SATURDAY BUSAN!! :-P

We had a couple of ideas of what to get into this weekend, but the main point was that we just absolutely had to leave the city. So after a week of weighing our options, figuring out costs, talking to Elien, forecasting the weather and putting bets on a typhoon, we decided that we would spend the day in Busan. Camping was our other option, but we decided to wait until we were a bit more prepared for that, perhaps wait until we had a tent, for example. :-)


So, Saturday morning we set off towards an amazing day of fun in Busan.

This is Albert :-)  He's the newest teacher in my building and was brave enough to join us on one of our excursions :-)

We met Elien in Samsan so that we could catch a bus out to Busan, but since the three of us hadn't really slept or bothered to feed ourselves, we headed out in search for food and, more importantly, caffeine.

Our noonish breakfast was at Paris Baguette.  Paris Baguette is a wonderful place filled with delicious, bready delights.    All of those tags even have the English names on them, which of course comes in handy.  Still, we had to circle the cases several times before we could possibly decide. 

Yum.  :-) 

A sweet loaf with fruit inside.  Could we just get one of everything???

Albert decided on a very elaborate and messy cream puff.  And since this is the blog of questionable/embarrassing photos, it had to be posted :-)

Lindie and I got these soft and doughy rolls filled with cream cheese.  It's as healthy as running a mile, I promise.  :-)  Very nice.

Elien met us here and began the labor intensive process of dragging three whiny foreigners through various forms of public transport in order to get to the beach.  I don't think she knew what she was getting herself into :-)

Also, we got these twists filled with cream cheese (we get bagels with cream cheese in the mornings now after Korean lessons, so I guess we were both craving it. ) Lindie was a bit surprised at how sweet the cream cheese was. . .we were both a bit mislead by the melted cheese on the outside :-) I thought it was delicious, but I really, really love sweet things :-)

So, after a bus ride for about an hour, we got to the subway station that would take us the rest of the way.  

Lindie and Albert had never been on a subway before, so of course, we had to take a picture :-)

This was Lindie's solution to "Don't lose your ticket!" :-)

A convenience store had a version of Red Bull on sale for 2 for less than a dollar, so we stocked up.  This was on the first part of our subway adventure. 

Not sure why Lindie is looking at me like she might be plotting my demise, but here was a picture on the subway :-)  All caffeinated and ready to go :-)

So, we rode on the subway for a while, then transferred, and transferred again, and again and then finally (when we were thoroughly turned around) we walked out from underground and into the brilliantly beautiful day!  We made it!! :-)  The beach :-)

How beautiful is this?? 

Since we were sort of planning on spending the afternoon there, we decided to rent a parasol.  I don't think we actually used it. . .but it was fun to have one :-)    Plus, it was right on the first row, so it was easy to keep an eye on our stuff.  So, prepared with a parasol and our very favorite tubes, we headed out into the cool water :-)

Yay dodo tubes :-)  Poor Elien had quite a day, I think :-)  Every five seconds it was "hey, Elien, what's that?", "what's this?", "what does that say?", "I'm hungry!", "where's a shower?", "where are we going?" she was tour guide, translator, teacher, everything for us :-)   I think we asked her a million questions :-)  She's fantastic and it was really cool having her along :-)

Dodo Tubes!!  :-) 

This was a little guy that Albert chased around for a while trying to get a picture.  We thought he looked like a little RoboCob and was just too cute :-)  He finally got him :-)

There weren't a lot of waves here, but it was crazy because when we would get pushed back onto the shore these crazy waves would throw us way up on the beach.  It was awesome :-) 

The beach was beautiful, and the city right behind it was great as well.  It feels like California in Busan :-)

Beautiful day at the beach :-)

So, while we were lazing about on our tubes, we each tried to stand up on them (Albert and Elien pulled it off, I failed more than miserably) Albert did a back flip off of his, we found a foreigner's wallet, tried to teach Elien to swim (I also failed miserably as a swimming teacher. . .) tried to dump each other off, napped, and did all the normal tube activities, we decided it was time to shower, get dry, and find something to eat.

Usually, when we're at the beach, Lindie and I can find a shower that's just somewhere on the beach itself, but this time we didn't see one.  We did see a building where you could pay 1,000 Won (or about $1) and you could shower in there.  We figured, why not, and headed off to get showers.  Now, although I had read about it on people's blogs before I got here, for some reason the absolute furthest thing from my mind was that we would walk in and everyone would be in there stripped down to the skin. Literally, did not occur to me, and I think seeing a room full of aliens would have shocked me less :)  But then, those of you who know me know that I am self conscious to the point that it's nearly a disorder.  Elien said that it was okay and that I could totally stay dressed and I totally thought that was a great idea.  And Lindie saved the day by literally making a towel dressing room for me so that I could get changed (I owe you big for that one) :-)  and we all made it out of there in one piece, clean, and changed, and ready to find some food.

