Busan Here We Come

With a holiday bookended-weekend, Hilary and I decided to quit this here popsicle stand and head on out to Busan. Two days prior to leaving the weather suddenly turned absolutely gorgeous with the sun utterly dominating the sky. It was so good to finally be clear of the rain in the city. So, we up and boarded the Mugunghwa train bound for Pusan earl-i in the mornin', and as it crept ever so slowly down to the South-Eastern seaboard we enjoyed the vistas and cool countryside. It's interesting that the entire country has really similar mountains and that the flora remains remarkably constant throughout the entire span of the country (our trip brought us through nearly all of the country North to South). There were so many small towns along the way and it was quite refreshing to see something other than city everywhere. So yeah, 5.5 hours later we showed up in the quaint city of Busan. And it was stifling hot! Totally great and sweat-filled.












Here's a view of Haeundae beach -Korea's most famous- jam-packed with Koreans. It was CRAZY. The 20ft-wide swimming area left a lot to be desired mostly because it was filled with hair, bandaids, watermelon, and - lest we forget - 200,000 people. The only way to really sit on the beach was to rent space from the monopolizing umbrella owners (Canada, how we miss your free beaches!). So on day one, we decided just to rough it and of course, we got burned. But it was great while it lasted. (And I don't know why this section is underlined.)

























There was also this Star Wars festival in Pusan at the time and a couple of Storm Troopers were oot and aboot, so we just couldn't let this opportunity pass. After the pic he tried to steal my popsicle so I gave him a left hook and ran for it. Dude shoulda thought about bringing the real blaster if he was so intent on struttin' his stuff by the beach. Silly storm trooper...














Hil: "Once in a while I like the taste of a Hite: when I'm really thirsty and there's nothing else to drink." And wouldn't you know she actually started liking it from this point on. With nothing else to eat but fried chicken and a side plate of popcorn.













And who can resist the cool bikes but Adrian every time he sees them. Especially with random words like "Handy STD" on them. Sheesh.













The next day (Sunday?) we went to explore the coastline a bit. Man, was it hot. Not even Seoul gets this hot in the summer. I got heat stroke (I think, anyway) the day before just trying to keep up with Adrian on an afternoon meandering through the rocks along the beach and an unexpected encounter with this international conference building and a free tour through it! In our beachwear, of course. We saw Canada's special seat for the prime minister (they had sort of a round table in there with the names of countries on them). Fun times on the beach.