Reflecting on Busan

While planning our trip to South Korea, we came to the decision that we didn't want to spend much time away from Seoul. This trip, a celebration of our birthdays, was not meant to be stressful, and every city hop is a compounding layer of potential issues. Of course, every rule needs its exceptions, and so we ended up catching a high-speed train to Busan for two nights away from the capital.

In terms of text, this won't be a long one - I don't have a huge amount to say about Busan itself, I just have a lot of nice pictures to share.

Upon arrival, I was captivated by the winding circular road leading up to the Busan Harbour Bridge. This road brings cars from street level to a bridge that has 60 metres of clearance underneath, and you really feel that height as you sit in the back of a taxi driven by an elderly man who is a little too confident in his swerving and weaving at high speeds.

At the hotel, we had a decent view of the street around us, but an incredible view of the intersection on the corner. As will be evident, I carved out time every day for finding new angles and configurations of this crossing from our room. These were easily some of my best photos from the trip, but they were also one of the first times in a while that I had really craved being able to zoom in (or crop more without going down to single digit megapixel counts).

First day out and about, and we were on our way to Songjeong via the beach train. Honestly, I don't have much to say about the beach side of Busan - it was really pleasant!

Once we got off the monorail, we ventured up the coast towards Coralani, a beautiful café by the water. The baked treats were great, and the view (last three photos above) was even better - even on this overcast day.

On our way up, we ignored an interesting-looking shrine near the water, so I was insistent that we checked it out on the way back. We saw a couple of very sweet but hard-done-by stray cats in the park (only one pictured, but I think the other was even worse for wear), and had another chance to appreciate the ocean from a different vantage point.

The beach train may have been fun, but what we were really keen for was the sky capsule on the way back. It runs on a near-identical course, but has a better view of the ocean, and only has a few people per car. We were angling to be heading back by sunset for an even better view, but it was still beautiful.

The sky capsule brought us back to our point of departure, and we made our last, food-centric stops for the day: a four-pack of salt bread (prepared fresh and with no trimmings, absolutely divine), a famous seafood buffet (we were brave, but having to rip into each little morsel really wasn't for us), and mochi ice cream (yummy). The sun set, and we called it a night.

On our last day, blessed with beautiful weather, I snuck in one last snapshot session with my beloved intersection, we braved a journey to the world-famous (sarcasm) Peanuts Café. As expected, not great, but the Snoopy statue was cute.

While our mission on this trip may have been to just stick to one city, Busan was an exception worth making (plus, detours are much easier when there's no airport involved). It was a beautiful beach-y break from Seoul, and I'd be keen to go back someday.

What I'm listening to: "Liquorice" - Hatchie
What I'm reading: ”Neuromancer” - William Gibson (had to give up on the history of Vietnam because my reading has, once again, slowed to a crawl, and I'm spending too much time on my phone)
What I'm playing: I Am Your Beast