Busan

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Last week, I enjoyed an election day holiday from work. I spent the afternoon walking around my hometown. I really wanted to hike a small mountain to a buddhist temple you can see from a main road in Jeonju. Unfortunately once you cross the river, it is no longer visible to decide which way to take up the mountain. I am intrigued by the very large statute and will plan my journey to it better next time. I am glad we crossed the river though because it was a little "haven" from the hustle of the city. Older men were sitting around drinking beer near a little outdoor cafe, children were playing in a man-made creek next to an ecological museum and a couple were cozied up in a "resting" house on the river. Friday, I enjoyed a little birthday party with my new Korean friends. Good friends and delicious food-what more can a girl ask for?

I made my first trip to Busan this weekend and plan on making many more! Busan is the second largest city in S. Korea and is located on the sea. I figured it would be best to try to master Busan before braving Seoul. Although we had a minor issue because my cell phone battery died, we eventually made it to our friend safe and sound. Friday night, we partied in a westerrn style bar for a few hours before crashing at our hotel with a circular bed. Saturday morning (err, afternoon) we headed to the Gwangalli beach. A fish festival was underway, so vendors were out serving food and beer. It was great to sit and relax on the beach for a couple of hours. We made a new friend who took us to a billiards room. The room had spectacular views of the city and the beach. Busan opens a stadium were the soccor World Cup was held a few years ago when S. Korea has a game. It was crazy to see a stadium packed with a sea of red shirts with no sporting event actually occuring at the stadium. There was so much energy in the stadium, it was easy to get excited about S. Korea dominating Greece. We happily joined the Koreans in celebrating afterwards. Because we were decked out in appropriate fan attire, we were asked to be in pictures of bunch of photos. After the Korean game was over, we watched the USA/England game. It was pretty ugly compared to the Korean/Greece match-up. By the time it was finished, the sun was already up, and I was ready to head back to the circle bed! Can't wait to visit Busan again....

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Photos

New friend
I actually took this pic of our new friend before we met him...