So back in June we had a long weekend celebrating Korean Independence day and Amy and I decided to go to Busan on the other side of Korea for the weekend.
Busan is the second larges city in South Korea with a population of approx 3.66 million and covering 763 sq km. It is port city located on the south east of the peninsular. Busan lacks the more cosmopolitan feel that you get in some of the other cities of Korea and the skyline is noticeably different with many high rise apartments and building that what I would have expected to find in such a large town. The whole place seems a little rougher than other similar cities but I found that it also has a charm of it own if you want to get away from all the hustle and bustle of places like Seoul.
Here is a slide show from my Picasa web album
Busan Trip 2008
We had a long weekend so we wanted to take the early KTX (Korean Bullet Train) on the Friday morning. Unfortunately we left the booking of the tickets till a little late in the episode so all we could get was first class. Actually they didn't really cost that much extra and it turned out to be a very very comfortable trip down there. All in all the trip took around 2 hours and we got in to Busan station at around 8am.
Once we got out of the station and got our bearing we decided to head down to the Jagalchi fish market to take a look while it was still early and all the fish were still fresh. It was starting to get warm at this time of year and the idea of walking round later in the day when it got hotter didn't really appeal to us. After a bit of a look at all the fresh and sometimes still wiggling fishies, we headed to Gukje Market to have a look but because it was so early everything was just opening so we somewhere to get some breakfast. While at breakfast we managed to organise some accommodation (yeah we kinda left everything until the last minute) and then headed up to Busan Tower to take in the view.
Because there was a lot of places that we wanted to see in Busan but we really didn't have any way to get around we decided to jump on the Busan tour bus. It cost 10000won for the day, and had two circuits. One went to the south going to Taejongdae and one going north to Haeundae. If anyone is heading to Busan I would recommend it as it heads to most of the good spots around the town. On the Friday we did the South circuit and went to 53 squares, Taejongdae and a few other touristy places. After we did those it was about time to call it a day so we headed to our Hotel. To be honest I don't remember that much about it. It was clean and quiet but nothing very special.
The next day we decided to hit the tour bus again to do the north route this time to go to Gwangan Beach which has a view of a particularly famous bridge which we also crossed later in the day on our way back to the station. After a nice walk along the beach and a bit of a rest and a cup of nice coffee form one of the many coffee shops dotting the foreshore we jumped on the tour bus again and headed for Haeundae beach which is said to be one of the nicest beaches in Busan. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised to find that that weekend was also the Haeundae Sand Festival. There were a number of professional and amateur sand sculptures, some of which were really amazing. They also had a number of band playing on a nice outdoor stage and all and all made for a really nice day. After a bit of lunch we also had a look at the Busan Aquarium which was situated under part of Haeundae beach. The Aquarium was really quite huge, but because f the crowds by the time we got out of there we were pretty beat and it was almost time for us to head back down town and catch the train home. We caught the tour bus once again for the final part of the route which took us across the bridge we could see from Gwangan beach. The view from the bridge was quite spectacular especially as it was getting close to sunset by the time we were going over it, however because we were unable to stop on the bridge I was not able to get any photos that did it justice.
Back at Busan station we arrived within plenty of time for train and grabbed a coffee and some snacks while we waited and just watched the people go by. We took the KTX on our return trip as well but this time we were in cattle class rather than first. But to be honest it was still a very comfortable trip.
Busan is a lovely city and I look forward to getting a chance to visit it again. However I think that it is somewhere that would be better to visit in the warmer months as I think the winter months would find the city quite cold and gray.
