Busan Vacation - Last Day

The last day of our vacation was bitter sweet. On the one hand, it was a down pour all night and day and we hadn't brought anything to prepare for the weather. It was a pain carrying full backpacks, my guitar, Shelli's purse, and two umbrella's that we were forced to purchase to stay somewhat dry.  On the other hand, we had some new experiences...!

Its called a jjimjilbang (찜질방) and is basically a public bath/sauna. Until you experience it, it just sounds super weird and creepy. They are separated by genders so there isn't any funny business going on. The one we went to, Heosimcheong Spa (허심청), happens to be the largest hot spring fed spa in Asia.  And to be honest, I loved it, ha!

Epic picture taken from Haeundae Beach

Overall, we had a great trip. It was awesome traveling with Collin and Megan, and it was great seeing several members of the New Philly Busan church plant team. We walked away with several new experiences and tons of new memories. We both really appreciated the more slow-paced life of the city of Busan, the wide sidewalks, and the non-as-horn-crazy drivers. The beaches were nice and the food was awesome. Check out the slideshow movie below to see some of our most memorable moments!

Well... back to life in Seoul!

Busan Vacation - Day 3

I did my best. I'm not sure if I'm sore today from the volleyball yesterday, or from actually being sick. Whatever the reason, I didn't want to let it get me down! The running/stuffy nose and itchy eyes may have irritated me , but I didn't let it get in the way of rest and fun with my beautiful wife. After taking our time this morning, we went to the largest department store in the world (Guinness Book of World Record certified) - the Shinsegae Dept Store.

One thing to note here was how different they did there food court. We learned this one all on our own. :) It seems what you do is go to the Ticket counter and order food. They give you this little buzzer with a number, and then you stare at the screens until your number pops up next to the correct restaurant. From which you then head to the correct vender and get your food. Not really sure why they do it this way, I'm sure somehow its cost efficient - I just don't see it. The food was really good, though!

And then there are those things in Korea that, as a foreigner, you tend to stay away from while you're on your own. One of those things are fish markets. Before today, I can only imagine how silly a couple of foreigners would look trying to figure out the process on their own. Luckily, Caleb and Mina from the Busan church plant team had open enough schedules to get some grub with us. The process:

• choose a fish vender (from the multitudes!)
• choose several fish for the purpose of consuming
• pay for fish
• go up one floor and sit at a table
• eat the fish that were enjoying life only moments ago... raw and wrapped in sesame leaves
• eat the fish head soup that comes after the meal
• pay for use of the table and any side dishes separately
• go home full

Okay, so it doesn't seem too bad. But in the heat of the moment while miscommuncation is running its course - it gets to be hard to process what is occuring. Anyway, we were super thankful that we got to hang out with Caleb and Mina and grab some dinner and desert with them! It was an overall awesome day.

Busan Vacation - Day 2

The most comforting thought to me comes when I lay down to go to bed, and not have a specific time that I need to wake up. I love not setting an alarm! This morning we woke up at about 10:00 am, and it felt great! Except for some reason Shelli and I have been plagued by a runny and/or congested nose since we've been here. Bummer...

When we woke up, we drank some coffee, at some toast, and then walked about 5 minutes to the beach since the weather was awesome!



Panaramic picture taken with Photaf on my Android

We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was about 63 degrees with a slight wind - perfect for shorts and a long sleeve shirt. I even had to put sunblock on. We chilled and read for a while and then rented a volleyball and played a few games with Collin and Megan (of which Shelli and I lost). What was funny was we began to draw a Korean crowd (mostly ajoshis - old men), who would interrupt our game to try and give Shelli some pointers on how to play the game. :)

For lunch we ate some more seafood. We picked a random restaurant and a random dish on the menu. Shelli picked a delicious, hot squid soup with plenty of veggies. I ended up with a cold squid dish doused in sesami oil, soy sauce, and sugar. Definitely not my favorite. For some reason when we do things like that, she ends up picking a meal that ends up being larger, cheaper, and almost always better tasting then I do. Thankfully she's so sharing!

In the afternoon we ended up checking out the Busan Aquraium that was right on the beach. It was way better than I expected. We saw some amazing jellyfish, sharks, spider-crabs, porpoises, and more. It wasn't as good as some of the aquarium's back home -but it was definitely worth spending an afternoon at.

Tomorrow will be our last full day in Busan and Shelli and I have absolutely nothing planned. I think that would disappoint some people, but we are actually super excited for it. We may end up doing some reading, some shopping, more hanging out at the beach, take a long walk, go catch a movie, not sure yet. Whatever we end up doing will be great... because it's our vacation!

Busan Vacation - Day 1

Busan seems like a pretty sweet city. As soon as we stepped out of the subway station we noticed the air was significantly more fresh than what you would find in Seoul.  Hallelujah!

After only one day, it has already been a great trip. While on the subway, a little Korean toddler was jealous when she saw us munching on a piece of chocolate, so Shelli gave her a piece which instantly put a smile on her face as well as everyone else on the train car.

And it's cool to see restaurants everywhere, full of live fish and other sea creatures  just waiting to be chopped up and served fresh. Megan, one of the two others we are staying with while we are here, really doesn't enjoy seeing the fish just before they meet their doom...haha We sure are going to eat some great seafood while we are here!

As our first official vacation together, we have only made loose plans: maybe the aquarium, maybe a museum, relax at the beach, maybe read, but mostly just rest!

Regardless of what happens on this trip, we've already decided that it's going to be awesome no matter what because we are together. And to be honest, we feel so blessed to be such best friends. We literally could do nothing for thee next few days and I am confident that we would have an incredible time together!

PS - sorry for the randomness of this post-it's a bit difficult to get my thoughts out using a cell phone...