busan and gyeongju

Last weekend, we went to Busan and Gyeongju. It was TONS of fun :D

We had a six-hour bus-ride from Seoul to Busan. It took forever and the bus driver was pretty scary. I'm one of those people with steel stomachs...I can eat a meal and then go on a roller-coaster and have no problems. But for the first time in my life, I actually got a little carsick. It didn't help that I can't sleep on buses (or airplanes for that matter). We stopped off at a Korean rest stop and WOW. They really are like you see in the movies. The bathrooms are clean and there's actually a food court and convenience store at each one. There are also very sketchy souvenier/music stalls outside haha. At one of the rest stops, someone got these little walnut cakes...SO GOOD!!! I didn't get to take a picture because I thought I would get to buy some later but still...it was this soft bread filled with red bean paste and chopped walnuts. DIVINE!!! yum :D

We finally got to Busan at around midnight. We were under the impression we'd be staying at a hostel, which none of us really minded. But then we saw the place. It was like a REAL hotel...like five star. There were tons of us piled into one room (six beds, six people) but wow. Really nice.

After we put our stuff down, we went to one of the two famous beaches in Busan: Kwangannli Beach. It is SO pretty. There's this bridge that lights up in different colors and these people sell fireworks on the beach. The fireworks are kind of scary since they only pop like five feet above you (so about eleven feet up into the air) but still...the atmosphere is awesome. I almost felt like Edith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" should have been playing in the back hahaha :D

After hanging out at the beach for a while, we headed to a bar. I was going to drink a bit but I didn't like the crowd that much so I sat it out. But it was still really fun with all the Korean drinking games and stuff hahaha :D I went home after a while and went to sleep yayyyyy :D

The next morning, I got up SUPER early because we had to head to Gyeongju :P I fell asleep for most of the ride there but when I woke up, we were in the countryside. One of the things I wanted to do in Korea is visit the countryside and this was a really nice chance to just see the openness of Korea. The houses were really cool...The roofs were all Korean and I can't be sure of the bottom of the house, but the overall effect was very...comforting.

It was a cloudy day to begin with so as we were driving to Gyeongju, it started to rain. It wasn't so bad at the beginning. In order to get to where we wanted to go, we started heading up a really windy road, up a mountain. It took FOREVER and a ton of people were getting motion sickness. It was pretty but yeah...There was a little kid in front of me (the director's son, sitting in the seat in front of me) and he threw up. So the whole rest of the ride consisted of everyone trying to keep their food in their stomach, dealing with the stench of his puke and the windiness of the roads.

But in the end, all worth it. We were at a temple (at the very TOP of the mountain) called Seokguram. Seokguram is actually part of the Bulguksa Buddhist temple complex but this place is at the very top. It was beautiful.

We got off the bus and clouds were beginning to gather. I think the whole temple part of the trip was better because of the rain. We all complained about it but I think the rain added to the holiness and beauty of the temple. Plus, I love Buddha :D

After seeing the temple (no pictures allowed inside :[ ), we went to the Shilla New Millennium Park and had the WORST bibimbap EVER there. YUCKKKK!!! We were then let free at the park until 4:30pm...That wasn't so bad...It was about 1pm when we finished eating, so we all thought we could head to the costume dress-up, foot spa, the brewery, and few places where Boys Before Flowers was filmed (I think I am dying from excitement about the fact that all these famous dramas have been filmed in places I've been in hahaha).

Except...ummm...everything was closed. Yeah. No costume dress-up, no brewery. The foot spa was stupid so none of us went because you just walked across rocks, and one of the drama places was closed too. UGH. Oh well, I still got to see Ji-Hoo's house from BBF, and the place where they ride the horses :D

We also, after wasting hours at the park, went to a Hwarang performance at the park. THAT was cool. It was a show with equestrian tricks and cute guys hahaha :D Very nice!!!

Now here comes my favorite part. After the park, we left for Busan and there, we were treated to something amazing.

The D'Amaris buffet.

You know how Las Vegas has those buffets that are freaking amazing? Yeah, this was EXACTLY like that except the food was amazing. The best part was definitely the crab legs (OH MY GOODNESS), and the fresh sushi :D I love desserts but theirs were okay. But EVERYTHING else made up for it. Everyone ate SO much, we could barely move. It helped when I went for drinks later hahahah. I had four shots and nothing happened! Then again, I'm a very safe drinker...I was downing the water and food at the same time. I think I drink more for the company than for the drink hahaha.

But seriously, best buffet ever. That seafood was SO fresh and so well-cooked. Those crab legs were SO sweet. Absolutely delicious.

The next day at lunch, EAP took us to the Busan fish market. It's apparently the biggest in Asia and I LOVED it!!! My parents brought me up to appreciate literally everything that is food and so this fish market was a dream for me. Seeing all those ingredients...MMMMM....I know my mom and dad (especially him) would've gone crazy over everything we saw :D

The next step was lunch :D The people leading us everywhere, Joey and Jeff, chose our lunch for us from a local vendor. It's a really cool concept: you choose your fish, say how you want it, and then go upstairs, where they serve it to you. Plus, you're seated in the traditional Korean style :D And my favorite part of the lunch (still full from the buffet, by the way) was the nakji, which is essentially raw, squirming octopus tentacles.

SO GOOD!!!!

You have to be really careful when you eat them because the tentacles and everything are still working. I didn't chew one of them completely so one of the tentacles got stuck to the back of my tongue. My gag reflex was kicking in but thankfully, I just took another piece of nakji, ate it, and it knocked that other one down :D

Nakji tastes slightly sweet...it's a subtle sweetness and the texture isn't something that is weird. When you get the "squirter" part like I did, that has a bit of a rubbery texture but it goes down very smoothly.

After that, we headed back to Seoul :D That bus ride back was CRAZY. I think the bus driver hated us because we were always late, so he SPED us back to Seoul. It was raining and he was driving really fast. Super scary hahaha.

Anyways, since then, not much has gone on. I'm going to try and permanently straighten my hair soon...

Wait. I FINALLY got a cell-phone. And it's the COOLEST phone EVER!!! It has things I'll never need, like video-calling and being an MP3 player. But really, who doesn't like cool little gadgets? I'm totally going to give this phone to Anooj because he deserves a really cool phone after anything he's gone through hahaha