Our trip to Busan

It's Friday morning, Taey is already in town, so I make my way with her mum to Seoul to pick her up and then start our 6 hour drive to Pusan or Busan as it is spelled now. I am still feeling rough, so Taey's mum gets really concerned cause I don't eat. Hence no food pictures are being taken at the beginning of the trip :)

I think, it was about 4 in the afternoon when we made it to Busan. We were trying to meet or find Taey's uncle, her mum's younger brother which turned out to be quite difficult, cause the navigation system didn't quite do what we wanted it to do and there were two places with the same name. AND Busan is HUGE!!! Ok, it is the second largest city in South Korea, but that it is THAT big, I wouldn't have thought.

Meeting Taey's uncle was a real experience! He converted to buddhism about 15 years ago, meaning he is a monk, living like a monk. Now I really wish I could have said more than just 'Hello' and 'Thank you' in Korean. So, we went for dinner with him, after seeing his flat which is a temple at the same time. Every day he has people coming to his temple to pray and/or to practice and learn buddhism. He has three huge buddha statues in his 'living room'.
At dinner we make an odd group: Taey's mum, Taey, a Korean monk and me! We went to a Japanese restaurant, where we had Japanese food that still tasted Korean :)
After dinner, Taey's uncle called the taxi driver who would bring him home (for free) and show us our accommodation place. The taxi escorted us all acros town to the beach where we would stay in a motel - a love motel apparently, of which you have many in Korea as you are not allowed to stay with each other unless you are married. Or are suppose to... They should get rid of the condom and vibrator selling machines (next to the elevators!) when they submit families to the motel as well!

Anyway, we check in and go for another coffee or hot chocolate with Taey's uncle and the taxi driver and look at the night beach. I have an friendly argument with him about English football teams. Expressing my dislike for Man U didn't go down that well, but with my new hair I apparently look like Beckham. LOL - no comments on this one please... :)

The next morning we are having spicy fish soup for breakfast. Luckily my stomach was feeling much better, but I still couldn't quite believe me eating spicy fish soup at 9 in the morning. So I tried not to think about the time and just enjoyed the yummy taste!
After that we were off to Taejongdae Park, which is at the tip of Yeongdo Island in the South of Busan. It took us two hours to get there - again a sign of how big Busan really is. Then we went back into town to the fish market. I love markets, so this one too. Busy, fish-hacking Koreans, shouting at everyone passing by - fantastic! :) It's fine being non-Asien cause they don't even try it with you, as they asume you don't understand anyway - not that I would, I'm just saying.

Opposite the market I saw the entrance of the Pusan International Film Festival - Yey!!! :)

Then we've picked up Taey's uncle again and made our way to Gyeongju, which was the capital of the Silla Kingdom (the strongest and longest lasting Kingdom of old out of the 3 they had). It's called 'the museum without walls' cause of its historical buildings and artifacts all over the city. It's one of the only cities where the buildings were not destroyed in the Korean war, therefore there are no high apartment towers but original housing. Very nice and impressive. I just wished we would have arrived earlier so that we'd had more daylight. But Taey's uncle showed us the main temple in Gyeongju. We got in with our car and without problems, again, it was nice to have a monk with us. He also told us loads of interesting things about the temple life and the monks. I really enjoyed that. At dinner later we had the chance to ask more questions. Again, I wish I could have understood him. Poor Taey had to translate the whole time, so thank you for that.

When we spent the time down in the South of Korea, it snowed in Seoul, so we missed the whole thing. Now snow is still out and it's bitter cold, but dry and sunshine - very nice. People in the South are apparently much more friendly. A guy at a service station showed that by expressing a lot of compliments towards me only because I said 'Hello' and 'Thank you' in Korean. He told Taey that I spoke very well, to which I replied to him in English: 'Not really.' But he didn't stop being very enthusiastic and woudn't stop splattering out loads of compliments, lol! In Seoul I couldn't impress anyone with that. On the island at New Years Eve I've stunned a few kids. I think, I must have been the first person they met that didn't look like them. And that I said what my name is in Korean stunned them even more :) They were very cute though. In general, all the kids are very cute here, the women beautiful and the men grumpy ugly ones. Apart from Jae-hyung :) I hope, I haven't offended anyone now... sorry if I have... just my personal taste... :)

more soon... jx