Roadtrip: BUSAN!!

What makes this sojourn out of Jeollanamdo different so as to label it a "roadtrip"? Well, for once, I was able to travel in the luxury of a car. Oh mercy!

the man and I took off around 4pm on Friday afternoon and 5 hours later we found ourselves in the lovely city of Busan. Busan (which many people first confuse with Boseong...trust me, they are worlds apart) is the second largest city in South Korea - Seoul is the largest - and has what Seoul does not...beaches. Beautiful beaches.

We got a motel room in HaeUnDae area and grabbed a few beers to take to the beach. Yes, we went to the beach at 10pm. [sidenote: thanks to the insight of my dear friend Carol, who forwarded me an email, I was able to purchase CANADIAN beer at a grocery store in Suncheon. Not only was it Canadian, but it was also my fave...MOOSEHEAD. so delicious. Thanks for the heads up Carol. You are, indeed, a good friend.]

Anyway, we sat on the Beach, which was lit well considering it was night time, drank beer and talked for a few hours. Not exciting for you readers, but definitely a good time for us.

On Saturday we started the day with a lovely seashore drive to the next beach, which was Song Jeong. We stopped a few times along the way where there were strategically placed viewing points.

Nice, no? That's a view of HaeUnDae. The beach is on the other side of the buildings.

When we arrived in SongJeong area, we quickly got a hotel for the night and then went to the beach. The weather was perfect - hot and sunny with a cool breeze by the water. We walked along the beach with our toes in the sand and water, taking pictures and people watching. When the mood struck us (that's what's so great about traveling with a car) we found a restaurant and went out for lunch. The lunch was so great and we were so sun drenched that immediately after we went to the hotel for the world's greatest nap.

Post nap we jumped in the car to check out the Museum of Modern Art. There was some pretty awesome stuff in there. The two things that jumped out to me most were enormous black and white photos of trees and an oil painting of water, reeds and rocks that looked so real that I thought it coulsn't possibly be an oil painting. Of course describing these to you is kinda pointless, but you know art galleries...no pictures allowed :P

The time was going on sunset, so we headed to the Busan Yacht Harbour. There we grumbled about the richness of some people and how much boats cost. The richest boat in the place was easy to find. it was sleek. It was black. It was shiny. We were in awe.

In the distance, I spyied a giant ferris wheel. It was obvious where our next destination would be. I have never been on a Ferris Wheel before and this fact confounds me when I think about it. I don't like roller coasters, but I'm certainly not afraid of heights and there's nothing G-Force about a Ferris Wheel. Anyway, "Go big or go home" as they say. This Ferris wheel was GIANT.

With a full day under our belts, we ate some din-dins and then went back to the hotel for some good sleepin'.

A trip to Busan would not be complete without a trip to the Busan Aquarium! Despite the "koreanness" of this tourist attraction, it was still fun to see! [by Koreanness, I mean the tendency for people to push and shove to get where they want to go, completely disregarding everything in their path...it's a cultural thing, it's not that they actually hate me or don't care about me]

Of course, we had to walk through the gift shop to get out of the aquarium, so we had a few silly moments before we left.

Our final stop was DongBaek Park, another lovely scenic area of Busan, home to the 2005 APEC building. APEC was a gathering of world leaders in economy to talk about...well...economics? Anyway, this beautiful big building is now a tourist attraction.

After lunch we hit the raod and arrived back in Boseong around 8pm. What a great weekend! But wait, I'm not finished! I would be remiss if I didn't mention our culinary experiences! According to Geography and my tastebuds, we visited 4 different countries - America, Vietnam, Thailand and Indian.

Koreans are notorious for not being very diverse in their diets (where's the Kimchi?!), so I was delighted when HangBin said "Let's eat Indian food." I think that part of the reason was because he didn't want to eat Korean food that was from that particular province. Any self-respecting Jeollanamdo-ian will declare that food from Gyeongsangnamdo (Busan's province) is cardboard compared to their own food.

At any rate, the food was deeeeelish!

For a full look at the trip, check out my brand new link! I made a Flickr account so I don't have to mess around with yahoo photo albums. Enjoy!