A wonderful weekend in Busan!

So a couple of weekends ago.. I think Oct 23rd-25th I took a train to the other side of Korea to visit the southern port Busan! Here is a map of the train ride so you can see where Busan is.

So the reason we decided to go to Busan was to see David Guetta who is a really amazing DJ but the person who told me that... ahem Jess... was mistaken and it was actually some Irish nobody who lives in Seoul. Either way I ended up in Busan.

The hostel we stayed in was awesome! It was 15 ooo won a night (so like less than $15). The guy was Mr Lee and he took good care of us!

These are some of my friends in the hostel. We got many mosquito bites! It was nice to be in Busan because it was warmer than Seoul... but there were still so many mosquitos!

So the first night we decided to get some Sum-Gip Sul (BBQ'ed pork) and check out some bars. They totally lied to us at the restaurant because we also order Galbi which is marinated beef... but everything they brought was pork... the sign SAID they had beef!

This is the remnants of our dinner. You essentially take the pork, throw it on a leaf of lettuce or some sort of green leafed things provided, maybe throw on some garlic or onion and some of this green onion, red sauced salad and wrap everything up and eat it. Its okay every now and then... but you start to miss vegetables!!

The first bar we went to I played foosball with the boys. The table was awesome and totally falling apart!

I was on team lime and we dominated and totally won!

Afterwards we went to some other bar and I had a blast dancing with some Korean girls. They are sooooo funny. They like wiggle their hips a tiny bit but I wouldn't really call what they do dancing they more just stand on the spot and wiggle a bit. I really enjoy getting them to dance as crazy and as much as I do... I feel like I essentially throw myself to the music but I love doing it and the Koreans seem to have fun trying to join with me! There was this one Korean guy in a bunch of our pictures but none of us remember him so we definitely did not spend much time with him. I figure I took my camera out and took like 20 pictures in a span of 5 minutes and this Korean guy happened to be in a bunch of them.

Here Jess and I are with him on the dance floor! So we found our way back to the hostel by cab since we didn't know where we were... We literally took a 4 minute cab ride!!!! The cabbie must have thought we were really dumb but thats normal because Koreans seem to think foreigners are pretty stupid and we tend to feel that they are really annoying.

So the next day we went to go see a temple at this mountain. On the way there we saw one of the old ladies (ajuma) peeling and cutting the vegetables she sells on the street. These ladies are everywhere and I don't know where they get the vegetables from but they peel the garlic and carrots and trim the green onions for you. Well anyways my point is she was peeling or trimming some onions the whole time sucking back on this cigarette when all of a sudden about a half inch of ash falls into her green onions!! She totally ignored it and kept trimming away... Note to self do not buy vegetables from old ladies on the street!!!

and here she is!!!

So we get to the mountain and look at the temple and the area around it. It was all pretty awesome. Here is us posing in a mini temple.

There were really cool trees all over the mountain.

So Jess, Janelle and and Wes all wore flip flops even though they all brought shoes with them! and then as we were climbing down the mountain jess' flip flop broke!!! So we put hair elastics around her foot securing the flip flop to it! I am pretty sure that is not the best way to climb down a mountain. This mountain was not a nice foot path either but a steep bouldery climb!!

After leaving the mountain we picked up some McDonalds and headed to the beach since Busan is famous for its beaches. From the beach you could see the Ocean, this cool San Francisco style bridge is there and mountains!!! It was beautiful.

Afterwards we went for dinner and saw this add on the way.

So after this we went to the bar but it was empty so we got beers and drank on the sidewalk... we cheered at every Korean that passed by us and they seemed to really enjoy it.. We set off fireworks and freaked out the cabbies and burned some arm hair and singed some suits but mostly people just laughed and smiled at us.

Finally we went to the club and ordered some drinks and almost threw up when we realized how expensive they were! Drinks are really cheap here so it was shocking to be charged that much! So we danced and then after ate and ate some more and went back to the hostel. The plan was to watch the sunrise at the beach but only myself and one other guy were awake so we went down at about 4:30 am. It was soooo cold! I tried to make it but I could stay no longer. I missed the sunrise by maybe 20 minutes. It was very disappointing. The next morning we packed up and caught the two and a half hour train ride back to Seoul.

This is the hostel owners dog Chow Chow

All in all another good weekend in Korea.

Black Out Korea

So I had mentioned awhile ago how Koreans drink way too much all of the time. This website can attest to the drunken Koreans sprawled all over the streets any day or time of the week.

blackoutkorea.com

Muuido... Part 2 Arrival!!

So after a disastrous Friday night we woke up early and caught the bus out to the airport. We were meeting up with everyone at the McDonalds in the airport... We got there and lo and behold there were about 30 people travelling with us!! So after waiting around for an hour we start to head out. The first step is to find the correct bus to take us to the Muuido ferry. We must have looked pretty odd! We were a group of 30 foreigners following each other around up and down the escalators since we kept getting on the wrong floor. After about 15 minutes we finally find the right bus stop and wait for the bus. This is a picture of the group we went with. Tina and I are way in the back. I am the one with the sunglasses on.

So after awhile the bus came and we all piled in! It was standing room only!

The bus took us to the ferry and then that was our next method of transportation.

This is me on the ferry. It was such a beautiful day!!! This was also thanksgiving weekend

So after the 5 minute ferry ride (ya it was really short... if you didn't mind getting wet you could easily swim over) we had to wait for yet another bus to take us to the beach. The ride on this bus was crazy!! The driver went really fast on a winding road where people were walking. I thought for sure we were going to kill someone! The road was really bumpy as well. We make it to the beach and arrive safetly. Now part of the reason why I wanted to go on Friday was because of a catching fish with your bare hands competition that was happening in the morning.

Unfortunately as we arrived all the Koreans were packing up their fish and leaving. I was sad to miss it but it was hillarious watching people carrying huge bags of freshly caught fish.

The next step upon arrival was to rent out a little shack on the beach. Tina and I shared one with two other girls. It was 40 000 won for the shack so about 8 CAD each for the night. Not to shabby! The floors of the huts were heated which was totally necessary at night as it got quite cold. This is what the shacks looked like.

The tide was out so we walked through the muck. It felt soooo neat on your feet and there were little crabs everywhere burrowing into the mud. We all had some beers and decided to play volleyball with our makeshift net and soccer ball we found.

There was such a beautiful sunset that night!

We all got dinner on the beach. I was actually kind of disappointed with the seafood we had. It was okay but I have had better. The shrimp looked really cool while we were cooking them.

So that night we started several bonfires and this man kept telling us to put them out and eventually he called the police and they said we could have the fire but to not get anymore wood... but the really funny thing is the old man's reason for us to not have a fire... He was afraid that North Korea would find us because of our fire... a plane would fly over and bomb us because of the fire... now a barbecue was totally fine. The light from that would not attract the North Koreans because people were cooking over it.... and all the blaring lights set up on the beach... well that would not attract them either... the only thing that would attract them was a small campfire! Oh Koreans....

The next morning Tina and I went sea shell hunting. It was nice to walk in the muck again and we found some pretty cool shells. It was once again a beautiful day! It was soooo warm I could not believe it.

The only sad thing that we both felt was that we were missing thanksgiving with our families that day.

This is me squishing my toes in the muck. We left shortly after this and made the trek from bus to ferry to bus to airport bus to subway home! It was a long trek but definitely worth it and I plan to go back many times next summer!