Day 1

“Early bird gets the 무궁화 (Mugunghwa rail)” is how the old saying goes, right? In any case, I had no damn choice after the ticket purchase but to get up early for our five and a half hour train ride that was due to leave Seoul Station at 8 AM.

So Patty and left Ewha right around 7:15AM to meet Diallo and Kelsey at the station. The ticket processing was quick and we were all on board in no time. Unlike Amtrak, Korail likes assigned seating and since we didn’t purchase the tickets all under one name, it wasn’t a surprise that we were all apart. Furthermore, you may be wondering “Hey Mahir, I thought Korea had high speed trains just like France’s TGV and Japan’s 新幹線 (Shinkansen)?”. You’re right, the KTX makes the Seoul-Busan route in under 90 minutes over 202 miles at peak hours. You’re forget us Light Fellows are all budget-minding college students that want more bang for their buck even if that means sacrificing time. That’s how we found ourselves (mostly snoozing) on the Mugunghwa.

But we all arrived in Busan in one piece. Hooray!

Alright, guesthouse time! After scavenging the internet, we made accommodations at a nice little guesthouse right by 부산대학교 (Busan National University). Just check out at how minimal the rooms are at Love in Busan Guesthouse!

Honestly, though, the place was awesome throughout the extended weekend trip. Like, they had fresh fruit to offer for free every day and you could snack on at any time. That alone made the trip fantastic.

So after taking a moment to settle and making a last-minute itinerary, I split from the group to get some fresh new kicks (Vans, all day, baby) since I was fasting and they wanted to grab some lunch. After my purchase, I met up with them at the little Japanese restaurant where they were chowing down on some udon and sushi (우돈 and 초밥 in Korean).

Let’s just say we faced a somewhat series of unfortunate events. Although I had fun throughout the remainder of the day, it was a tad upsetting as we went from one closed building to another. Our initial plan was to go from Busan Cinema Studios and around the rest of Centum City to the UN Memorial Cemetery. Well we went to the 영화의전당 (Busan Cinema Center) where the BIFF’s opening and closing ceremonies are held each fall but the glorious center is very academic in nature where film makers and students teach, practice, and create works rather than providing a space for visitors to squander around. No problem, we just headed over to the world’s largest department store in world, 신세계 (Shinsegae), which happened to be conveniently next door after taking fooling around in front of the KNN building, which also happened to be next. Man, Centum City sure knows how to put all of Busan’s economic powerhouses next to each other.

The mall was cool but way out of my league. Before in walking in, I felt I needed to provide something that would showcase my nonexistent wealth. Yeah, obviously it was a great design move to have a Louis Vuitton and Prada right next to the entrance. But yeah, the inside definitely reminded me of Dubai and their mall meccas. The skating rink on the top floor really emphasized its position as one of the world’s eminent department stores.

We still had some time to kill so we tried to go to the 부산시립미술관 (Busan Museum of Modern Art). Despite all the good things I heard about it, I will never know how nice it truly was (at least for the time being) because it was already closed at 6PM. Why can’t you be like the MOMA!? Well, on to the next one, we said, continuing to travel through the tropical rain that really wanted us to swim rather than walk over to the train station.

The 재한유엔기념공원 (UN Memorial Cemetery) is located near 경성대학교 (Kyungsung University). We though we had plenty of time before the place would close but the map we took from the guesthouse was pretty poor at relating distances. The hike over took a godforsaken amount of time. Once, we finally arrived, we were greeted with yet again another closed sign. It closed at at 4:30PM. The time was 7:20. Yeah, that one was totally our fault. Regardless, we resolved and made the best of our situation and got some well-made 만두 (dumplings) from this small little shop and chowed down on it in a convenience store before making our way over via taxi (which took forever to hail down) back to the university station.

Like most other university areas, the place was popping and full of young people despite the rain that kept starting and stoping as it pleased. No worries, as we soon found ourselves being treated to some delicious 갈비 and 생탁 (the Busan style of makgeolli).

The night continued as we headed over to 광안리해수욕장 (Gwangalli Beach). One of Busan’s smaller beaches, the place lays before a beautiful bridge that connects two of the more city-ish areas of Busan. Despite taking a while to get there, our stomaches were greeted to ice cream picked up over at Baskin Robbins (they’re huge in Korea) and some piano and lyrics sung by a local street performer (keep on!).

Day 2

So breakfast isn’t normally a thing in Korea, which made our first morning in Busan even more enjoyable. Eggs, sandwiches, fruit, fruit, FRUIT 😀 Life was indeed good (in fact, I already miss the plethora of fruit since leaving). We ate heartily and after some quick bag packing, we headed out for the beach. 해운대해수욕장 (Haeundae Beach) happens to be one of the most popular tourists sites in all of Korea. For good reason, the beach is fairly large and also another site of the BIFF (you can probably already tell that I’m stoked for it). The people viewing at Haeundae can also be very enjoyable at times. Also unlike a good number of beaches on the East Coast *coughNewJerseycough*, one need not worry about beach tags. As an added bonus, I don’t think it would be far fetched to say Busan has a relatively more attractive populous than Seoul. People watching can be quite a pleasant activity.

