It was up bright and early this morning to head on a day trip to Busan. This was an ambitious day as Busan is on the total opposite end to the country then Seoul. We made our way to Seoul Station where we would need to catch the HSR to Busan. The walk through the station took much longer then expected and even though we left the hotel at 6.20 we only made the HSR train by 5 min. I had pre-booked seats using our Korean Rail Pass so all we had to do is jump on and enjoy the 2 and a half hour train ride.
The trip through South Korea was pretty South Korea is a very green and mountainous country so it was great to look out the window and admire the world going by.
We arrived in Busan at exactly the scheduled time and stopped for a coffee at Hollys Coffee. Anthony already has a favourite drink at this place because we went yesterday too. After we were fuelled up we made our way to test Busan’s bus system.
It took 2 buses and about an hour and a half of travel time until we made it to Haedong Yonggung Temple. This is meant to be Korea’s most beautiful temple and to be honest it didn’t disappoint. The temple sits overlooking the coast. The sea waves add such relaxing drama to what is already a beautiful temple. We spent a fair bit of time taking photos. There is this part where you can throw coins in a fountain for good luck. After a few attempts none of us got them in. Then Rob had one turn and it plopped straight into the fountain bowl. So I guess he is the lucky one.
We grabbed some snacks on the way out. Anthony grabbed something random and it turned out to be Busan’s famous ssiathotteok, a delectable fried pastry stuffed with sugar, honey, nuts and sunflower seeds.l It was delicious. The lovely Korean lady gave us a free red bean treat too. Delicious. We were then back on the bus to traverse all the way back through town to make it to the Gamcheon Culture Village.
We stopped after the second bus to grab some food. There wasn’t much in the way of food so we decided to have Nene. However this is where the Chicken Incident of 2019 happened. Due to some bad translating and Google translate that did not translate correctly we ordered the most ridiculous amount of chicken. We sat in an Alley to eat some of it but had to give up due to the sheer volume of chicken.
We finally made our way to Gamcheon Culture Village. This area used to be the slums where all the War refugees from South Korea went during the war. In 2009 the residents all decided to pull together and repaint, add art works and tidy up the area in order to make it the Santorini of Korea or Busan’s Machu Picchu. Either way this are was a cool place to spend some free time. The area is bustling with lots of shops, art galleries and cafes dotted around the area. Everywhere you look there is somethings cute and amazing. There are also tons of photo ops scattered around. I would strongly recommend going there. After walking for a bit we noticed Rob was not feeling great so we headed back to the Train stop, grabbed some food and jumped on the train to head back to Seoul.
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