Advertisement
Published: October 26th 2011
Over a recent long weekend we decided to capitalize on one of the last warm(ish) weekends of the season and we took a trip down to Busan (Pusan? Your choice), Korea’s second largest city and largest seaport. We took the slow train (about 5 hours) down from Suwon on Saturday morning. It was nice because we went in a boys group and a girls group so we could see the things we were all the most interested in, but come together as well. In the girl’s group, our first stop was the Busan Aquarium, the country’s largest aquarium (so many superlatives in Busan!). The coolest part was a pretty large tank with a sea turtle and sharks that you could take a tour in with a glass-bottomed boat. The tour was all in Korean, but it was easy enough to understand and the guide knew enough words to help us out. We also got to feed these fish that eat ground up shrimp basically. You get a plastic glove and you take some of the shrimp paste and when you throw it in the water next to the boat the fish all jump out to attack it. It was surprisingly hilarious.
The aquarium took quite a long time so after that we met up with a couple who used to live in Dongtan and now teach in Busan. They introduced us to some of the people and places in Busan.
On Sunday morning, we visited the fish market. It was…pungent. Some parts were really interesting. Some parts were really disgusting. The best part would be our lunch. We stopped at a small restaurant right next to the market and ate King Crab and sashimi. It was EXTREMELY expensive. $100 a pound?!? We got the smallest crab possible and split it between all of us. Between that and one “plate” of sashimi, we had way more than enough food for the 5 of us.
After that we made our way up to a mountain temple. We were lucky enough to find a bus about halfway up the mountain. It would have been a long hike. It’s a working temple, so there were monks there and it was really interesting to watch the procedures they have to go through just moving around the temple grounds. I got to watch a bit of a Buddhist funeral through the back door of one
of the temples. There’s a lot of fruit involved and I was (as always) impressed by how long the old people in Korea can sit on mats on the floor. There were these trees with orange blossoms there. We had no idea what they were but they smelled fantastic, so we were the weird waegooks (foreigners) just standing around smelling a tree. Totally normal.
We met up with the boys for dinner and the night at…drum roll…one of the same bars we go to in Seoul. Apparently they have a Busan location as well. Not the most adventurous thing we’ve ever done.
Monday morning we split up even more. Analynn and David went to a temple that overlooks the sea. Sam went to Spaland, this enormous spa inside of a department store. This also might be the world’s largest? I can’t recall. And Brittney and I went down to the beach and people-watched. We headed back to Suwon around 5 (another slow train).
The other weekend we had another adventure when we went to see the International Fireworks Festival. It was on the banks of the river and I’m pretty sure all of Korea was there. It
was absolutely packed and in a very small area on an island. This was pretty noticeable as we were arriving, but after we watched the show (which was very good. Lots of good music) we were leaving and things got absolutely out of control. There are times when I love Korean culture and times when I’m completely disgusted by it and the preference for old people can be really nice. But when they start shoving people, I completely lose my respect for this policy. Koreans aren’t so big on personal space or politeness for strangers, so trying to exit this festival by way of a few small staircases got pretty ugly. We were getting squished, which was only slightly problematic for us. I almost lost my purse as it got pulled by the crowd without me and Brittney had someone put their hands in her pockets. But the poor children in the crowd. They were like guppies trying to come up for some air. I was terrified that they were going to suffocate. So my friends and I were attempting to shield a child from the crowd. The ahjosshis (old men) in the crowd were the absolute worst about pushing.
After we finally got up the staircase, we had to walk back across the island to get to the subway station. The sidewalks were too crowded so we ended up walking through the street that was jam-packed with cars, while the police just looked on. My policy on these situations is that if I’m following a Korean, I can’t get yelled at. And if I do get yelled at, it’s not my fault. When we got to the subway station, surprisingly few people were going in our direction (towards Seoul Station, which seems like it would be a big draw) and we rode to a stop we had gone past to get there. But the subway stopped completely. And everyone got off and a bunch of new people got on. We were confused. But I made the executive decision to get off the train. This was a good idea. We had to transfer to another train. I have no idea where our train would have gone. Probably back in the other direction.
When we got back to Seoul Station we decided to pick up some food before getting on the bus. We were yelled at by another ahjosshi
in the restaurant for being too loud, although we weren’t any louder than anyone else in the restaurant. Sometimes ahjosshis are just racist. Though this racist ahjosshi came back five minutes later to apologize, which was extra confusing. And then we got on the very crowded bus. This is a bus that you’re never allowed to stand up on, but in this case, they were letting people stand. So we had to eat our food standing up. This was tricky, but I learned some creative ways for eating without hands.
Last weekend we spent Sunday at a FC Seoul soccer game. Professional sports games in Korea are dirt cheap. ($6 for baseball, $7 for soccer, $3.50 for hockey) FC Seoul was 3rd in the country, but they beat Seongnam 3-1 on Sunday. It was a pretty good game. Not quite as smooth as you see in other leagues, but exciting nonetheless.
After the game we went to the Dog Café in Hongdae. It’s free to go in, but everyone has to order a drink. There are a lot of dogs that live in the café and you’re allowed to bring your own dog. So there are dogs running everywhere. You have to buy treats if you want any of the dogs to come anywhere near you, so the Dalmatians get all over the tables trying to get at the treats. It was a fun experience, but the smell was a deterrent from making it a regular activity.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.096s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 11; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0519s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Gram-ma Ward
non-member comment
SO JEALOUS OF ALL YOUR FUN /your face looks thinner/bet the rests of you is also
Grandpa has been making a scrapbook of all your blogs (even Jack Albee ) but this time I can't get it to print. Only white paper. Guess I'll call your mom an have her print and send. Hope to see ou in TUcson in January. THink we have found a retirement homw we really like......lots of activities and not so many old people!!!