Busan

Mid-terms are over and that means that it’s time for a trip: Busan!

Busan is a city in the south-east of South-Korea. You might have heard of it in the movie “The train to Busan”. That’s also how our trip started. We took the KTX (high speed train)  and watched the movie in it!

We stayed in a hotel in the district Haeundae. Only a 5-minute walk to the beach.

The first day we relaxed at the beach. In the evening we ate fish at a fish market next to the beach. It was hard to find something affordable for students. Eventually, with the help of an English speaking Korean, we found something. We decided to go for the crab. I’m still amazed how kind the Koreans can be! The woman of the restaurant let us try many different sort of fishes for free. Of course we didn’t turn down that offer! I’ve got to admit that I never ate that special: Sea cucumber, spoon worm, raw octopus and crab!

The next day we went hiking in Taejongdae Park. We walked along the coast and past by Yeongdo Lighthouse, Taejongdae observatory and the Buddhist temple Taejongsa.

In the afternoon we went to Gamcheon Culture Village. It’s a district with colored houses in the hills, with a nice view at the sea. When walking through the small streets, we didn’t just see a lot of art and mural paintings… But also a place where they sell cotton candy that looks like a rabbit. 😜

Unfortunately it was raining the next day. So… We visited Sea Life Busan and enjoyed ourselves between the sharks, rays, turtles and many other sea animals. Back in the hotel, we were sitting in the shared kitchen. Two Russians were cooking and asked us if we also wanted something. Even though we said no, they gave us a big plate with chicken and vegetables. Lucky us!

As soon as it stopped raining in the evening, we went out and “limed” on an electric scooter through Haeundae.

The last day we went to Haedong Yonggunsa Temple. This is one of the few Buddhist Temples in Korea that is located next to the sea. Most temples are located in the mountains. The temple was built in 1376, but got destroyed during the Japanese invasion and was rebuilt in 1930. People say at least one of your wishes will become true if you pray there.

A big difference between Seoul and Busan is public transport. In Seoul you can always go somewhere by subway, but in Busan we mostly had to take a bus. We often got stuck in  traffic jam.

Despite this, Busan is a beautiful city and while sitting in the bus we saw a lot more of it compared to what we would have seen by subway.

It was nice to be close to the sea for a while. And… Because of this, there is even more fish to eat in Busan as in Seoul. Of course this isn’t a problem for me! 😋

We took the train back to Seoul on Sunday evening. We didn’t go back to our apartment in Sinchon, but to an Airbnb in Hongdae.

As you might have heard on the news, the number of COVID-19 cases suddenly rose again after a quite stable period. The nightclubs in Seoul had been open for a while and last Wednesday a 29 years old man tested positive on the virus. Some days before the test, he had visited multiple nightclubs in Itaewon. The government decided to close the clubs again for another month. This meant that there was only one night left to go out. And… Many young people did. This led to even more infections and so the number of cases grew. At this moment (Monday the 11^th of may) the number of cases linked to the nightclubs in Itaewon is 86. Many young people are infected and this can become a problem, because young people often only show mild symptoms. People are afraid of a second wave.

Other A home in Sinchon members, including our roommates, also went out a lot and they visited the night clubs where the infections took place. Today our roommates did the test. Jim and I didn’t want to take the risk to go to our apartment, before our roommates got the test results back. This meant the only thing we could do was to go to an Airbnb immediately. And here we are… Our roommates will probably get their test results back tomorrow and hopefully it’s negative!