부산! (Busan)

This past Friday morning I got an early start on the weekend as I had the day off in celebration of Buddha's birthday. Two co-workers (Marie and Jessica), a friend from another branch of CIS (Nichole) and I met at the KTX station around 8:15 am to head down to Busan (located on the southeastern most tip of the country) for the three day weekend.
Busan (or Pusan as is it pronounced in Korean) is SoKo's second largest city (although with a population of only 3.6 million, it hardly feels large compared to Seoul). However, it is the largest port city in Korea and the fifth largest port city in the world. Busan has put in a bid to host the 2020 summer games and is currently working on building the Lotte Super Tower which upon its completion in 2013 will be the third tallest building in the world. During the Korean War, Busan was one of very few areas that remained under South Korean control and was the temporary capital of the south for awhile.

After a three hour train ride, we arrived in Busan to gorgeous weather. We left Busan Station to discover a large fountain in front of us. Interesting enough, there was a Korean woman who put down her bags and started dancing in the water. While this would have drawn attention even in America, it was especially shocking to see here as Korean woman are viewed as very conservative and this particular woman was performing a rather 'risque' dance for being Korean. After having our attention captivated for about 5 minutes, we headed out, eager to hit the beach. Friday was gorgeous, high 70s and sunny so we headed over to Haeundae Beach, one of the most famous beaches in Korea. During the summer the area is literally coast to coast umbrellas (since the Koreans hate the sun) but it is still early enough in the season that we were able to get a nice patch of sand (I believe this is the first Korean beach I have been to that has sand and not rocks). The water was bitterly cold, but we enjoyed just laying in the sun and relaxing for a couple hours.

After spoiling ourselves to dinner at Outback (first steak in 15 months AND they had raspberry lemonade!) we called it a night. As I went to shower, I was shocked to run into (literally) a shower door. So there it was, the first time in 15 months I have showered in a shower with a door (it was strangely odd. Mostly because the water still ran under the door to a drain in the middle of the bathroom floor, thus still soaking the entire floor). Saturday called for rain most of the day, so we got an early start. In the morning we headed up to the Busan tower (literally 5 minutes from our hotel) to get a good view of the city. Despite the clouds and haze, we were still able to see a a fair amount of the city. The biggest thing I noticed was the lack of tall buildings. Despite being the second largest city, I felt like there were no skyscrapers compared to Seoul. Many of the buildings (with a few exceptions) also look older than those in Seoul, giving the town a much older and slow-paced feel.
From here we headed over to Taejongdae, a natural park on the southern tip of the island Yeongo-gu. We hiked about a 2.2 km loop course that took us to a lighthouse on some cliffs and provided some spectacular scenery. As we were leaving the lighthouse (with about half our hike to go) the rain finally started coming down and didn't stop for the rest of our time in Busan. Seeing as the rain was steadily increasing, while the temperature steadily decreasing, we decided to go to the largest department store in the world. Jess is an avid shopper and insisted that we make a stop here. We ended up window shopping and sitting at a coffee shop (where I managed to find a raspberry mocha, another first in 15 months moment) talking. Upon our arrival back at the hotel, Marie and I ventured out to try to get some night shots of the Tower, but more or less ended up just getting soaked.
Sunday dawned, still rainy, so we went for a leisurely breakfast nearby PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival) Street. The first festival took place in 1996 and since then they have started putting the hand prints of famous celebrities involved in the street (similar to the stars in Hollywood). With some time to kill before catching the KTX back to Seoul, we head to Hur Shim Chung Spa, which claims to be the largest in Asia. I use the word 'spa' here in Korean context, which means that it was a jimjabong (the bathhouses where you are separated by gender and relax in different pools naked). The spa was relaxing and rather uneventful, the eventful part of the afternoon actually happened on our way to the spa.

Following directions we had printed offline, we went the wrong way and ended up in an open-air shopping complex. To avoid the rain and slippery stairs (you may remember me mentioning last year how the material they use on sidewalks and stairs here gets slippery when wet- to the point of where you question your safety) we decided to take the elevator. Marie got in the elevator first and the doors started shutting. I stuck my umbrella in between them since I was a little to far for my arm to reach. Well, unlike American elevators, these doors shut all the way and the elevator started heading down, taking my umbrella with it. Poor Marie was inside by herself, watching my umbrella get mangled by the gears and fearing she would get stuck as the rest of us started at the small piece of handle that was spit back at us. I am thankful I still have both my arms...and I will definitely never try that again.

From the spa it was back to Busan Station, back on the KTX, and back to Seoul. Despite the rainy weather, we still had a really good time exploring a new city. The trip was much less go-go-go than I am used to, but it was a nice change to have three full days of relaxing. I found it interesting that even though I have been in Korea for 15 months, going to Busan almost made me feel like I was new to the country. We didn't know the subway lines (despite there only being 3, a lot of the names were rather similar), we didn't know our way around, and we had to relay heavily on the bus system (which about 95% of is in Korean. My ability to slowly and poorly read Korean helped a little, but not a lot). I liked the city a lot, and think it would be fun to live there in the summer time when there are tons of festivals going on and you can enjoy the beach. However, I think I would get bored in the winter with the lack of indoor things to do. (As we discovered during the rain, it was hard to find things to do inside). Basically, I enjoyed the visit (and would love to go back to the beach during good weather) but am happy that I live in Seoul!