Weekend in Busan

What a nice break from Seoul to head south to the beautiful city of Busan, still a big city, but with a more relaxed beach life attitude, and amazing seafood! The weather was breezy, sunny and 60 degrees. The company was wonderful, and again I say.... the food! It was so great. Busan has a population of three and half million people, and is known for it's long sandy beaches and an incredible bridge that lights up at night.

 It was nice to breathe the sea air and smell fresh fruit from vendors along the streets, while encountering some odd sights along the way.

the street our hotel is on

a strange amusement park just outside our hotel

We stayed just a few steps off the beach, at a dumpy but cheap hotel in the fish market neighborhood. The streets were lined with huge tanks of crab and eel and flounder and so many species of fish and seafood that I could not even name them. Trucks came and unloaded at all hours of the day with the freshest catch and restaurant workers came and picked up, a constant flow of fish. It's amazing how many people the sea feeds.... Including us! We had a FEAST of crab one afternoon. It was really amazing. We selected our crabs, live and crawling around, and the man took them away while we were seated on the heated floor and served scores of small dishes of food and lots of beer while we waited for the main dish.

we selected our crabs here- so many to choose from!

the table at the beginning of the meal

peanuts, quail eggs, and a touch of salt

How quickly it seemed that it went from this:

to this:

to this:

and finally this:

After feasting on the succulent crab meat they took the empty shells, with the remains of the brains and guts (mmm...) and stir fried it up with some rice and veggies and served it back to us. It was actually quite good! The perfect amount of saltiness and sea taste.

The aftermath of any Korean meal thus far has been a very messy table with lots and lots of little plates with traces of the food that once filled them. The way food is done here is so wonderful. I feel a little sad when I make myself dinner and it's just one or two dishes of something, I have become so accustomed to the Banchan that accompanies every meal! And of course, it is perfectly accepted to lie down on the heated floor after indulging so....

After the incredible lunch we made dinner plans with our friends and set off to explore some more of Busan, encountering nice markets and busy city streets and a cool bar on the beach, a perfect place to watch the day turn into night.

Gwanganli beach

Lunch was topped only by our interesting dinner experience. We traveled slightly out of town to eat dinner in a tent! Little did we know that dinner would turn out to be 5 hour affair involving somewhere close to 20 bottles of soju and an dessert of live octopus. We had a private tent for the 9 of us, with open fires and grills at each of our two tables, gravel below us and some Balkan Beat Box on the ipod. Large trays of shellfish came our way and we grilled them in the shell and ate as we pleased, throwing the leftovers all into a pot and making a stew of mushrooms, seafood juice from the shells, chopped scallops clams, oysters, onions, kimchi, fresh rosemary, potatoes and anything else we could find on our tables. It was so good and spicy as usual and we successfully washed it all down with our ample soju and beer and laughed until the night was black and chilly, and after a walk on the rocky seaside we made our way home for a good night sleep. 

the food on this plate was still moving when we ate it! The tentacles stuck to our tongues and cheeks

What a good trip it was, and also so good to be back in Seoul at the end of the weekend.

More photos are available on Nicole's Flickr site. 

Shakespeare's 91st sonnet

Some glory in their birth, some in their skill,

Some in their wealth, some in their body's force,

Some in their garments though new-fangled ill;

Some in their hawks and hounds, some in their horse;

And every humour hath his adjunct pleasure,

Wherein it finds a joy above the rest:

But these particulars are not my measure,

All these I better in one general best.

Thy love is better than high birth to me,

Richer than wealth, prouder than garments' cost,

Of more delight than hawks and horses be;

And having thee, of all men's pride I boast:

   Wretched in this alone, that thou mayst take

   All this away, and me most wretched make.

Stumbled upon vol. II

Short clip of an "amusement park" style ride on the busy shopping streets of Seoul. Unlike the short duration rides structured to move many kids through the line, this ride is probably 20 minutes long (this clip is at about halfway through). The operator is heckling the children, trying to make them fall out of their seats, laughing when he succeeds. The ride would spin extremely past, then stop and pivot upwards, tilting and inflicting a hydraulic nightmare only fun for middle schoolers. Reports of vomit, crying, and black and blue bodies are to be expected...yet never quite make it to an OSHA desk. Enjoy...

Life in Seoul

He is a link to Nicole's Flickr site!

 Dinner at a traditional Korean BBQ joint in Iteawon

Smilin!

The view across the river from a rooftop bar by Nathan and Irina's place

View of the Namsan tower from Rufs

Kimchi pots along the side of the road

Leaving Namsan and sunset

Bukhansan National Park

This weekend we went hiking at Bukhansan National Park, per Nathans suggestion. It turned into an unexpected adventure that led us across the high ridge peaking 5 mountains! After a few subway transfers and a crowded 20 minute bus ride on line 704 we arrived at the west entrance of the park, this was lined with vendors selling upscale hiking gear and bottles of mokoli, snacks, and cold water. We hurried through the vendors excited to be away from people, the city, and civilization. 

We glanced at a few maps of the mountain range that were posted around the base (all of which were in Korean, mind you), noticing that there were scores of trails to choose from, thus realizing the magnitude of the park. We set forward to see some temples and a historic gate. We immediately encountered throngs of decked out hikers, with the newest and most fashionable gear. It reminded us of people coming off of a ski slope, with their poles and parkas. Were we under-equiped? Or were they over-equiped? The question crossed our mind, and we had a good laugh....

We reach our first gate, with a beautiful watch tower situated between mountain peaks and above a granite wall below. This wall was built in 132 AD, and enlarged in the 1700's as a defense against invading Mongolians. 

We continued to hike along, happy to be out of the city, and grateful for the beautiful, warm weather.

Tucked away off the paths were a few ornate and serene Buddhist temples. Some had dragon head gargoyles and others 6 foot tall bells and still others had giant golden wrought statues of Buddha, but they all had the same calm tranquility.

There were some handsome hikers.....

And those responsible for ensuring the trail remained unobscured.....

There were many beautiful sights as we continued up the mountain, plotting our course as we went, unsure where each trail would lead

While originally we thought our hike to be coming to a close, we sought a new way down, so as not to retrace our steps, but rather see the most of this picturesque region.  We decided to head to the apex, only 1 kilometer away, believing that there would be a path leading back down to base on the other side, but to our surprise we committed ourselves to a ridgeline trail that led us over 5 peaks before our final descent. The trail was difficult, perhaps we were unprepared.... but it was truly breathtaking. The climb was intense and frightening at times, but equally rewarding. 

We made it back to base after sunset, starving and legs feeling like jelly. What a day it was!