Busan

We arrived in Korea at the very southern end of the Korean peninsula in the city of Busan after a 3 hour ferry from Fukuoka, Japan.  The ferry ride was mostly smooth and uneventful despite some 3 to 4 foot swells in the Sea of Japan.  For those of you that like facts, Busan is the second largest city in Korea and the 5th busiest port in the world.

My traveling philosophy is that the bare minimum language you need to know for each country is “hello” and “thank you” so I spent the short customs line trying to learn how to say “thank you” in Korean.  The hit TV show Arrested Development had already taught me “hello” which is “annyeong.”  We tried out our new language skills at the tourist information desk in the ferry terminal building for some quick directions and arrived at our hostel after a short subway ride.

Korea was our shortest stint in a country and since we wanted to see Busan and Seoul we had very limited time in each city. We would have loved to spend more time there, but when we were planning we knew the weather would be cold and we could only fit so many warm clothes so we decided to keep it short.

On our only full day in Busan we took a bus to Taejongdae, a coastal park with great views of Busan and the surrounding coastline and a lot of stairs.  The park itself, and most of the views, are easily accessible from the tram that makes frequent stops around the park loop.  Since we are balling on a budget we elected to skip the tram and walk from view point to view point up to the lighthouse, just past halfway around the loop before heading back.  The walk was relatively easy and quite enjoyable on this particular cool day and the $4 USD we saved by skipping the tram paid for our spicy pork and kimchi rice burgers for lunch.

When we reached the lighthouse we were treated to panoramic views of the rocky coast and rock formations that dotted the shore line.  We then began our climb down to explore the rocks that housed many fisherman, tourists, and women selling seafood that had presumably been swimming only minutes before.  It was a long trip down the many stairs and a much longer and harder trip back up but we did see what might be the world’s freshest sashimi.

After the bus back to the subway station we went a couple of stops to the fish market and walked around the hundreds of stalls selling just about every form of ocean life.  The market is the largest seafood market in Korea and was impressive in the sheer size and the number of people browsing the vast selection.  Most striking was the enormous whole octopi and squid available and the biggest lobster I have seen in my entire life.  I have often seen people, when preparing lobster, place a live one on the floor to see how the dog reacts but some of the lobsters in the market looked like they would have the upper hand over any dog smaller than a beagle. We made one purchase – a pair of gloves for Kelly. If we were braver we may have bought some kind of fish and had it prepared to eat on the spot but… we are not braver.

After we wandered around and saw fish in all varying stages of alive, we decided we’d love some dinner. We went to this cool food market neighborhood and got tasty bibimbap and noodle soup. Great day in Busan!

Seoul

After Busan, we took the train to Seoul where we had three days to explore the city. On our first afternoon we checked out the Changdeokgung Palace. We walked around the grounds and thought it was pretty impressive. It reminded us of the forbidden city in Beijing. From there, we walked back to our hostel before heading to Korean Barbecue for dinner.

On our next day we had a more jam-packed itinerary. We set off to see Bukchon Hanok Village, an area with small streets and lots of shops and restaurants. We went to a hip-looking place with lots of young people and got some tasty cheap eats. Kelly had some really spicy kimchee fried rice and I ate delicious noodle soup.

From there, we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace which was particularly cool because we got to see the changing of the guard ceremony.  The ceremony lasts about 15 minutes and displays traditional guard uniforms accompanied by musical instruments ranging from horns and enormous drums to conch shells.

After the palace we strolled through the Namdaemun Market, where you can buy pretty much anything, before hiking up a giant hill to Namsan Park at the base of Seoul Tower to see panoramic views of the city. There is a tradition of singing a lock with your loved one and attaching it to the fence there. We didn’t put one up ourselves (balling on a budget) but did enjoying looking at the rest of the locks.

We ended the day in the hip Hongdae neighborhood for dinner. We ate some famous Korean friend chicken at this cool chicken and beer chain called BHC on a second story overlooking the street. We got a great dinner, cheap beers, and a fun view.

Our last day in Seoul was spent at the demilitarized zone… stay tuned for more about when we set foot in North Korea!