Crazy Times in Busan

So once again we were off and running...Bryn invited us to Busan for her boyfriend, Dave's, birthday party. So we all (about 10 people) hopped on the KTX and went to Busan, which is about 2 hours east on the high speed train (5 hours driving). Its the second largest city in Korea, behind Seoul, and it is absolutely beautiful! There are numerous beaches and you weave through the mountains to get to them. You can see the houses built into the side of the mountains.

We visited Texas Street, which is famous for Russian people and foreigners. Then headed over to Haeundae Beach, where we proceeded to spend about 1.5 hours searching for hotel. After we found something, we all headed to the beach. Check out the pictures of the beach. Seriously we've never laughed harder. Not only can you not see the sand on the beach, but you also cannot see the sun! It should be obvious to everyone that Koreans do not visit beaches to "get some sun!" The beach was covered with umbrellas and around 10,000 people!

The absolute best part about the beach is that people come around and sell beer and food - so you don't even have to get up! Its awesome!! A can of beer that they would sell was $2!! That would never happen in the US.

After our excursion to the beach, we (Sam, Connie, and our new friend, Angela) decided to go out for Korean BBQ, while the others wanted Indian food. So we went to this great place where we got our own private room! You take off your shoes to go in and then close the door. Its great!! At Korean BBQ, you cook your own food at the table, so of course...us stupid foreigners manage to set off the fire alarm - yep - right in our own private room. :)

Then we headed out for a night on the town. We went over to another beach and partied the night away. Very fun - met a lot of foreigners. Here is the random and most exciting thing about Korea: there are no rules. And we aren't kidding. Here are just a couple of examples:

1. Both Sam and I on separate occasions, left the bar to go outside and sit at a DIFFERENT bar with our drink from the first bar in hand - yep - glass and all! No one noticed or cared!

2. Then, I decided to sit at stools that were right outside the bar and felt like having a beer. So I walked over to the 7-11 and bought a can and brought it back to the bar and drank it. Once again...no one notices or cares. It is so strange, but so completely freeing at the same time.

We've decided a couple of things about Korea...

1. Its called "The Land of the Morning Calm" because it truely is. We've never felt less stress and more relaxed in our lives. For example, most stores are supposed to open around 10am, but if they don't get there until 10:30 - no biggie. They just take their time here. Its such a different lifestyle than spending your life watching the clock.

2. Korea should be considered the land of the free. You can do WHATEVER you want here and no one will comment or yell at you. There are no bouncers at bars. You can walk down the street with drinks...get in cabs with drinks....go into another bar with drinks...and seriously - no one cares. You can truely do whatever you want and you aren't panicking that you are going to constantly get yelled at for this or that.

3. They need stop signs. I understand that this is a very "free" culture, but there are limits to where they need a couple of rules - like stop signs or maybe traffic cops to at least slow down the cab guys. (Apparently though DUI's in Korea are worse than the US)

So then...on with the story...we get up the next day to catch a 1:20pm train back to Daejeon. We stop by Burger King and take our time eating. Then jump on the Busan subway to get back to the station. Of course...we show up at the KTX at 1:25. Yep - missed it by 5 minutes. If only there already extremely efficient form of transportation would go faster! hahaha

But the best part is...when we went to leave the subway...we (Angela and Connie) got locked out of the turnstiles. So we had to jump over them again (just like Paris). Go figure - those stupid tickets never seem to work for me! (Connie)

Then Sam & I grab a cab to head home once we are back in Daejeon...it was by far the scariest experience yet. He was going about 90 on a street where you are supposed to go 40. All the cars around him were doing about 40. So he kept slamming on his brakes and would speed up, weave in and out of traffic. Seriously - we thought we were going to die. Not joking. Samantha was laughing so hard the entire way that she couldn't breathe and I told her that it was nice knowing her. Fortunately though - we made it...and in record time! Imagine that! haha

So far on this trip... we laughed and cried hard from laughing. We are truely enjoying this experience. We love the culture and the people. Its so different from the US, but really different in a good way. We are learning a lot and loving it so far.

For anyone interested in seeing all of our pictures, we have been posting them in Facebook and again in Ofoto. Hope you are enjoying our blog. We love the comments!