After cooling off in the water, it was time for Operation Eliminate My Farmer’s Tan. For those of you out there who know me personally, some of you choose to scoff or roll your eyes when I say I need to tan. But, unlike those of the fairer skin, I do not necessarily tan the same way you do. I would say I caramelize at first and then go from a milk chocolate to a darker chocolate. In summary, I do not just tan, I bronze. Fortunate for me, I brought along an Oliver Sacks novel and some tunes to help pass the time.

It was pleasant to be on the beach for the first time in a while. But Korean has a very pervasive couple culture, even at the damn beach. I wouldn’t go so far to say they ruin everything, but they do sap some of the joy out of it. Many of you may have already heard of couple clothing.  Often times, restaurants are entirely geared for them, which doesn’t help the case for Korea’s strong social fear of loneliness (restaurants at times turn people away who are alone). Businesses actually design themselves around couples, just ask your local couple massage parlor. So now, here at the beach, I found myself surrounded. “Oy! I am trying to read a book not see two bodies spooning on the ground.”

Rather fuss more over it, I decided to help some locals bury their friend in the sand. But as young adult males, there is a tendency to mess with our friends when they are vulnerable. Immaturity exists in all cultures as you can see with the extra anatomy we provided to our buried friend below.

Sheer luck. We just decided to grab some 튀김 (fried food) and 떡볶이 (rice cakes in spicy sauce) at the nearby market of shops and following our entrance, Zeus rained hell down over the area. It was raining wolves and tigers out there. Our server was also a bit sassy due to our “foreigner” status. UGH, it happens too often.

Despite the rain, we thought it would still be awesome to visit the 해동용궁사 (Haedong Yonggungsa Water Temple). First built in 1376 by the great Buddhist teacher known as Naong during the Goryeo Dynasty, the temple artifacts and states mostly all overlook the cliff and sea at the heart of the temple. But before you even get there, you are greeted with artifacts and structures of Buddhist and ancient Chinese culture. At the very entrance of the temple lay an incline of 13 statues on the left hand side of the path–a monk and the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac.

On the right, one can see statue symbolizing important concepts of Buddhism throughout. As you go up and down the 108 step incline to the main level of the temple, it becomes very apparent how the ocean dominates this sanctuary. The rain really gave an ominous tough to the never-ending rush of waves the battered the cliff rocks. There many statues and shrines throughout but I think two of my favorite were 해수 관음 대불 (Great Goddess of mercy in the sea) that had a higher perch on the cliff for itself and the cavern sanctum underneath the main temple. The former because she can leave you in a state of amazement with her prowess and protection over the temple. The latter as demonstrates the gravity of lifelong duty of a monk.

Midway along the 108 flight of steps you can out to another viewing cliff to take in both the sea and temple all at once.

Feeling all relaxed, we eventually became aware that we were drowned in our own garbs and in great need of a shower. We all headed back, got refreshed, sneak in some fruit (don’t look at me like that), and headed down to the Italian bistro underneath our guesthouse.

I was pleasantly surprised.

There are certain things that Korean doesn’t get right (many of which I will cover over the gap year as my posts become more critiques and reflections rather than day to day summaries), which may sound harsh but believe me when I say that when it comes to food foreign to Korea, it’s nearly always either a hit or miss. Ask your friends you know that have tried Lotteria and they may shrink back from the memories. Often times, Italian and South Asian food just seem unjust in Korea. Particularly, pizza. As an East Coaster that grew up around some of the most praise-worthy pizza places in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, I can get harsh when it comes to pizza. But you don’t need to be a critic to realize that what Korea does to some pizza seems like a gross injustice (READ: Adding mayonnaise, corn, and kimchi to pizza makes for an abomination.).

We took the risk.

We ordered some relatively authentic Italian fare (I got Risotto which I haven’t actually had since I had been in Italy last summer) and shared a gorgonzola pizza. The food was light and not as heavy on the olive oil as typical Italian fare, something I truly appreciated. The pizza? It looked like a normal white pie when it came out and once we dug in and bless the heavens, it tasted like real cheese. God bless Korea, amiright? Obviously Italian food isn’t Italian without the white, so we got the house and I have to say in hindsight, maybe we should have stuck to Korean alcohol.

The night was still young and the group decided to going to the 노래방 was an absolute must. I did not fight them and we got real intercultural with singing tunes from all over the East-West spectrum.