Election Day in Busan

On Wednesday work was canceled, so Diana, her friend Rebecca and I went to the south of Korea to the city of Busan.  Busan is the second largest city in Korea and is popular for its beaches.  We took the high-speed train there from Daegu.  One-way is only 11,000 won and takes about 1 hour. 

 

When we arrived in Busan, we searched the Russian district for some pierogies.  With the help of my friend back home and some friendly Russian people, we managed to find the pierogie restaurant after looking around and walking in circles for about an hour.  They were worth the effort.  We even managed to get some sour cream.  The Russian district was very nice during the day, but I've been told it's not very safe at night.  There were quite a few Filipino restaurants in that area too.

After the delicious pierogies, we took the subway to Haeundae beach.  It's very popular in the summer and I've been told up to 1 million people cram onto this small beach during the busy season.  It was  a beautiful day, but still a little chilly so not too many people were there.

Haeundae Beach, Busan

We walked along the beach and took pictures.  I took off my shoes and rolled up my pants so I could test how cold the water was.  It surprisingly wasn't too bad.  I think Wasaga beach in the summer is much colder.  Unfortunately, my efforts to spare my clothes from getting wet were unsuccessful and my pants got soaked.

Me in the chilly waters of the South Sea

Later on, we checked out the Busan Aquarium.  It's really neat.  The whole thing is underground and right next to the beach.  The highlights for me were the penguins, the zebra eel and the gigantic crabs.  They also let you pick up jellyfish and there are tunnels surrounded with water so the sharks and stingrays swim all around you.  It was definitely worth the visit.

  

After catching the sunset on the beach, we went to a Turkish restaurant called Saray.  It turned out to be ridiculously expensive for mediocre food we received.  I ordered a plate of humus for 6,000 won.  It ended up being a very small plate and they didn't even give me  anything to dip in the humus.  They told me I had to buy the bread, which was another 4,000 won.  $10 for humus and bread is absolutely ridiculous.  I told them that that was stupid and after some convincing, they gave me some bread to dip in the humus.  Definitely never going to eat there ever again.      

Sunset at Haeundae Beach