway back to Haeundae beach area, we had a quiet night chatting, catching up and making plans for Day 2!
Sunday morning we work up to sunshine, but by the time we were all out of bed and ready to hit the beach, the clouds had rolled in and the wind picked up! We had a wonderful western-style breakfast at Breeze Burn's, complete with a waffle with REAL maple syrup (!) and the freshest strawberry juice I have ever tasted! We planned to go the Yonggungsa Buddhist temple that day and our hotel helped arrange us a van-taxi so we could all ride together. We had been told that
Watch your head!
They put soft bunkers on the low tree branches to protect people's heads! taxis were hard to come by near the temple so we made an agreement that he would wait for us and take us back after!
This temple is beautiful! It is located on the cliffs/sea side in Busan and has stunning scenery. Unfortunately, the clouds and wind didn't help any, but it was still a great temple to wander around and explore. It was quite crowded there so our tour was slow going and it wasn't long before our taxi driver came to find us. At first we feared that he wanted us to leave already and we had yet to even see the main temple area! We were, however, completely wrong! He wanted to take us on a tour and take our pictures in front of pretty much EVERY statue and building in temple. I didn't even post every picture he took, and there are still lots of them! Our driver spoke very little English, so to get our attention he would say "Hi. Hi." Then point to where we should stand. He would proceed to take the camera from around Mike's neck to take our picture - whether we wanted it or not! It was a fun
experience, especially because our photographer didn't quite get the idea to turn the camera length-wise to fit in the statues behind us so he just kept backing up farther and farther to try and fit them in! He would also yell at any Koreans who got in the way of the pictures! It was funny! On the way back to the van, the driver even took Uncle Larry's backpack and insisted on carrying it for him - either he was really hoping for a nice tip or he was a genuinely nice man!
After a coffee break to warm up from the chilly wind by the water, we took the family for their first Korean food! We picked a restaurant that has simple, typical Korean foods that we thought (hoped) everyone would like. And as much as I don't LOVE all Korean food, there are many things I do like, and this meal goes to show how much our taste buds have changed in the 8 months we've been here (because the food was not quite what I would call a hit with our visitors!). We ordered: Kimbap (rice and veggies and ham wrapped in seaweed); ramyeon (your typical
ramen noodles, with egg, very spicy); Donkasse (breaded pork cutlet with brown sauce); bibimbap (a mixture of rice, egg, veggies and red spicy sauce) and some jeegay (a spicy soup with seafood, zucchini, tofu and other things). Of all the things, the bibimbap was the biggest hit, although a little too spicy for everyone's taste. Most of the rest of the meal was eaten by Mike and I and those who know me, know that you would not normally read a sentence like that about me - I'm usually the picky one! They also got to try chopsticks for the first time, which brought us back to our first week here when every meal took 3x as long to eat! Christopher caught on pretty quickly, but didn't like the food, so he had no need to even use the chopsticks! haha
Following that meal, we took a stroll along the beach pathway as night was setting in. As it got darker and Haeundae beach area's lights came on, it was a pretty sight! Before we knew it, it was time for Mike and I to leave the family and go home for school Monday morning. Being the over-protective parents
that we are, we double and triple checked that everyone understood the subway system and knew where to go the following day when they were on their own! And even then, we worried that they would get lost! Of course, they found they way around just fine - it's not like we are on a completely different planet! Just feels like it at times!
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