Holiday weekend in Busan

March 1st is Liberation Movement Day here in Korea. Basically it just means you have the day off and people put flags outside. Because it was on a Friday, Dallas and I started to plan something to do for the weekend. We had a debate between Busan, where we have both been before, and Daejeon. We researched it a bit, but couldn't really find anything to do in Daejeon. Then, when talking with Amanda on Wednesday, added Jeonju (a traditional city) in the mix. At lunch on Wednesday we decided that we (me, Dallas and Amanda) would go to Jeonju on Friday, then to Busan on Saturday and back to Jinju Sunday morning. Liezle and possibly Suzette were also going to join us in Jeonju. This didn't happen.

On Friday morning I woke up early, showered, finished packing and got ready to leave when Liezle called saying that she missed her bus and didn't know what to do about joining us. I told her I'd talk to the others and see what was happening. I left my house to get cash out because I currently had $6 in my wallet. Then I was going to get some girl supplies and meet Dallas at the bus stop. That's when things took a different turn - my card expired. I never noticed the expiration date, but the atm rejected the card and I couldn't use any other form of bank stuff because all the banks were closed for the holiday. So I called Dallas to see if he could/wanted to cover me for the weekend or cancel it. He covered me but while we were talking we decided to alter the plans and skip Jeonju because it was kind of rainy and cold, and just head to Busan. So I called Amanda and Liezle to tell them about the switch in plans. Amanda was still in; Liezle decided to meet Suzette in another city instead.

Dallas met me at the bus stop between our houses and I said it felt weird because I didn't like having to rely on him to pay for everything (even knowing I would pay him back) and he said that it's usually the other way around (i.e. I take care of stuff for him) and to just deal with it. Then we got to the bus terminal and bought tickets. Amanda made it right before the bus left. I fell asleep for a little bit and Dallas played Catan on his phone during the trip. Luckily the traffic wasn't bad and we got there in a little less then 2 hours. Dallas and I were hungry, but Amanda wasn't so he bought a banana to tide himself over for bit. Then we hopped on the subway and rode it to Shinsigae mall. Before we showed Amanda the mall, Dallas tried to hide his umbrella in a hole behind some lockers so that he wouldn't have to carry it around all day. Then we ate a kebab as a snack, Dallas bought some gym shorts and a hat that I think makes him look like a New Kids on the Block member circa 1991 or the Fresh Prince of BelAir. Next we went to the bookstore and I looked at Zac Effron pictures in GQ. Then we got coffee and saw someone signing autographs in the middle of the mall - she was in and out within 20 minutes because on the escalator ride back down, she was gone and most of her set-up was down too. Koreans are expedient when it comes to setting up/taking things down. Then we went to find Dallas's umbrella, but it was gone. Oh well. That's when I saw these 2 boys in a cart with no apparent parent near them. They seemed to be alright though. This was also the first picture I've taken on my new phone (post about that later).

I'm getting one if I see them on sale again. I wonder how you declare a kid on your customs form?

After the mall, we got back on the subway and rode the rest of the way to Haeunde beach. The motel Dallas usually stays in was under renovation and the 2 that I've stayed in before no longer were there so we found another random one called "Magic Motel" that turned out to be pretty nice except for the fact that you can partly see in the bathroom when someone takes a shower. We dropped our stuff off and headed towards Donggun Younggun-sa - the temple by the sea that I went to last year with my mom. Neither of them had been, so I was willing to go again. We decided to take a cab because we couldn't really find the bus. Traffic was horrible and it took 15-20 minutes to get there, which would have been awful on a bus. Luckily our driver was willing to cut around people etc. and got us there faster than others probably could have. We also saw a different beach that looks really nice and we will try out in the summer.

When we got to the temple it was mega crowded. We saw a back line however and just bypassed a ton of people. The experience was very different from the one I had with my mom. We went near Buddha's birthday and there were lanterns up everywhere. There were also hardly any people. I'm not sure if it was because Friday was a holiday, or because spring is starting and it was finally a nice day or what, but it was packed.

View of the main temple grounds from the stairs

Bamboo kept hitting Dallas in the face - this is on the stairs to the temple

Lines of people on the stairs

Statues on the way in - Korean pose!

Cutest little kid on a horse

Then Amanda on the horse

Dallas making a wish. He missed the bucket by a mile.

Little statues and figurines were all around the temple site

Me and the happy gold Buddha. He was under construction or something when I went last time.

We walked all around and took pictures, then went over to the other side which is apparently (according to a pamphlet I found later) a Buddha of traffic safety. We climbed out on the rocks and I took lots of pictures of Dallas pretending to be in prom pictures. The funniest part was that we were under a bridge so all the Koreans were staring at him posing. I'm surprised the pictures even came out since I was laughing so hard.

See

Amanda contemplating something

Dallas made fun of me because he says I do this awkward shy stance a lot.

We walked down the big hill and tried to take the bus back to save some money. There was already a line and the man behind us said it'd be another 15 minutes before the bus came. It was starting to get chilly at that point. When the bus got there, people started shoving trying to get on it. The bus was close to full already. We decided to just start walking and catch a cab later on down the road. When the bus passed us maybe 10 minutes later, people were pressed in the doors and windows. We hailed a cab coming from the other direction and went home. It was another $15 cab ride, but still beat trying to get in that bus. We then decided to go back to the hotel to get jackets before we headed out again. We didn't really have plans, but wanted to eat and maybe go to a quiet bar for awhile or get some cards and sit on the beach.