Burger King was right across the street from where we were, and Albert had never had it, so that's where we went :-)

Yay, Burger King! :-)

Burger Lips.

We were pretty much starving.

After we finished eating we explored the streets a little.  Lindie mentioned that this was actually where we hung out together the first time, only on a different beach, but ironically we had eaten at the same Burger King.  :-)  The time before, however, we were in a huge hurry to get to the other beach and hadn't been able to look around at all the cool stuff in town.  So, off we went.

Lindie and Albert found a street game, and they became street game addicts/celebrities instantly :-) 

They started attracting some attention with their incredible dedication.

More of an audience :-)

These games didn't give them anything, so we went across the street to more games.  Maybe they would be better.

This one was filled with gum.  Gum!!  :-)  It didn't love me, though.  I thought for sure it had enough to share!

A new machine.  I'm pretty sure they were devising a fool proof plan to beat the machine.

They didn't beat the machine.  So, they tried another tactic :-)

After we finished getting bested by street games we found a market.  There was so much to see!  I think we had sensory overload by the time we got to the other end :-)

Lindie found some beef :-)  Yum :-)

Food, fish, meat, socks, pig's snouts, fruit, kitchen utensils, clothes, living things, dried things, things in tanks, things on sticks, everything.  So much to see :-)

I never thought that I would really love fluorescent lights in the city, but there's something really exciting about see all of them.  Maybe it's because I don't really have any idea what they say, everything is just a bright promise of something new and exciting :-)

This was a sign at a department store that we found particularly entertaining.  Just look at all these people.  They're so amusing.  We had stories for all of them by the time a cab picked us up to get to the next beach :-)

Cab ride! :-)

I forget how long we were in this cab, it wasn't long, but it was long enough to get a camera out, take pictures and videos, and get incredibly silly :-)

Messy, tired foreigners :-)

I wonder if the cab driver felt left out. . . :-)

The next beach we went to had this beautiful bridge stretching across it.  Just for the record, nearly all of these night pictures are Albert's.  :-)  THANKS ALBERT!  :-)

Isn't it beautiful??

Gorgeous.  :-)

This is a fortune teller.  There were several of them siting on the beach.  If you give him your name and birthday then he'll give you your fortune.  The only problem is that we don't have Korean names.  Oh well :-)

This was so cool.  It was a machine that took a picture at this really pretty part of the beach, and it was free :-)  it just emailed the picture the us :-)

And here's the picture it took!  :-)  Isn't that cool?? :-)

We couldn't get fortunes from the teller on the beach, but there was a machine that had the next best thing AND it was in English! :-)  This, I think, was Lindie's.  At least her lucky items :)

This was mine.  Lucky hobby: emotional things.  I think that's about right :-)  I need to find out with a Turkey stone is. . .

This was Elien's.  I love her lucky place "nearby;" she'll never actually be there, but she'll always be close.

Back on the beach, they had an exhibit up of a bunch of heads sticking up out of the sand.  It was very dark, but they were all different and so interesting.  :-)

Various religious symbols

Hands :-)

There was also one made of books, pockets, Disney symbols, all sorts of thing.  They were so interesting :-)

Next to beautiful trees with Christmas lights :-)  Fantastic boardwalk. 

Bridge :-)  We are a hot mess.

Rockstars :-)

awesome day :-)

I just couldn't get over how beautiful this was :-)    People were shooting off fireworks as well . . .but those pictures really didn't turn out :-)

Where's Lindie??  :-)

This was pretty cool, on the beach they had lights that scrolled out an advertisement like the beginning of Star Wars.  Seems like it would be pretty hard to read. . .but maybe if you were a little higher you could read it. 

Back on the subway.  We were wiped out.  Completely.  This was our reflection in the window across from us :)

I think this pretty much sums it up.  :-)  Also, I think that kid is melting into the wall :-)

Just in case you were curious what the inside of the subway looked like :-)

At this point we were beginning to get a bit silly and giggly.  They were playing with their reflection to see how fast they could make all three.  Awesome :-)

So, when we made it out of the subway station we still had about an hour in the bus and we were sleepy, sleepy :-)  But it was a fantastic day :-)