Journey to the East: Sam Ball's Tale: Busan Day 1

Our trip to Busan started in the early hours at Seoul Station. Soojeong, Goeun, and I met there to take the 8:05 train to the southern city of Busan. We had originally planned to take the KTX (high speed train) but were unable to reserve the seats in time. Our train wasn't bad at all though, it was comfortable and the views outside the window were wonderful. There is just something about going to the beach that triggers rain. I still haven't figured that out. Partway through our journey to Busan we hit rain, rain, and more rain. Our hopes that it would be sunny and nice in Busan were doused when we arrived at the train station to a monsoon-like rain. Not letting the rain spoil our mood too much, we set off towards the famous Haeundae Beach and the nearby aquarium that we planned to visit. We stopped at a little shop for lunch and dined on some delicious local cuisine, and then off we went to the beach. The water wasn't near as cold as had been in Sokcho, but we still only put our feet in to test the water. It was warm enough to swim.

Busan aquarium was a lot of fun and they had a lot of good exhibits to see. It was nice to get out of the rain for a while and enjoy seeing all the neat fish together. We spent a good amount of time there before catching a ride in a taxi to the hostel we stayed in. It was called Arpina Youth Hostel, but it was more like a nice hotel. Goeun reserved our room with her travel company ID at a special rate, and the room was quite nice; three beds, TV, air conditioning, and a great view from the balcony of the mountains and part of the ocean. We set our stuff there and set out again to explore more of the city. As the evening progressed the rain came to a stop and we were able to enjoy walking around the city taking in all the sites and sounds. We stopped at another beach that had a good view of a really neat bridge, and from there we went to eat dinner and relax at a cafe that overlooked the beach. Our night ended with a quick run to the biggest shopping center in the world (it was in the Guinness Book of World Records), and then a snack and beer run at a local supermarket. We headed back to the hotel were we cleaned up, turned on the TV, and enjoyed our purchases before turning in for the night.