Busan Day 2 - Busan Out!

Today was our full day in Busan and we made the most of it. The weather was wonderful! The temperature stayed below 80 and there was a cool breeze. Perfect weather for exploring this coastal metropolis.

First, we visited Beomeosa Temple, another place I didn't make it to on my last visit to Busan. On the subway we had another person come up to us and ask if we were Spanish. Koreans are pretty good at pegging our ethnicity, they're just one peninsula off! Of course she also told Christina how pretty she was, a theme that comes up throughout the day!

Beomeosa is one of the most well-known temples in Korea, and it was easy to see why. This place was buzzing with activity from monks, temple stay patrons and worshipers. The temple is set high in the mountains in the north of Busan and has some amazing scenery. 

Beomeosa Temple 

Beomeosa Temple - Mountainous Grounds

Beomeosa Temple Door Art

Beomeosa Temple - Mountainous Grounds

Beomeosa Pagoda

Woodchuck in Shoes! Korea, you're so crazy!

What?! Mexican Chicken?!

Humetro (the Busan Metro) has an adorable mascot....but I don't know what it is. Rail car?

After the temple, we went to Seomyeon City Center to find some lunch. We found a Chinese restaurant and got some jjajangmyeon (noodles with a bean paste sauce with onions, pork and shrimp) and fried dumplings. Yum! Seomyeon area is sort of like a downtown, it's mostly a business and shopping area.

After lunch, we checked out the Jagalchi Fish Market followed by the Gukje Market for some souvenir shopping. The fun thing about the Gukje Market is that you get to negotiate prices. The venders know that as well, so they try to flatter you. Christina was told how beautiful she was at at least a couple shops! She obviously is beautiful, but I'm sure this is probably going to her head. 

Despite not being told how beautiful I was...I was able to talk down the price on a trinket to the point the vender called it a "tear price" and gestured that she was crying over it. I'm sure she still probably made a 300% mark-up!

I was reluctant to post about it, but all the walking in Busan makes you warm and thirsty and the perfect remedy for that is patbingsu! We stopped at a coffee shop and got an 8,000 won version of the dish. It was delicious! This one had tteok, ice cream, nuts, mochi and red beans. This version beats out Paris Baguette by far!

Jagalchi Fish Market

Busan's waterfront is pretty industrial...which makes me think twice about seafood here

More Patbinsu - Again, don't judge me! This was dinner.

After over-indulging, and swearing off patbingsu for life (or at least until Atlanta), we went to Taejongdae Park. The park is situated on an island off the southern coast of Busan.  It has great cliffs with views of the city and sea. I visited this park before and it's really beautiful. 

Taejongdae Art

This is how I appreciate art!

Sea at Taejongdae

Taejongdae - Christina

Lighthouse

Look! It's Japan!

By the time we left Taejongdae it was dark. We headed back towards Nampo and stopped at the Lotte Department Store to check out the sky deck. It turns out there is a children's petting zoo on the top floor. Anyone who knows Christina knows that animals are irresistible to her. She ran around chasing rabbits and petting pot-belly pigs for a good 20 minutes before we headed back to the hotel for the evening. 

This hamster is about the only animal that would let her touch it!

Tomorrow is our last full day in Korea. We're heading back to Seoul in the morning. We head back to Atlanta on Sunday. This trip has been a great opportunity for me, but way too short. There's always much more I want to do than I can accomplish. Anyway, next stop, Seoul!

Busan - Omurice, Buddhas and A/C

Today, Christina and I hopped a morning train to Busan. We arrived at noon and checked into our hotel in the Nampo area, near the gukje market and the Lotte Department Store. We dropped off our bags and ran to Lotte to catch the aquatique show and have some lunch in the food court.

Lunch was at a place called Curry Pot. I had omurice...I will admit that I had no idea what it would be when I ordered it..but it looked good! Turns out it was an Omelet wrapped around RICE (hence omurice!) it also came with a piece of tonkatsu wrapped around a sweet potato....see a theme here? I was clearly surprised by both items on my plate! The dish was swimming in a Japanese curry, so I'm assuming Curry Pot is some Japanese chain. 

T-Rex does NOT hate omurice!

After lunch we decided to go up the Busan Tower to check out the view. Christina really loves getting the lay of the land from above. Last time I was in Busan, I went up at night, so it was cool to see the daytime vantage. 

Before going up, we went into a small tourist shop near the base of the tower to bask in some free air conditioning. One of the vendors here swindled Christina into two packets of face lotion masks by telling her not to buy certain products because they were only for older people, and she was too beautiful to need that..."no no, not that one, that only for your mommy! You too beautiful!" Man, she knew how to play Christina! Consequently, if you're in Korea, and a beauty store vendor pushes some red ginseng products on you, you should feel insulted...or extra "mommy"-like anyway! 

While functionally helpful, this outdoor escalator tube was a breezeless oven!

Buddha en route to the Busan Tower. Korea is so colorful!

Busan Tower

Busan from above - Lotte Tower under construction

Lots of ships!

After the tower we hopped the subway across town to Haeundae Beach where we caught a bus to Yonggungsa Temple (용궁사). This temple is unique because its situated on the coast, not up in the mountains like most in Korea. I think it's my favorite temple in Korea! It may not be as stately as Bulguksa in Gyeongju, but it's one-of-a-kind location catches your eye!

