My first trip while in Korea is in the books! This past week I visited Busan, the second largest city in Korea. Located in southeastern Korea, Busan has it all: mountains, beaches, temples, city life, and a great art scene! It was the ideal destination for my first trip.
Getting to Busan was a bit of a challenge. Since it was the weekend of Chuseok, the traffic was horrible on Friday night when we were trying to leave. It took my friend and I a
long time to get to the bus terminal and we were a little concerned we weren’t going to make it in time. However, we made it on time and got on the bus...which we then got kicked off of because it was the wrong bus. Right destination, wrong time. It was funny though because we were really impressed with the first bus we were on and were talking about how nice it was, but it didn’t even compare to the second bus. That bus was amazing! The chairs were full-on recliners and each person had their own TV and charging station. It was better than flying.
Once we got to Busan it was pretty smooth sailing. Our Airbnb was a short walk away from Gwangalli beach, one of the popular beaches in Busan. It’s known for its beautiful view
of the Diamond Bridge which lights up different colors at night. It was a fun place to be at night too because people were shooting off Roman candles on the beach. I’m not sure if it was to celebrate Chuseok or if that was a normal occurrence at Gwangalli Beach, the view of the fireworks and the view in the background was pretty cool. We spent a lot of time along the beach getting coffee, eating, or walking along the boardwalk. We also visited Haeundae Beach quite frequently. Haeundae Beach is Busan’s most famous beach and it’s a popular place to go to get some food or do some shopping. It was fun to be close to so many beaches and see everyone else enjoying the beach as well.
We were able to see a lot of the tourist attractions of Busan in the four days we had. The first day we went to a few markets. One of them was the Jagalchi Fish Market; this is Korea’s second largest seafood market. I’m not a big fish person, but it was really interesting
to walk around the market and see the seafood that was being sold. I saw several types of fish that I couldn’t even identify. Right across the street from the fish market was Nampo Dong Market. This was more of an everything type of market. They primarily sold clothing, but I also saw shoes, light fixtures, and hardware supplies. There were also street food booths set up along one street; we ended up getting some fruit on a stick that was covered with a hard, dried sugar. It was delicious! You could pretty much go to these markets and get anything you could ever need.
The next day we went to the Gamcheon Cultural Village. Originally a neighborhood built to house Korean war refugees and veterans, it was revitalized by the government in 2009 to become an art community and bring people back to the village. It’s also called the “Machu Picchu of Busan” because of the stairlike hill it’s built on. I absolutely loved the Cultural Village! It was so colorful, quirky, and did not cease to disappoint. There were so many different streets to explore and I could have spent days just wandering around. We got our fortunes for the next year at a little fortune dispenser depending on our Korean zodiac which was really fun because we had to crack open the ball to see the fortune inside. It was a great day exploring the Cultural Village.
On Monday we went to the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple. This temple is a big tourist attraction because it is one of the only temples in Korea that can be found along the sea as most temples are found in the mountains. The temple was beautiful! The details and the
vibrant colors were amazing and it was such a peaceful place even with the crowds of people. It was my first time visiting a temple and I highly enjoyed it.
Our last day of our Busan trip was a fun one. It had been beautiful days for the entirety of our trip until the last day when it was raining all day. We only had two umbrellas between the three of us, because I had forgotten mine, and we all got soaked. It definitely provided some added excitement to the day. The main activity of the day was visiting Museum DAH. It’s an interactive, multimedia art museum that is absolutely amazing! It was really only one big room, but every few minutes the artwork would change into something new and it felt as if you were in the art. It was such a cool experience and I could’ve spent the entire day just sitting in that room surrounded by the art. For anyone looking for things to do in Busan, I would highly recommend going to Museum DAH; it is well worth it.
As exciting as the museum was, the excitement of the day was only just beginning. When we were collecting our stuff to head to the bus stop to get back to Gwangju, I happened to look at my ticket and realized our ticket said we were leaving the following day… whoops. We got to the station as quickly as we could and luckily there was lots of room on the next bus home for us. We were even able to get our refund from the other tickets! Korea’s public transportation is amazing, now that we’ve figured it out:)
Overall, my trip to Busan was a great one and I think it is a must for anyone traveling to Korea. It’s pretty much got it all: great food, the ocean, the mountains, and plenty of tourist attractions. There is so much to see and I’ll definitely have to make a trip back there.
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