In honour of our visitors we decided to make the long weekend an extra long weekend and took the Friday off. So with our lovely Monday off for "Children's Day" (don't ask me why that is a holiday seeing as every bloody day is children's day lol) we had 4 days to take off and explore Busan.
We woke up early on Friday to make our way over to Dongdaegu to jump on the KTX (the high speed train... which let me tell you does not do Mach 8 despite what anyone tells you!) to Busan. After a short 1 hour and 10 minute train ride we got ourselves into the city. We stepped out of the station in Busan to a giant dragon display... it was pretty unreal! It was 11:11am and we were ready to go! The enthusiasm died down a little after we realized we really had about another 45 minutes on the subway but that didn't stop us from talking to random people and trying out new things (albeit from a vending machine in the subway station... Ashley was so disappointed by her cream soda that had no fizz).
When we finally got off the subway at Haeundae Beach we were itching to find somewhere to dump our stuff and start exploring.
This however proved to be much harder than it sounded. We were under the impression that we could get a room in one of the Korean 'love motels' (yes it is exactly what it sounds like, complete with round beds) for 25 000 to 30 000 won a night (approx $20 to $30), so we were searching for a deal. The only problem is with these love motels is that very few of the concierage (haha) speak English. Anyways, all of our friends (and the guide books) say to ask to see the rooms before you agree to pay for them as some of them are tiny with just a bed in it... so we decided to split up (Jay and Ash, TJ and I) and check out as many as possible. In the end we just carried around the guidebook which had the sentence in Korean and pointed to it. Needless to say at some places where the owner was a little old lady who couldn't see anymore t
his didn't work. We checked out probably 20 motels looking for a deal but we couldn't find anything less than 50 000 won. Then we remembered it was a long weekend. Even at love motels they jack up the price on the long weekend. As a last resort before meeting back up with Jay and Ash, TJ and I checked out one final place. As luck would have it a patron was standing in the hallway when we were trying to enquire about the rooms and she spoke perfect Korean and English. She got the lady to cut us a deal and we got all three nights for 120 000! We dumped the stuff, grabbed a few beers and headed down the beach to wander around for a bit.
When we finally got off the subway at Haeundae Beach we were itching to find somewhere to dump our stuff and start exploring.
This however proved to be much harder than it sounded. We were under the impression that we could get a room in one of the Korean 'love motels' (yes it is exactly what it sounds like, complete with round beds) for 25 000 to 30 000 won a night (approx $20 to $30), so we were searching for a deal. The only problem is with these love motels is that very few of the concierage (haha) speak English. Anyways, all of our friends (and the guide books) say to ask to see the rooms before you agree to pay for them as some of them are tiny with just a bed in it... so we decided to split up (Jay and Ash, TJ and I) and check out as many as possible. In the end we just carried around the guidebook which had the sentence in Korean and pointed to it. Needless to say at some places where the owner was a little old lady who couldn't see anymore t
his didn't work. We checked out probably 20 motels looking for a deal but we couldn't find anything less than 50 000 won. Then we remembered it was a long weekend. Even at love motels they jack up the price on the long weekend. As a last resort before meeting back up with Jay and Ash, TJ and I checked out one final place. As luck would have it a patron was standing in the hallway when we were trying to enquire about the rooms and she spoke perfect Korean and English. She got the lady to cut us a deal and we got all three nights for 120 000! We dumped the stuff, grabbed a few beers and headed down the beach to wander around for a bit.This first night was Ashley's birthday so we had already decided t
hat we would do a nice dinner for her and get dressed up to celebrate. We had been eating a lot of Korean recently so we decided a nice Western dinner would suit us just fine. We headed to the Outback steakhouse as everyone wanted steak (and Jay had not had steak in about 4 months and I was ready for some good salmon). We were not really prepared for the experience though! TJ and Jay's steaks were very undercooked... for future reference, a med/rare steak in Korea is just about the equivalent of blue rare at home! However Ash's and my food was superb! After dinner we just decided to call it a night and relax in the motel as we knew that when all our friends arrived the next day it was going to be a LONG long weekend!
hat we would do a nice dinner for her and get dressed up to celebrate. We had been eating a lot of Korean recently so we decided a nice Western dinner would suit us just fine. We headed to the Outback steakhouse as everyone wanted steak (and Jay had not had steak in about 4 months and I was ready for some good salmon). We were not really prepared for the experience though! TJ and Jay's steaks were very undercooked... for future reference, a med/rare steak in Korea is just about the equivalent of blue rare at home! However Ash's and my food was superb! After dinner we just decided to call it a night and relax in the motel as we knew that when all our friends arrived the next day it was going to be a LONG long weekend!S
aturday morning came and we decided to take a little harbour cruise that we had seen the day before. We got our selves ready and set out to find breakfast and a bank... We ended up finding this amazing
little "toast" restaurant (which is simply a sandwich place that makes sandwiches on a grill but man let me tell you this is one of the most exciting finds when we have spent most our time here thinking there was no such thing as breakfast in Korea!) which made a mean bacon and egg sandwich. We then headed towards the water and lo and behold there was a bank! This was really turning out to be our day! We decided to stop and grab some soju, cause who doesn't like a quick nip in the morning, and smoothies for the boat ride...
aturday morning came and we decided to take a little harbour cruise that we had seen the day before. We got our selves ready and set out to find breakfast and a bank... We ended up finding this amazing
little "toast" restaurant (which is simply a sandwich place that makes sandwiches on a grill but man let me tell you this is one of the most exciting finds when we have spent most our time here thinking there was no such thing as breakfast in Korea!) which made a mean bacon and egg sandwich. We then headed towards the water and lo and behold there was a bank! This was really turning out to be our day! We decided to stop and grab some soju, cause who doesn't like a quick nip in the morning, and smoothies for the boat ride...
The cruise was pretty great, it was short, about an hour, and it went down the beach, over past the main bridge (a kind of landmark in Busan) and out to the light house. It was a very beautiful cruise and Jay and TJ made friends with a couple of little kids who loved TJ's beard and giving Jay high fives!Later on that afternoon we met up with a bunch of f
riends from Daegu and hit the beach. Part of t
he group played a little ultimate frisbee and volleyball and some of us continued with the soju and a little suntanning... as the sun began to set we decided to grab a shower, get ready for the night, get some food and head out to a bar called Star Face where they had all you can drink for 15 000 won (talk about dangerous)!Needless to say the next morning was a slow one and no one really felt like doing too much, which worked out quite well as the weather in the afternoon was less than exciting (cold and drizzling rain). After another wonderful breakfast at the toast shop, some of the boys decided to head over to the auto show that was happening that weekend in Busan. Us girls (and TJ) decided to wander around the shops and see if there was anything worth buying! When the weather turned we decided to spend the day relaxing around the motel, watching movies, reading books and the like. Some people braved the weather but not too many of us! That night we planned to grab a nice dinner, all of us together, as it was TJ and Ashley's last weekend in Korea and our friend Lindsay was heading home to South Africa the following week.
The next morning we were up and out of there bright and early so we could make it back to Daegu for the Daegu FC game at 3pm! The trip back on the KTX was not nearly as fun as the way there but we still had a whole day left of our really long weekend to enjoy!
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