Chuseok 2015

This year for the Chuseok holiday (Korean Thanksgiving), I took a trip with some friends to Busan. Even though I've lived in Korea for a year, Busan was a major place I never got around to traveling to. When we went for Chuseok at the end of September, the weather was perfect for playing on the beach, exploring the city, and playing with fireworks at night. I'm really happy about how this vacation panned out considering we planned it all a few days prior to leaving. We booked the hostel and bought bus tickets the day before our departure. If you've ever lived in Korea during a major holiday, you will understand how amazing that is--usually buses and accommodations are booked weeks in advance. Flights are book months in advance. Even though we procrastinated, the trip was so good, I wouldn't have changed a thing.

Gunsan to Busan! A four hour bus ride

After spending a fair amount of time staring at maps of the city and subway upon arriving at the bus terminal, we felt confident in our ability to find the famous Jagalchi fish market. This probably doesn't sound too exciting if you're not into fish. Of course we weren't planning on buying any fish but it was interesting to see such a variety of sea creatures for sale! 

In the spirit of being so close to the coast and being at a famous fish market, we decided to grab some dinner while we were there. It's not often that I go out for dinner in Korea and order this particular spread. Since we were on vacation and in a new city, we were feeling adventurous. 

We ordered some assortment of fish and sannakji. Sannakji is often mistakenly called "live octopus." Really though, it's raw and freshly cut octopus. The octopus isn't alive but the cut pieces are still pretty....active. Unfortunately I don't have the video of me eating it but I wish I did so you could see how wiggly the pieces are. It was definitely a strange experience. Some of us liked it and some didn't care for it.

After dinner, we set out to explore the city more.

And we found hotteok (Korean sweet dessert pancake)! So tasty! 

Fresh hotteok!

As we continued to wander, we came across this lovely Buddhist temple.

Eventually we found Busan Tower. It's 118 meters high and luckily you get to the top by elevator! At the top, you get an incredible panoramic view of the coast.

Busan Tower in the background

Sam trying to kill me

Jump!

Do I really need to explain?

More street food...

The next morning we put on our swimsuits and set out for BEACH DAY. We went to two of the most popular beaches in Busan on this day: Haeundae and Gawangali.

Jump!

How does posing work?

We came across some interesting signs in Busan

Just taking a rest on the railraod

We followed the train tracks for a while and came across some very beautiful views

Chicken for lunch!

On our way to beach number two!

Another silly sign

Gwangwali beach

It was definitely cooling down by the time we reached Gwangali but we endured!

Full moon!

This was our view from the restaurant we settled on for dinner.

New hat!

For dinner, we went to the Fuzzy Navel, a chain Mexican restaurant in Busan.

My chimichanga! 

The other girls got tacos, which they weren't crazy about. Luckily my chimichanga was delicious

After dinner we stopped by a convenience store and bought fireworks because non of us had done fireworks on the beach before

I don't have pictures from the rest of the night but we just played on the beach more, went out for dessert, and ended the night with singing at a norebang (like karaoke). It was such a fun day!

For breakfast we came across a place that advertised an authentic Irish breakfast. It was a good start to the day. Western-style breakfast is hard to come by in Korea

Street food cardboard cutouts. Why not?

This was our last day in Busan. We decided to spend the day looking at the United Nations Korean War Memorial Park and Cemetery and a sculpture park nearby.

The memorial park was so beautiful and peaceful. It included graves of people around the world who died fighting for South Korea during the war.

Bonus picture of us on the subway! We spent a lot of time on the subway traveling to and from different parts of the city.

Most of my major trips in the past have been through big travel groups. It's convenient because then I don't have to worry about several logistics. However, I really enjoyed this trip. I feel more confident about planning future trips with small groups of friends now. Busan was a lot of fun. Playing on the beach and swimming in the ocean was a great way to say goodbye to Summer and welcome in Autumn.

See you next year, Summer!