korea adventures
Weekly updates about the things I'm up to. Mainly so my grandma doesn't worry too much about me.
I can't believe that I only have a little over a month left of being in Korea! Midterms are done, but I've had more papers recently. I went to Busan at the end of the week.
On Monday, I went to two places in Sharosu-gil that I've been wanting to try. This placed called Cafe Mignon had a beautiful display of fake food that I've walked past quite a few times. The tarts on display were not the same as the ones they had for sale inside, and sadly they didn't have the exact one I wanted. I only wanted one tart, but the worker told me that if I want it for take out, I need to get a minimum of two tarts. I ended up trying apricot and earl gray. The apricot one was delicious, but the earl gray one tasted like alcohol. The second place I picked up food from was Dos Tacos. It was like any other Mexican restaurant I've been to. A lot of restaurants are located on the second floor, and Dos Tacos is one of the restaurants. On Tuesday, one of my friends sent me a TikTok of this user named annainseoul. Her videos have gone viral recently because she mixes the bagged drinks from the convenience stores. After seeing that video, I was inspired to try her drink creation. I bought a bagged chocolate milk, a bottle of strawberry milk, and a cup of ice, and I mixed it all together. I basically made strawberry chocolate milk, and it was delicious! I also bought curry udon. The next day, I went back to the convenience store to buy another bagged drink and cup of ice. Each convenience store sells different flavors, but I like the variety the CU's carry compared to the GS25's. I bought a Jeju Hanrabong Ade, which was basically like a Hi-C Orange. On Thursday, the air quality was really bad. I was in desperate need for food, so I went for a quick walk to try and find something to eat. I found a hotteok stand near SNU station, but they only had the sweet one. It was only 1,000 won, so I decided to buy it. I also bought a wrap from Paris Baguette and a hot and spicy flavored sun chips from 711. The sun chips were also recommended on the annainseoul tiktok account. On Friday afternoon, I headed up to Seoul Station to take the KTX train to Busan. The KTX trains are high speed trains that travel long distances across Korea. Seoul Station is huge, but it is pretty easy to find the KTX trains if you follow the signs. When buying train tickets, they don't tell you what platform number your train departs from, so you have to wait for your train number to appear on a screen. Only the trains soon to be departing are displayed on the screen, so it doesn't help much to arrive at Seoul Station too early. Our platform number was not displayed until around 20 minutes before our departure time. I ate lunch at McDonald's and bought a sandwich from Paris Croissant, which I was planning to eat on the train. The train ride was about 2.5 hours, and a guy sitting behind me said that I couldn't eat. We arrived in Busan around 7PM, and it was an hour train ride to our hotel near Haeundae Beach. We stayed at an Ibis Ambassador, which was a reasonable price per night. However, hotels in Asia are pretty strict about the number of people who stay in each room. The max number of people they would allow for the reservation was 2 people, so I had to hide while my two friends checked in. Luckily there was a McDonald's right across the street, so I bought a Plum Chiller to keep myself occupied while they checked in. On Saturday, I had a full day. I had a really good experience with the last Trazy tour I did to Nami Island, so I decided to do another tour in Busan. The tour was really good because the tour guide was very knowledgeable, and we were able to stop at the main attractions. I believe most Trazy tours have an English speaking tour guide and provide admission and bus transportation to all of the attractions. Although Busan does have public transportation, it does not come as frequently as Seoul, so it is often better to drive to reach the tourist destinations. The first place we went to was the Haedong Yonggunsa Temple. This temple is unlike other temples in Korea because it is on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The views from here were spectacular and reminded me of home. Our next stop was lunch and Taejongdae. The best part of these tours is that the tour guides are super knowledgeable, so they know the best places to eat! I had lunch at a Korean-Chinese restaurant and ate a delicious fried rice. Taejongdae is on the coast and is a bit of a hike down to a lighthouse. There is a beautiful view of the ocean and mountain, and it kind of reminded me of Pololu Valley in a way. Our third stop of the day was Songdo Beach Skywalk. This beach was the first beach opened to the public in Korea. From the beach, there were beautiful views of the city and ocean. The last stop of the day was Gamcheon Cultural Village. After the Korean War, many people moved to Busan, making this area very run down. Later, the government wanted to revitalize the area and encouraged artists to come and paint. Today, this village is known for the colorful buildings and is what I think of when I think of Busan. The views here were beautiful, especially since we came around sunset time. A vendor was selling something pretty innovative: a toasted marshmallow with ice cream inside. After a long day, we got dropped off at Haeundae Station. Sunday was our last full day in Busan. For breakfast, we ate at McDonald's. I had a decaf latte, hashbrown, lettuce tomato egg muffin, and pancakes. We checked out Haeundae Beach before heading to the Busan Aquarium. Pro tip: always check online (Trazy or Klook) for discounts on tickets. The Busan Aquarium was pretty cool and had lots of decorations for photos. After, we went to Museum Dah. If you've ever been to TeamLab in Japan, this museum is similar but way smaller. The museum is very vibrant and focuses on digital art. It was located next to a Shinsegae, so we ate lunch in the basement. This was possibly the worst lunch I've had. I ordered a spaghetti salad, and according to the picture, it looked like I would get iceberg lettuce with spaghetti and tomato sauce. I was very wrong. I got noodles with spicy kale. We also went to Yongdusan Park to see Busan Tower. There wasn't anything too exciting here, and it was quite a hike to get to the park from the train station. We went down a random elevator and were lead to a shopping street that looked just like Myeongdong. We bought boba at Gong Cha and shopped around for a bit. There was even a group playing music! After a long day, we headed back to our hotel.
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AuthorStudying abroad at Seoul National University! Archives
December 2021
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