Visiting Dynamic Busan: What to See in Busan, South Korea

On the bus home from Busan. We arrived yesterday a little after 12 noon. Sitting here on the bus I feel like we were there for a whole week as I try to recall everything we have seen and done and sum it up into a blog post. Busan is amazing!


Tom, our good buddy, proved to be an extraordinary tour guide. He met us at the bus terminal. The bus took exactly one hour. We took the subway to a large indoor fish market. We walked through and saw (and smelled) some of the most bizarre sea creatures imaginable. Stepping over puddles of water, stepping around groups of Korean women crouched down hacking away at fish.

From there, we walked to Lotte, an enormous and overwhelming department store of about 11 floors jam packed with people. In the middle of this circular building was an 11 story tall fountain which put on the most interesting and colorful show to opera style music. We watched for awhile in amazement and then slowly made our way to the top of the building via escalators. Behold, at the top of this building was a park, coffee shop and the most breathtaking view of Busan. I won't even try to describe this view. I have never seen such a dense sprawl of buildings in my entire life. The pictures that I have taken don't do it justice. I stood atop this building looking over miles of buildings. After this unbelievable view, we had a delicious lunch at The Pho. Steve and Tom had pho and I had pineapple fried rice. More walking and back to Tom's apartment for a breather.

We took a chilly evening beach stroll to Fuzzy Navel for some Korean beer. Off to dinner at a Korean bbq. We had four of the most delicious cuts of marinated meat with various veggies and side dishes. Yum! Off to 700 beer to meet a few of Tom's friends and then Nore-bang (karaoke)! I was very excited about Nore-bang. For $13 you get a room with couches, a huge flat screen, and hundreds of songs. It was a blast!

Sunday we decided on a hike with a view of the beach. It was a pretty strenuous hike, but worth every painful moment for the amazing vista points along the way. Some of the vista points were so peaceful that I could have sat for hours staring out across the ocean with mountains and city views in the distance. At one vista point there were large hula hoops and exercise equipment. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but, amidst a strenuous hike why not exercise even more? Koreans seem to be very fit and healthy.
We made our way to a cool beach down in search of a delicious cheeseburger. Unfortunately, Blowfish was closed. We made our way back to Tom's neighborhood and had cheeseburgers (very delicious) at Breeze Burn's instead. We said our goodbyes and made our way back to the bus terminal. Hard to believe all of the things we have experienced in a little over 24 hours in Busan! Can't wait to go back.