Busan!

Dan and I took advantage of our most recent three day weekend (there were tons in May) to take the 4 hour bus ride to Busan, located on the southeastern coast of Korea. Busan is the second largest city in Korea and the 5th largest port in the world! We really enjoyed our travels to Busan, mainly because of the beautiful Haeundae Beach, but also because we found it to be slightly more manageable than a trip to Seoul. Seoul is amazing, but overwhelming for a weekend visit...there's just TOO much to do! Busan is a very laid back city, and offers every visitor the true beauty of the Korean coastline. We can't wait to go back again. Here are some photos of the trip:

We took an EXTREMELY long walk across the central of Busan to the area of Yeongdo-gu, a type of island connected to central Busan by a bridge. We definitely should have taken a bus. Anyway, the shoreline was beautiful and the weather was perfect.

Cheesy smiles all around :)

This is a photo of some ajumma cooking their seafood on the rocky shores. Dan took this picture while on the Jeoryeong Coastal Walkway - beautifully built up for walking along the water. After this, we headed back across the water to the Jagalchi Fish Market, on the other side of the bridge.


Busan is famous for the Jagalchi Fish Market, filled with hundreds of stalls of freshly caught fish, eels, mussels, and every other type of seafood you can imagine. Our favorites, of course, were the tanks stuffed with octopus.

YUMMY!

And just in case you need another look...my favorite part is the black inky blow hole. Sick.



We visited Busan Tower in Yongdusan Park. The park is located at the top of a mountain and is accessible by a very long escalator. At the top, we were lucky enough to catch the last few minutes of a traditional Korean fisherman dance. This is a photo of the tower and the Yongdusan Temple.



Here is the Yongdusan Temple up close!


There was also an art display on the mountain...of course we need some pictures!



This is the entrance to a Buddhist temple located on the side of the mountain. We were greeted by a friendly Buddhist monk who spoke amazing English and took a few pictures of us for his website.



Afterwards, we strolled the street markets...here is some of the food on offer. Big bowls of kimchi! Delicious.



On Sunday, we went to the United Nations Memorial Cemetery, a reverent and beautiful remembrance of the soldiers who fought in the Korean War.



The grounds were huge and beautifully landscaped, and every country was separated into sections. Each of the headstones were surrounded by flowers. It was definitely worth the visit, especially since we went on the day before Korea's Memorial Day.



After the cemetery, we headed to Busan's most famous beach: Haeundae. The beach is beautiful and was SUPER crowded because of the annual Sand Festival. We've never seen so many foreigners gathered in one place! We really enjoyed relaxing on the beach.



Here are some shots of the Sand Festival creations. They had a sand castle competition, and these guys were obviously professionals. These structures were massive and made of sand. They were actually mind-blowing to look at. Pretty cool.