Entryway pagoda...we could use one of these back in Atlanta!

Yonggungsa

Yonggungsa

Super Korean-looking Buddha

Main Temple - Yonggungsa

Intricate -Yonggungsa

Korea definitely catches your eye - Yonggungsa

Yonggungsa

Bonus Dragon - Yonggungsa

Hi Pigs!

Bye Pigs!

You knew this was happening - Yonggungsa

After the temple, we took a stroll down Haeundae Beach then caught a cab back to our hotel in Nampo. The cab driver went over the main large bridge across the bay and we could see the entire city wrapped in twilight and fog. Busan is a very scenic place! He also gave me pronunciation lessons on everything I said to him in Korean. After a couple years of on-and-off effort at learning Korean, it seems I'll never get the hang of it. Then again, I'm not sure if I should be taking pronunciation lessons from someone from Busan....

Haeundae Beach

Everything in Korea has a mascot!

After we got back to the hotel, we walked around the gukje market for a while. We both bought some souvenirs and hit up Paris Baguette for...you guessed it...Bingsu! 

Don't judge...you knew this would happen! It was my dinner!

We have no plans yet for tomorrow, but after what feels like about 10 miles of walking today, I'm hoping to sleep in. Our hotel in Seoul, while nice, had poor air conditioning and the hardest beds I've ever slept on, which is saying a lot considering how many Korean beds I've tried. The place we're staying at in Busan lets us make the room an ice cube and has almost America-level soft beds. Ahhhhh..... zzzzzzzz

Seoul - The Soul of Asia

Today was a whirlwind tour of Seoul. The weather finally decided to cooperate. After a humid and cloudy start, the day turned sunny and mild. Today Tom, Christina and I put on our walking boots and managed to visit Gyeongbokgung, the Korean Folk Museum, Insadong, North Seoul Tower and Hongdae. All while managing three square meals.

After yet another breakfast at the Korean Bakery Paris Baguette (hotdogs cooked into a bread/bun with mayonnaise...when in Rome!) we headed to our first stop Gyeongbokgung!

Gwanghwamun Gate

Gyeongbokgung Guards

Christina's jumping photography skills leave something to be desired...

King'sThrone-room

Palace Grounds

Bridge on Palace Grounds

Year of the Tiger! ROAR!! At the Folk Museum. 

Hanbok Drummer at the Folk Museum

Korean Funerary Box (It has some real name, of course...but I forgot!)

After the museum it was way past lunch time. We decided to head to a restaurant in Insadong. We had kalguksu, mandu, pajeon and tonkatsu. No light eating this trip, that's for sure! After lunch, we wandered around Insadong for an hour and a half. Insadong is a great spot to look for Korean craft goods. Christina bought a lamp and some small souvenirs.

Afterwards, we went back to our hotel to head to North Seoul Tower on top of 남산 (Namsan - South Mountain). First off, to any Koreans reading this, I'd like to point out how ridiculous it is to have a "North" Seoul tower on top of "South" mountain.

Furthermore, Koreans, I'd also like to point out that when someone asks you where something is located, if it is closed, please point that out! On two separate occasions I got directions to something that was closed...once in a taxi and once from a bellhop, people who should know better! We were on our way up the hill to the cable car to the tower only to find out after 15 minutes of uphill walking that it was closed. Never fear! Taxi cab to the rescue followed by a bus ride to the top. 

North Seoul Tower is a really cool spot. I was skeptical about visiting due to the poor air quality in Seoul in summer, but today was pretty clear and Christina really wanted to go.

The Geographic Center of Seoul on Namsan

It's Haechi! Seoul's Mascot! I love this guy!

Seoul is Huge...and a bit dirty air quality-wise

Dear You, Tone it Down. 

This place was kind of like a giant Korean love motel...but still cool

The tower had a really strong love motif going on. There were benches that slant together to force you to sit on top of each other, a place to put locks that you write your lover's name on, and lots of stuffed animal bears with hearts. Blarg! Still worth the visit, but I'd only go again in the fall of winter when the air is cleaner, I doubt we could see more than 5-10km. 

After the tower we went back to the hotel for a short break. For dinner we hopped a cab out to Hongdae for some dakgalbi at a restaurant named 춘천집 (Chuncheon house). Dakgalbi is chicken with gochujang sauce, cabbage, rice tubes, and noodles. I had it the last time I was here with Paul and Megan. You can't find this dish in Atlanta. A bonus ingredient this time around was cheese, which believe it or not, made this dish awesome! At the end, we got bonus rice to fry in our leftover gochujang/chicken grease. Tom promised to send me an email with how many pounds he gained this trip. My mission here is done. ;)

Working hard for the chicken...

...and the rice!

Tomorrow, Christina and I are checking out and heading to Busan via KTX. We'll be in Busan until Saturday when we'll return to Seoul with a hotel in Hongdae. Today was Tom's last day in Korea. From here on out, it'll just be me and my sister. Hopefully, we don't drive each other insane... ;)

In other news, I've been craving patbingsu all day (see yesterday's post). It's gotten to the point that I created a song about it to the tune of Darkwing Duck. Luckily, there will be more opportunities for this frozen treat in Busan.