Busan

Last weekend we had a three-day weekend, so I went to Busan, Korea's second largest city, with my coworkers Kelly Katharine and Tadhg.

Busan is a lot like Seoul in some ways. Big Buildings.

Busan skyline

And way different (and better) in others. The sea.

Haeundae Beach

On Saturday morning, we headed to Yonggungsa Temple. On the way to temples here, there's always a souvenir and food stall section to distract you. Little fish-shaped pastries filled with red-bean paste or custard are a popular street snack in Korea and at Yongungsa, a man was selling an adorable (and delicious) miniature version.

붕어빵- Korean red-bean-fish pastries.

Kelly Katharine and Tadhg with their 붕어빵. 

Me with my 붕어빵.

Yongungsa is probably the most beautiful temple I have seen in Korea. It's built right into the rocky cliffs along the sea. It was a gorgeous day to visit with blue skies and lovely late-summer weather. We spent a few hours wandering around with all of the other tourists and worshippers. It ended up being one of the definite highlights of the trip for me.

KK made me pretend to be a mermaid. I failed.

Saturday night we were out on the town. We ate at a place that had terrible chicken but a great view from the top floor of a building . We then bar-hopped down the main street near Haeundae Beach and ended up having a pretty good night.

Thursday Party is pretty much the funniest thing ever. But it's hard to explain why. I guess it's just like the frat party of bars. Which is funny.

In Busan they had Caribou Coffee. Such an improvement over the Korean chains.

On Sunday we went to the Haeundae Beach Photo Zone to take some kitschy tourist photos. There was a wall maybe 500 meters long with murals to take embarrassing photos in front of.  It was actually a lot of fun.

After the 포토존, we headed down to the water to take kitschy sea-side photos. Also great fun.

Sunday evening, we went to Gwangalli Beach which was totally worth it, because the view was gorgeous.

Gwangan Grand Bridge at night.

KK with Gwangan Bridge

Me with Gwangan Bridge

Gwangalli at night.

Beach projection art.

At Gwangalli, we found two more Thursday Parties. I was pretty excited, but not excited enough to trade out my soymilk for a beer.

On our final day, we decided to check out Beomeosa Temple. It's supposedly one of the largest in Korea, but the layout was confusing and it wasn't nearly as cool as some of the others I've been to.

It's almost fall.