Leaving on a Jet Train?

It's been a while since we had an Oliver Adventure that didn't involve Everland in some way shape or form. We love Everland and all, but momma needs to go somewhere else every once in a while. So we took a page out of the bird notebook and headed south to Busan (or Pusan, depending on what webpage you're on).

Busan is the 2nd largest city in South Korea. It's a beautiful port city at the southern tip of the country and is surrounded by mountains and the sea. Here's the best part, there is a high speed train that runs from Seoul to Busan. Getting on the high speed train from Songtan takes some ingenuity and a healthy dose of humor.

Unfortunately, South Korea doesn't really have an awesomely great English written travel guide that tells you step by step what to do, and if you aren't leaving from Seoul, you kind of have to guess your way on a couple of parts. We were able to guess correctly on some, incorrectly on others, but had a great time doing it. Lessons learned right?

But the part where we were in Busan was so relaxing.

We stayed at the Westin in Haeundae Beach (that would be Hyundai, like the car). Once we got settled at the hotel, we roamed around Haeundae and found a mermaid statue, a mermaid sand sculpture, visited the aquarium, and discovered a wonderful place to eat in a side alley. The day ended with a walk down the beach and a nightcap at O'Kim's, the Irish pub in the hotel.

Sunday brought us some beautiful weather, and we didn't need coats for most of the day! The girls went swimming in the hotel pool first thing Sunday morning, because what is the point of going to a beach if you can't go swimming? Then we packed up and headed for a local bakery for their breakfast set and hopped on the Metro to Beomeosa Temple.

Beomeosa Temple is so beautiful; it's nestled in the mountains north of Busan. This place will be gorgeous in the spring with all the cherry blossoms and other trees in bloom. After trekking up and down the steps to the different buildings, we dedicated a tile to our family. We then hopped back on the Metro and headed for the Jagalchi Fish Market on the bay.

Jagalchi reminded me of Pike Place Market in Seattle; it's a busy seafood market, with smaller stores all around. Walking up and down the aisles was a sight. Anything living in the ocean and edible in one form or another can be found here, including some items you may otherwise know only from the Discovery Channel. Holly had a lot of fun looking at the different types of fish, and even was chased down by a lobster! Unfortunately, we got there later in the day and there weren't any styrofoam coolers obviously out for sale and weren't prepared with our own, so we couldn't bring anything home with us.

After a trip up to the observation deck, we ventured out in the market surrounding Jagalchi and eventually wandered into the Gukje Market, the largest open air market in Busan. Ronnie and I joke about sampling all foods on a stick and how superior they are to non-stick foods. Well, this place was Street Food Galore! Still hungry from looking at all the beautiful seafood, we started sampling foods from the street vendors. We found candied strawberries, french fry covered hand dipped corndogs, mandu, and even a Pakistani gentleman selling gyros. They also had pajeon (seafood pancakes), twigim (tempura to us Americans), and waffles. Only when I just googled to figure out how to spell Gukje did I find that we were in Mokja Golmok or"Let's Eat Alley."

Once we finished eating our way through Gukje, we ventured back to catch our train home. Hopefully soon, we'll be able to visit again to put our lessons learned to good use.