After a long day of travel, several delays and not much more than three hours’ sleep, we finally landed in South Korea at around 8am. First challenge was figuring out public transport while half-asleep, but thankfully a kind newsagent took pity on us and helped us top up a Korean T-card and pointed us in the direction of the metro. Once we were on the trains, it was all surprisingly easy—everything is clearly signed in both Korean and English, and there are handy indicators showing where the train is, which carriages are full, and even what side the doors will open. We had to take three trains to get to our hostel, but it all went very smoothly considering how tired we were.
Our day got even better when we arrived at the hostel and found we’d been upgraded to a private room and could check in straight away. We gratefully went back to sleep for a few hours before heading out to explore.
First stop was a nearby shopping mall—perhaps not the most cultural choice, but necessary! We’d gone from 32°C in the Philippines to just 11°C in Busan, so we spent a few hours buying jeans, jumpers and coats. Not sure how we’re going to fit it all in our bags, but we’ll deal with that later. Obviously we also stopped to admire the sweet treats and treated ourselves to a very pretty strawberry and cream croissant.
Once we were sufficiently layered up, we went in search of a proper meal and found a restaurant serving kimchi and beef hotpot. It came with loads of side dishes and was very tasty—meant to be for two people, but we still couldn’t finish it all. We also realised metal chopsticks are so much harder to use than wooden ones, so we’re basically back to square one on that front. It was an interesting eating experience we had no idea what pairs with what, or how to eat certain things, and I even managed to nearly blow my head off by not recognising wasabi and adding a big blob to a mouthful of food.
After lunch we headed to a park that was supposed to have lots of cherry blossom trees. We’d just missed the main season of them but there were still a few blossoms hanging on. We also found a cool samurai statue and plenty of stray cats for Grace to befriend. Later we found out why all their ear tips are clipped, it’s to show they’ve been neutered/spayed, which was interesting to learn.
On the way back to the hostel we popped into one of the many claw machine arcades (they’re everywhere here) before calling it a day. We’d planned to go to a drone show on the beach that evening, but it was cancelled due to extreme wind and rain, we even got warnings about it on our lhones, so instead we went back to the warm hostel, had gloriously long hot showers and brushed our teeth with tap water! Such a novelty after so long without it. Then it was straight to bed.
For our second day we took the train up to the town of Beomeosa, in the far north of Busan. After a bit of miming with a helpful shopkeeper we discovered there was a nice woodland walk to the temple, so we decided to follow it. It was a peaceful hour-long stroll and we passed lots of older locals out for walks or stretching—it seems the older generation here are very active.
Beomeosa Temple is still an active Buddhist temple, and since it was the weekend, there were no guided tours running and about 100 people were there to worship. We were still allowed to explore and wander through the beautiful old wooden buildings, all strung with colourful paper lanterns. It would have been nice to know more of the history, but it was still a lovely visit.
We stopped by a street market on the way back and picked up a pot of sticky spicy chicken to share —absolutely delicious, we regretted not getting one each.
In the afternoon we visited Gamcheon Culture Village, a colourful, coastal neighbourhood filled with art shops and cafés. We wandered the winding streets taking photos and enjoying a hot chocolate before deciding to get a little portrait done by a street artist. We’d seen someone else get theirs and it looked amazing, so we paid ₩35,000 (£20) and sat for ours. The artist spent ages measuring our faces and even stared deep into our eyes to get the colour right. Unfortunately, despite all of the inspections, the final result didn’t look much like either of us—maybe she wasn’t used to painting Western faces—but we still liked it and it makes for a fun keepsake.
That evening we joined a little hostel group for a Korean BBQ—one German woman and two Swiss guys. It was great fun, grilling meat at the table and trying different side dishes. I also decided to try the rice wine, expecting something light, but it turned out to be more like a small bottle of vodka. Apparently it’s common to mix it with beer here, but I went for coke instead, but the others said it was nice in beer too. After dinner we ended up across the road in a cocktail bar and had a really fine evening staying out until 1am! One round we all ordered drinks for the person to our left with the rule that it had to be something they hadn’t tried yet. I got a super sweet candy one, while Grace got a cocktail that was proudly described as tasting like “soil.” We assumed it was a mistranslation. It wasn’t.
Understandably, day three started a bit slower. We spent the morning writing postcards before heading to a traditional market for lunch. We shared another sticky chicken dish, a tempura squid stick, and some pork and kimchi dumplings. All delicious.
After lunch we headed to the beach, though it was too chilly for sunbathing. We strolled along the promenade in our coats and watched people building sand sculptures for an upcoming competition. It was a strange but cool contrast to see skyscrapers right next to the sea.
We tried to ride one of the cute two-person train pods we’d seen on overhead tracks earlier, but being the weekend they were all booked up. Instead, we grabbed seats on the slower coastal tourist train which left in about an hour and a half. We filled the time with hot drinks and I tried mochi in the form of — a chocolate mochi -covered strawberry it was a bit chewy and didn’t taste of much. Probably won’t get it again, but not bad as a one-off try.
The train ride was just a slow plod along the coast and there wasn’t loads to see, which was probably good as we both fell asleep for the first half of the train ride, which the Korean ladies next to us found hilarious. At least we saw the view on the return journey!
For dinner, we stopped at a little restaurant on the walk back to the hostel. It wasn’t in a touristy area so there was no English menu and the staff didn’t speak any either. We attempted to mime “whatever you think for two people” to the very patient waiter, and ended up with another BBQ and a selection of sides. There was also a jug of mystery liquid we assumed was water, but it tasted very sesame-y—possibly oil? Not entirely sure if we were supposed to be drinking it or not, we played it safe and ordered cokes.
On our final morning in Busan we got up early to squeeze in a few last sights before our afternoon flight. First was another seaside culture village, which looked very cute in the early morning light even though all the shops were still closed. The chilly weather and quiet streets made it feel a bit like an English seaside town out of season.
Next we took the cable car ride along the coast, which was fun and gave us a great view of the city—though the glass-bottom floor over the ocean was a bit unnerving! At the top we had a quick walk around the sea walkway before catching the cable car back.
Our last stop was the fish market, which I was dreading slightly (based on past experience of smelly fish markets). But it was actually fine—cool weather plus live seafood meant no terrible smell! We had a fun wander nosing around the tanks of fish and octopus before heading back to the hostel to grab our bags and head to the airport for our flight to Jeju.
More on that soon! Love, Alice x