Busan Escapade

Anyeong everyone! Time to update you on yet another Korean adventure here. February marks the last month for Kaitie and Katrina...aka time to squeeze as many things in these next few weeks as humanly possible. Despite potential for some very sleep deprived Little America teachers, we gotta do what we gotta do. This past weekend, Kaitie and I visited Busan, a city on the southern coast of Korea that neither of us had visited since being here.

Waking up super early on Saturday, we took the subway to Seoul Station where we grabbed out tickets for the KTX. We splurged a bit (aka payed about $10 more) for First Class tickets on the train. This meant HUGE seats with tons of foot room and a little refreshments trolly, not dissimilar to the one from Harry Potter...

Settling in for the next 3 hours the trip was super comfortable and easy. Arriving in Busan, we walked out the station and were welcomed by an absolutely gorgeous sunny day! The weather, while not necessarily warm, was considerably less bone-chillingly-freezing as Seoul tends to be recently.

 

 

 During the train ride, we researched a place where we could make our own pottery and have it shipped to us once it's all fired and ready to go! We grabbed the subway (we were able to use our same transit cards from Seoul...until they ran out of money...then there were no re-charging stations for our kinds of card) to Pusan National University, stopped and chowed down on some jjimdak and then taxid to a teeny tiny little hole in the wall.

mandatory food picture

Calling the woman there, who spoke very little English, we somehow explained that we were on our way and wanted to make pottery....right then...she seemed okay with it and actually found us wandering the street trying to find her studio!

Started with some tea

 

 

 

giving a bit of a lesson

 She taught us how to roll out the clay and form a base, then work out way up to create our bowls. after smoothing and painting with the acrylic, she gave us some ancient looking design books to choose what we wanted to draw on our pieces. I truly loved this experience. Not only is it fun to get a little messy (silly Lola Teacher wore white pants...) but she was so kind. She helped us when we needed it, but for the most part she left us alone to work without feeling pressured or "watched". It was such a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Got to practice some Korean as well, which is always a plus! For those of you going to Busan at some point in your life, you should definitely check out this little hidden gem! (follow directions from this website- then call her number on that page! She will help http://dynamic.busan.go.kr/m/sub/view.jsp?ccode=1&sn=42)

After saying goodbye to our new friend, we subway-ed (now a verb) to Haeundae to check in at our hostel for the evening. I promise I'm not being paid by a tourism company for this post, but I will say excellent things about where we stayed called The New Day (http://hostelthenewday.com/). They welcomed us in, not even asking for our names, knowing who we were based on the fact that we were two foreign girls. Despite expectations of a foreigner-heavy hostel, the guests were mainly Koreans. I wondered if they were there on vacation or just getting away from home in Busan? Anyways, our room was nice, small, but clean and had everything we needed. The facilities were perfect with showers, a full kitchen, sitting area, and a lounge upstairs (which we didn't ever check out...hmmmm). We dropped our things and immediately skipped out to find a quick dinner before the experience we had been waiting for the wholllleeee time planning this trip....suspense killing you yet?

Sorry for the mess

 Recommendations of places to go/eat/see

Something super Korean that I haven't done yet (yes even after a year and a half) is the full jimjilbang, or spa experience. These are super popular here, not only as places to recover and relax, but also as very cheap accommodations for a short trip somewhere. Vesta Spa, a well known jimjilbang in Haeundae caught our eye and we decided to check it out. Checking in we got our super stylish spa clothes. We strip down and head into the giant steam room which holds showers, vanity mirrors, and huge hot tubs of various temperatures. The long awaited experience we would be having is the full body scrub down. Basically, these old women wielding super scratchy loofahs take off layers upon layers of your skin until you're red as a tomato and feel the smoothest you've ever felt in your life. They start by spreading a kind of cucumber guacamole on your face and then proceed to lift up limbs and turn you over to reach...everywhere...yes...if you are not comfortable with nudity (not sure you should go to a jimjilbang in the first place) then this might be a tough experience for you. But my thinking is that these women have seen MUCH worse than me. Just keep that in mind... After being completely clean, soaked, and pruney we dried off and got ready to hit the town.

From Vesta, we wandered the area down towards the beach, which was just as beautiful at night as it was during the day.

Then we saw this and laughed at the ridiculousness of the name.

Later on, we would in fact go to a bar of the exact same name...Karma

We had a great night chatting and people watching. The bartenders were friendly and speed-skating was on the Olympics, so it was a wonderful way to spend the evening there together! The night ended in a few hilarious memories, which I will not be disclosing here. I will, however, cherish them forever.

The next morning, a bit groggy, we hopped nimbley out of bed and got ready for our second, and final day.

Kaitie, again, had done her research and she found this famous bakery right nearby our hostel called OPS (not sure if you pronounce it "awps" or say "Oh-Pee-Es"). Walking in you are overwhelmed by the smell of delicious baked goods. We grabbed a few goodies and prepped for the rest of our day.

 

 

We did not have too many set plans this weekend. We are much more of a play-it-by-ear kind of traveling couple. We did know that that the aquarium was on our list. The Busan Aquarium sits right on the beach and is a big tourist attraction for that area. Acting like big kids we made our way through the exhibits seeing the penguin feeding and other cheesy shows along the way.

The fish whisperer

 I'm a little kid stalker...

Uh...you've got something growing...just there...

 

So overall, it was small but an enjoyable way to spend a few hours. After that, we walked along the beach a bit and from there traveled back to Busan Station to locker our things and explore more around that area before our train later that evening.

 

 

Right across from Busan Station, you are greeted with this...seems like a place to check out, no? Turns out it should named China/Russia Town, as more than half the shops were of Russian descent rather than Chinese. As we continued, our day turned into a walking around random-small-side streets that tourists probably don't see very often because of their rather obscure location.

 

 

 

 

Our wanderings brought us to Gukje Market, nearby Busan Tower and the docks area. It felt like Namdaemun market times 100. Shops lined the streets for what seemed like forever and people pushed through to get the last giant 100 pack of industrial thumbtacks (if there is such a thing...)

 People lining up around the block for this mysterious "Honey Comb"

We walked down a huge shopping district street until we saw signs for the Busan Tower. On a whim (story of our trip) we decided to wander up.

 

 

 

 

The view from the tower was beautiful! Busan looks so different from Seoul, both in the architecture and that giant body of water down there... From the tower it was time to make our way back to the station and pick up our tickets for home. Sitting on the KTX once more we talked about how it felt like much longer than two days that we had been down there. I will absolutely be back to Busan to explore more of the city and possibly find a tiny free spot of sun on the beach between the blanket of umbrellas. I have to say, it won't be the same without Kaitie though! xoxo

Until next time <3

Korean Phrase of the post:
"시계 줄 키를 사용할 수 있서요?"
(shigyae jul kileul sayonghal su iseoyo)
"Can I use the fob key?"