Busan: Future Meets Past Part 1

If you're a student living in South Korea, you'll quickly discover that weekends are your golden ticket to explore the country's rich tapestry of culture and nature. This past weekend, I embarked on an unforgettable adventure to Busan, a coastal gem that offered a perfect blend of vibrant urban life and serene natural beauty. Through CIEE, I was able to experience Busan for a weekend at our own leisure and pace.

I will be separating my trip to Busan into two parts, as there was so much to cover that I could not possibly put it all on one blog post.

Day 1

Getting There

Getting to Busan is a relatively simple task. As many Korean travel between the two cities frequently, there are well established transportation infrastructure for travelers to enjoy. A great example of this was the KTX train line that runs directly from Seoul Station to Busan. The KTX is the high-speed rail of Korea and travels more than 200 miles per hour seamlessly. 

When we boarded the train at our departure time, we were able to sit wherever we wanted to sit within our assigned train cars. Students were definitely very excited about the whole trip as people could not stop talking. 

In Korea, it is actually rude to talk loudly in a train or any form of public transportation, so some students were told off by the train conductors. 

As the train took off, I was quite amazed by its smoothness and speed. Travelling at almost 3 times highway speeds, we watched as the scenery blitzed by and before we knew it, we were in Busan. 

A Crossroad

After we exited the trains, we actually split the main group into smaller groups that would be heading to different destinations for the first day. 

Some people were headed to Haedong Yonggungsa Temple, which is a sea temple with beautiful statues and view, while others headed to the Gamcheon Culture Village, a colorful replica of the beautiful colored homes of Rio De Janeiro. I had chosen to head to the temple.

After a quick ride on the tour bus, and with an amazing tour guide telling us all about the city and the local culture, we arrived at our destination. 

Greeting us was a short climb up to the temple. 

After many stairs we crossed a marble bridge where tourists were trying to land pennies into the mouths of the statues that were below the bridge. 

The temple complex is quite small, but packed full of wonderful things to see and do. 

I think it is best for the pictures to do the talking so here are some photos from my visit. 

After Dinner

After our trip from the temple, we headed back to our hotel. And for the first time, I encountered rush hour traffic in Korea. Standstill for half an hour, our bus took the normally 30-minute route back, in over an hour and a half. 

It wasn’t too bad. I am used to Los Angeles traffic after all. 

After crashing at our hotels for a bit, actually grabbed dinner in our hotel at a fabulous buffet restaurant on the second floor. I managed to get through 4 plates before succumbing to the worst food coma I have ever experienced. 

I will also note that the beds in our hotel have been the comfiest beds I have slept on in my 2 months in Korea. The beds back at SK Global House are extremely firm which is something I dislike greatly.

Late Night Pochas 

Before I get into what we did for our late night activity, let me explain what a pocha is. Pocha, the shortened slang for Pojangmacha (포장마차), is a name for a food stall operated in market streets of historical areas. They are endangered within the regions of Seoul as some consider them as relics of the past and eyesores in a modern, futurist city. 

However, within Busan, especially in the older parts of the city, they are thriving. They are a common place for people to grab a quick snack and sharing soju and beer. 

We decided to visit one and to warn you, if you don’t speak Korean fluently, it might be difficult for you to order or ask the person running the pocha for help. As a person who is learning the language, either having a friend who can speak Korean or having Papago can be a huge help. 

We started our night at a local bar/eatery where we got a local snack that I cannot for the life of me, remember the name but here’s a picture. 

We then moved on through the market where we settled down an one of the many pochas and enjoyed the food and snacks that we purchased.

After filling our stomachs, we caught the last train of the night, and headed back to our hotels were we promptly crashed onto our beds and went to bed.

To be continued…