That's when things got awkward and I'm about to share a tmi story. Part of the reason I wanted to get cash out that morning was so that I could go to the corner store and buy tampons because I was almost out. Having no cash and no card meant having to ask Dallas for his. This is that conversation (or at least what I remember):
Me - Umm. So I was hoping not to have to do this, but can I borrow your card?
Him - What?
Me - I need to get something and I don't want to ask you to buy it.
Him - Oh. Do you need a tampon?
Me - Yes. Well, no. Not just one. (to Amanda) Can you even buy just one?
Him - I don't know these things (hands me the card, but then proceeds to walk in the store with me). Do they even have them here?
Me - Yes. (I run into a rack of umbrellas as I'm walking to the counter).
Counter guy - Sorry!
Me - It's ok.
Dallas (laughing) - Did he just say sorry to you for buying tampons?
Me - No. It's because I just ran into that thing. (I hand the card back).

None of this was embarrassing (at least not to me, not sure about Dallas, Amanda or the counter guy) in terms of these things happen. But I don't necessarily like dragging people into dealing with my uterine issues. After getting coats and/or changing, we went to dinner at Fuzzy Navel because we wanted something not Korean. They were out of avocados so we couldn't get the thing we wanted, but ordered food anyway. It was also still during special time, so we got discount margaritas. Dallas ordered a FN one (for fuzzy navel which was listed as a regular one) but ended up with a green apple one. Amanda and I had strawberry and it was interesting because they salted the rim instead of sugaring it like most bars in the States - I like the salt so I was happy. We stayed there and chatted through another round, telling some interesting stories, then headed over to Thursday Party.

Apple and strawberry margaritas. I ate all the fruit.

That bar was fairly empty and Dallas and I introduced Amanda to beer pong. She and I were a team, but she doesn't drink beer, so I drank for us. Dallas beat us by one cup. Then we played darts (501, then cricket). That's when we introduced Amanda to Long Islands. Dallas won both sets of darts too. Then he and Amanda played some Koreans guys in foosball while I texted Liezle to see how her day went. At that point we were all kind of tired so we went home and fell asleep. Before we fell asleep, Dallas informed me that my shoes smelled like cat pee, which is why I then emailed my mom to ask her to send me some sneaker balls :)

The next morning I woke up at 8 because the sun was shining in our window. Dallas shut the dark wood window, but I never really fell back asleep, so at about 9:30 or so I got up and showered while they were still asleep. When I was almost dressed, Amanda woke up and got ready. I woke Dallas up at that point to see if he wanted to meet us somewhere and keep sleeping or if he wanted to get up. He got up and showered while we finished packing and watched the end of The Devil wears Prada. We then went to a sandwich shop for breakfast, but they ran out of eggs for breakfast sandwiches and Dallas ended up getting a beef and eggplant one (which was much better than the ham and egg one so he lucked out).

Then we walked to Haeundae beach and the girls took our shoes off to walk in the sand. At the end of the beach, we reshoed and walked the wooden path along the coast (I've done this 2 times before). Again it was super crowded and some parts felt like we were cattle.

View of the beach and coastline from the walkway

Dallas climbed over a fence to get this picture. He wanted to wait until all the kids left so that he wouldn't be a bad influence on them.

This time we decided to go into this observation tower thing that turned out to be a meeting place for some big conference. Then we walked along the coast there and through a cute little park and finally onto a pier of sorts. That's when we decided to walk (instead of taking the subway) to the beach on the opposite side of the waterway (Gwangali).

Light house

It was very sunny. That's Gwangalli bridge and the observation thing behind me

G. Dubs went to the conference

The bridge and park area

Dallas called this the "concrete jungle". I wouldn't mind that view.

Fisherman on the pier

On the way we passed some interesting statues, Dallas broke a button off his coat, we got some coffee, had a pine cone fight and Dallas pretended to be a raptor. The whole walk was probably around 5 miles and took us somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. It was really nice and we didn't rush at all.

Cool statue of a head

Check out this robot's butt

That's Dallas under the robot so you can see how big it is.

raptoring

Posing on a rock at the end of being a dinosaur

Had to do the "king of the world" pose

When we got to the beach, we were all hungry so we stopped in a burger place because they had a sign out front for $10 burgers. When we walked in it was a pretty swanky place and we all had backpacks and were sweaty. They had napkins on the table folded like crowns, so I made Dallas wear his for a minute and the wait staff all laughed at us. Then I practiced folding little napkins into crowns. I forget already :( The burgers were pretty good and came with a good salad and a couple of potato wedges.

Crown napkin. Not sure about the hands.

After eating we walked to the subway and caught the bus home. It was rather full and originally Dallas and I were sitting across the aisle from each other, but the man sitting next to Dallas offered to move so that we could sit together. I figured he just didn't want to listen to us talk the whole time, but he was really nice about it. I fell asleep for 20-30 minutes solid, then was in and out for another 30 minutes or so. Dallas played some more Catan and fell asleep. Amanda slept too but said she had to elbow the girl next to her a couple of times. When we got back to Jinju, Amanda had to leave to go to a birthday party. I went home and showered, studied a bit and organized some pictures. Then I went to Dallas's and we played some more Catan. I feel like he must have cooked something, but I honestly can't remember - maybe I just ate cereal before I went over. We split games that night.

While it wasn't what we had planned, the Busan trip was just about perfect - no drama, good friends, something new in a city I've seen before, nice weather. And Jeonju is still on my list of places to go :)