Our weekend was spent in Busan, Jill’s favorite city. She loves it for it’s nicer beaches and because it has everything Seoul has to offer, without being overwhelming. We took a bus there. They leave pretty regularly from Gwangju’s main bus station, U-Square. The bus got us to Busan at a good hour and we were able to drop our stuff off at our hostel before check-in time. The subway is a popular way to get around the city. We used our T money card for that too. We stayed at Hostel the New Day, which is right next to the Haeundae Subway Station (line 2, exit 1). It was a nice place. The rooms were pretty spacious and the whole place was kept very clean. It had a separate floor where people could play games and be noisy during late hours. Honestly, my favorite part was that there was a corgi in the lobby to pet every day. It was right next to the main street of Haeundae Beach, so plenty of shops and places to eat.

While I couldn’t wait to get some Korean BBQ in my stomach, for our lunch snack we decided to go with some street food on the way to the beach. Chicken on a stick and Kimbap (which is like a premade simple sushi roll). The beach was covered in umbrellas and tubes. Renting a tube and avoiding the sun is the Korean thing to do. It was still pretty empty (it’s not really a morning country) so we picked an area of sand away from the umbrellas where we could get some prime sun. It definitely wasn’t the best beach I’ve been to, but I love beaches so my friends and I lathered up with sunblock and jumped right in. Ok, it was freezing cold so we kind of slowly made our way in.

Koreans beachwear of choice was so bizarre to me. People were going into the water in full outfits. I even saw a guy swimming in a shirt and a jacket. It was interesting because here we were trying to get as tan as possible before the clouds came in. They also love to bury each other in the sand. I mean, yeah, who hasn’t’ done that a time or two with their friends, but there were like five buried bodies in like a 15-foot span. Some groups got really creative and it was pretty comical. Throughout the afternoon it got so crowded. There were massive amounts of people on the beach, which makes sense since it was a Saturday and Jill said that was the first sunny day they’ve had in awhile.

We went back to our hostel to rinse off and then we were back on the subway. Jill decided to show us her “spot.” The Lotte Department Store Sky Garden was at the top of one of their massive malls. The department store is off the Nampodong Station (line 1, exit 10). If there’s one thing Koreans love doing, it’s shopping. I’ve never seen so many shops. It’s crazy how many stores there are, even in unlikely places. This mall had a rooftop garden and look out point, basically with 360 views. It wasn’t as tall as the Busan Tower you could pay to go up and see the city in, but it was free and we still got some nice pictures. Busan is big, it’s the second largest city in South Korea, behind Seoul.

After we got our fill of the city views we went over to Busan’s street food market, which was a short walking distance from the Lotte Department Store. Maybe because it was the weekend, but there were a ton of vendors out. For some reason, corn dogs are a very popular in Korea, so I decided to try one out. They have a bunch of different variations. Jill bought one with squid ink in the batter. I got on with melted cheese in the middle. They also love sweet stuff here. Every corn dog was rolled in sugar after. Not bad at all. We also walked through the fish market. The Jagalchi market is known for being one of the biggest in the world. WOW! The smell was so strong and water from the fish tanks was pouring over onto the ground so you had to walk through it. So many vendors, with the same exact fish. So many fish waiting to be butchered. I’m not a vegetarian, but it made me feel for them. To me, there was no reason there needed to be that many fish in the market. They couldn’t all possibly be used. Locals would grab a table right next to one of the booths and enjoy the extremely fresh fish.

After that experience, we decided to finish our night with some real Korean BBQ. We didn’t want to go all out since we weren’t super hungry. We just went into one of the hundreds of Korean BBQ restaurants by the street market area. I have no idea what kind of meat we ordered (neither did Jill) and while it was the real deal, it didn’t satisfy me like Korean BBQ in Las Vegas did (funny how that works). I was surprised they had the same soup and most of the same exact sides as the one I go to in Las Vegas.

The next day we went to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. While I’d rather go do something more active outside, I’m always down to learn about the culture of another country. (Korea is mostly a mountainous area). This one was on the water and it was really crowded since it’s the only big one nearby. You can take the 181 bus which picks up right in front of Haeundae Subway Station (luckily for us right in front of our hotel) and it’s is free to get into the temple. I hadn’t seen a lot of temples around yet and turns out most of them are up in the mountains If you have been to a Buddhist temple before then you can imagine what this one was like. Beautiful designs and colors on the inside. People were praying all over the different areas of the temple depending on what they were praying for. I did notice the locals all shared the same cup to drink their temple water from.

Next stop was Gamcheon village, also known as Cultural Village. It’s a community built on a hill of Busan and when it was built in the 1950s they made sure that no house was blocking the view of another. Over the years residents started leaving the village due to poverty and unfavorable living conditions. In 2009, when many of the houses were empty the neighborhood was transformed for an urban renewal. It has even won a couple of awards as the “Machu Picchu of Busan.” You can get here by taking the subway to Toseong Station (line 1, exit 6) and then taking bus Saha 1-1, Seogu 2, or Seogu 2-2, and getting off at Gamcheon Elementary School. It’s very cute and colorful. We walked around for some good pictures and also found some perfect souvenirs in the shops there. It was extremely hilly though and, dang, was it humid. Sarah and I were not used to it and we were dying.

We finished up our weekend in Busan with some bibimbap, which is another popular Korean dish with rice and veggies and beef mixed in one. It was good, but I wish there were other sauces available, besides hot sauce. I’m a baby when it comes to spicy food, but I love my condiments. We jumped back on the bus for the 3-hour ride back to Gwangju. Successful first weekend in Korea (: