Chuseok Travels~ Busan

Last weekend was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, holiday in Korea. Chuseok, Autumn Festival, is a three day celebration likened to Thanksgiving in that it is centered on family and food. It is a time for families to gather together, usually at grandparent’s homes in the country, which means there is a mass exodus out of the cities. So, while most Koreans left their city lives to travel to their smaller hometowns, Emily, Andy and I headed out on our last Korea adventure, first to Busan, the second biggest city in Korea, then onto Gyeongju.

Andy and I first went to Busan in June and fell in love with the city. It is much more liberal and youthful than Yeosu and as such seems to brim with diversity and life. People don’t gawk at us or yell “Waygugan!” when we walk into a store or down the street. It is easier to blend in and feel more comfortable as we are just a couple of many hundreds of foreigners rather than three of three hundred foreigners in Yeosu.  The feeling of being the zoo animal diminishes significantly. After such a great first experience there  we were aiming to go back, but things just didn’t line up until now, which worked out perfectly, as the high tourist season is at an end. Finding a hostel was no problem.

On the morning we left it was raining and while it had mostly stopped by the time we arrived in Busan, we decided to do a day exploring the town and save the beach for the morning. During our first visit, Andy and I just wandered around the most famous beach in Busan, Haeundae. However, there is tons more to see and do in Busan besides the beach and with two days in the city rather than just one, we hopped on the subway to see the sites.

Our first stop was the UN Cemetery for the Korean War. Emily’s boyfriend’s grandfather was stationed in Busan during the war and she wanted to take a few pictures for him. I knew next to nothing about the Korean War and was interested, so our stop there turned into almost the whole afternoon. The cemetery was beautiful and peaceful, despite the roaring city around it. High rise apartments and a golf driving range surround the cemetery, but inside all we could hear were birds and the occasional quiet conversation between visitors. I had no idea how many soldiers died in Busan during the war (almost 40,000) and was touched by the effort the Korean government had put into honoring them. It was sadly beautiful to see all the flags flying side by side and to see how the international community had rallied together.

As the cemetery was closing we got back on the subway and headed to the southwest part of Busan to visit the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) square. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but had read that it was worth a wander. What we discovered was a big outdoor market full of vendors selling a variety of things, primarily in the form of food. We immediately bought nut-filled hotteok (doughy, sugar-filled pancakes) and later on found a crepe shop where we enjoyed crepes oozing with nutella. We capped off the night back in Haeundae at a local pub.

The next day was beautiful and hot, so after a late start to the morning we went to the beach. The crowds were pretty thin at that time of day and we had plenty of space to splash and swim around. By the time we got hungry great groups of people were beginning to pour onto the beach. We vacated our lovely umbrella and after lunching on Indian Food, took the subway out to a temple on another beach. The temple was very popular due to Chuseok, but there was surprisingly little pushing or shoving and only the occasional person stopped in the middle of the path to take a selfie with a newly acquired selfie-stick (long poles onto which smart phones are attached, used to take pictures of yourself and your surroundings; selfie-sticks are the new rage in Korea and vendors are selling them like crazy for pretty cheap all over the place in Busan). We watched the sun set over the temple, admiring the giant statues and watching people bow to the figurines in the shrines.

While there was still more to see in Busan, the cold bug that has been going around school caught up with me, so we spent the rest of the night drinking tea in a cafe then playing cards at our lovely hostel. Our need to see new things in the city had been happily met and we were looking forward to the next stage of our trip: Gyeongju.