Week 7 in Korea - Visiting Busan
South Korea ·Bello! 1 2 3 4 5 weeks late now :((! But this week was a fun one! I traveled to Busan for three days with my roommate and attended a club MT, which I have always wanted to do after watching Kdramas and learning about them. Other than those two experiences happening, I don’t think there were any other significant events this week worth mentioning, so I’ll just jump to start writing about them now. Starting with the Busan trip, here is what I did in Busan for three days…
Day 1
This was the day I arrived in Busan. Since I didn’t know anything about Busan yet, I opted to go on an organized tour for this day. So after landing in the airport and dropping off our bags at the hotel, we went to get picked up for the tour. The first stop was the Haeundae Blueline Park Sky Capsule, where you ride on some sort of elevated cable rail car all across the coastline.
We were able to see beautiful views of the ocean and shoreline during this, so I would say it was a pretty good experience. After getting off the sky capsule, I went for a walk at the Cheongsapo Daritdol Observatory, a skywalk, and opted to go eat lunch at one of the many seafood restaurants nearby.
Then, our bus took us to Oryukdo Island, where we walked the Oryukdo Skywalk and also ventured into the quay, where we met fishermen and people selling different types of fish. There was also a huge rock edge where there were only a couple fishermen hanging out, so we stopped to take a few pictures here.
From here, our tour took us to Huinnyeoul Culture Village, a small chic beachside village with many cute cafes and shops. Here, we relaxed at a cafe and also visited the famous piano stairs.
Lastly, we headed off to another famous village, the Gamcheon Culture Village. Affectionately called the Machu Picchu of Korea, the Gamcheon culture village boasts incredible colored houses, shops, cafes, and beautiful twisted alleys. I loved just walking around, taking in the amazing views, and visiting the many different shops that lined the streets. I know that this place is already super popular, but if you were to visit Busan, I would say that this is a location where you must go.
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That was the last stop of our tour, and afterwards we returned to Seomyeon, the largest downtown in Busan with a very centralized location. Here, we ended off the day by eating dinner and then heading to a pojangmacha, outdoor street carts that sell food at night, many times used for a second round dinner. Then, we returned to our hotel and fell asleep.
Day 2
I had planned this day to visit the two biggest beaches in Busan, Haeundae Beach and Gwangalli Beach. So the first stop was Haeundae Beach, where I was able to sit down on the sand for a long time and also walk along the waves, some of my favorite activities to do. Surprisingly, there were very few people set up with picnic blankets and sitting on the sand, very different from the beaches in California.
Regardless, I still had a very enjoyable time, where I was able to listen to the sound of the waves and refresh my mind and body for a bit. Afterwards, I went for a quick lunch at a grilled fish restaurant near the beach and headed to the Busan Sea Life Aquarium.
After admiring all the sharks and fish, we just started walking around to random locations such as Bexco, The Bay 101, and Marine City. Although I didn’t spend much time at these locations, it was still cool to look at the buildings and sights. From there, we went to Gwangalli Beach. Walking along the beach for a long time, we watched as the sky turned from a rich blue to completely dark, highlighting all the spectacular lights of restaurants and cafes along the beach.
I definitely liked Gwangalli Beach more than Haeundae, although both were amazing, but if you came to Busan and could only visit one, my recommendation would be Gwangalli. We then ate dinner at a pretty expensive sashimi place, where I tried live octopus for the first time!
After dinner, I went to Millac the Market, a small chic shopping area with cool architecture and views. Afterwards, I finally headed to a waterfront cafe and just lounged there for an hour or so staring at the beach and the waves, and then it was time to head home and rest for the next day to come.
Day 3
For our final day in Busan, we first went to the Songdo Cloud Trails to walk around. This is just another raised platform over the ocean, but this time in a different part of Busan.
The day we the ocean was so beautiful; I’m not exactly sure if there is a one-to-one translation to English, but in Chinese we call it 果冻海, literally jelly sea. The ocean was so turquoise and mellow that it looked like a sea of cut up jelly pieces. After observing the sea for a bit, we turned back and took the Songdo Cable Car over the ocean. The cable car has a transparent glass floor, so I just stared at the sea that was passing by underneath us.
Once we reached our destination, we went to the Songdo Yonggung Suspension Bridge to view the ocean from a different viewpoint briefly before walking again to a nearby oceanside cafe to relax and, you guessed it, stare more at the ocean.
I’m not exactly sure why I love doing nothing and just love to listen to the sound of the ocean and stare at the waves and the horizon – my guess is it has something to do with the fact that I can briefly forget about the stress and troubles of life and just enjoy myself and nature. Another reason may be because it causes a temporary illusion that seems to really slow down time and create an environment that mimics a peaceful, slow-paced life, which I like, but regardless, the fact that I was able to do this a lot during this trip to Busan was very soul refreshing.
Once I had felt that I had looked at the sea enough, we took the cable car back across to where we started and then headed to Jagalchi Market, a huge fish market where you can buy the fish on the first floor and have it sliced or cooked on the second floor. We weren’t brave enough to try it this time we went, so after walking around the fish market for a while, we stopped by the nearby BIFF Square and browsed the food selections and shops for some time. Finally, we returned back to Seomyeon, and after a quick dinner and browsing of a nearby department store, we were off to the airport to fly back to Seoul.
After being in Busan for 3 days, I can pretty confidently say that I like Busan a little better than Seoul. Maybe it was because I became a tourist in those three days, but Busan seems to me to have a slower lifestyle than Seoul, which I always appreciate and have talked about in my blogs before. Furthermore, the people in Busan just seem nicer than Seoul – there were multiple times where when we were eating, people would just come up to us and strike up a conversation and would continue to keep it up even with my bad Korean. I think Busan being a coastal city also helped a lot; I have always liked the beach, and Busan’s beaches were so nice and had such good vibes that I feel like I can stay there for an entire day and not get tired one bit. I know Busan is one of the most hyped and visited cities in Korea after Seoul, and in my opinion, it deserves all the hype it gets. The pretty buildings, oceans, unique food culture, and amazing people all contribute to the Busan that I saw and loved, and I highly recommend you visit Busan if you find yourself in Korea.
After the Busan trip, I also attended a club MT from an international club on campus. An MT in Korea is basically a club retreat in the US. Not too much to say about this one; it was a great time, I met a lot of new people and ate good food. And as for my 4 weeks of missing blogs, I will try to get all of them out as soon as I can, so please be patient :))