Beach Bum Busan

*** this post was actually written a few weeks ago, but I never posted it. So here it is now:


It's monday morning I am exhausted, sunburned, and mosquito-bitten. All signs of an amazing weekend!

This weekend we found ourselves soaking up the sunshine on the beach in sunny Busan, South Korea. We boarded an early a.m. KTX train from Seoul. (my first time taking the super fast KTX train) We arrived in Busan and headed straight to the beach. It was the perfect break after an uber stressful week.

We opted out of visiting the most popular beach, Haeundae, and chose instead to go to Gwangalli Beach. It was a really nice day. We laid on the beach, read and chatted. Nothing overly exciting, but lovely nonetheless. The beach itself was not particularly pretty. The water was very murky, and kind of an odd color. We swam around a bit, but quickly learned you are not allowed to go out past where you can touch.

Later in the afternoon I happened to run into a friend that I have not seen since training 6 months ago! He was also just visiting for the weekend and happen to be with a friend who also graduated from WSU with a degree in advertising, just a year after me. The world really is very small. This has happened so many times!

After a lazy day of basking in the sun we decided to wander and find some dinner. Busan, like all Korean beach towns, is know for its seafood. We choose to have dinner in one of the many food tents that lined the streets surrounding the fish market. This market was a smaller version of Norangjin that I mentioned in a previous post. One thing that I have learned about Koreans and food is that they either like things incredibly fresh or extremely old. For example most meals are brought to you raw and you cook it yourself, which I think is great, and you will also have a ton of side dishes of foods that have been stored for years: kimchi, fermented bean paste, etc. Fish markets are the perfect example of this. You chose your fish, and few minutes later its on a plate in front of you. We at clams, clams with cheese ( a little strange) and eel. It was a very cool experience.

After dinner we headed down to the boardwalk, well I guess that's what you can call it. It was a large concrete and tile area where several families and groups of friends were hanging out on the stairs that ran along the edge of the harbor. Many korean parents were drinking soju and playing games while the children set off fireworks. Groups of young Koreans were playing drinking games. And a few vendors were walking around try to sell oysters and clams. It was a very lively and fun area. We sat down at the bottom of the stairs and following the groups around us played some games and watched the fireworks.

We woke up to a rainy Sunday and decided to see what else Busan had to offer besides the beach. Josh had heard of a coastal temple that was a little out of the way. After a long and hot hot hot bus ride we arrived at Haedong Yonggung temple. It was one of the most beautiful temples I have been to. Its a bit of a trek there, but oh so worth it. Its a gorgeous temple right on the coast.