19 November 2018

Temples, beaches, and bad decisions

My second morning in Busan started early again. Normally an early riser, vacation usually makes me wake up at ungodly hours, and I settled in to enjoy the view from my hostel.





We met up at Seomyeon Station, and had a convenient breakfast.

My friend wanted to go to Haedong Yonggung Temple, and we set off early in hopes of beating the crowd. The walk up was empty, and the parking lot devoid of buses, so we leisurely walked through the market. Once we got to the zodiac statues, a huge crowd of people came and we began scurrying as well.







After walking around the temple, surrounding cliffs, and down to the cave, we decided to sit in the tea shop for awhile. Our original plan of getting drinks changed when my friend spotted the original frozen milkshakes, and despite it not being warm, we got them. We also wanted to share a drink, but a wasp appeared as I was taking my second sip.





To make up for the sadness of the lost drink, I got us fishcakes... which turned out to be a flavourless one. That was our first bad fishcake, and ended up ruining our appetite for fishcakes for the rest of the trip. We had settled down outside a convenience store, and as soon as we had sat down, begging kittens appeared. Unsatisfactory fishcakes + begging kittens can only lead to one conclusion.




We headed back to Haeundae for lunch, and stopped at a convenience store to get some makgeolli, as my friend had never tried it before. We purchases some paper cups for an additional 100 won each, and then headed over to a nearby restaurant for a late lunch.



Milmyeon and perilla seed kalguksu at Gome Milmyeon.



After filling our bellies, we headed outside to realize the sidewalk in the centre of the roadway had turned into a small watershow that went to the beat of the accompanying song.



We stopped by the Busan International Film Festival booth before continuing down Haeundae beach in search of a perfect spot to settle down for some makgeolli.







After drinking, we dipped our feet in the cool waters before heading back towards the station. We found more adorable kittens hiding under the veranda at the beach, and got sidetracked watching them for awhile.



We took a brief walk through Seomyeon Market, and then it was time for my travel buddy to head to Jeju! We parted ways and I was hit with the realization that I was back to fending for myself.

She had suggested we go to Taejongdae before, but time restraints had ruled it out. I decided to make the most of the day, and head there by myself. The sun set earlier than back home, and I found myself on the bus there around 6:30pm as the sun was setting before my eyes.




I got to Taejongdae at 7pm, and the sky was dark. My wifi egg died as I started to walk towards the lighthouse, but I was determined to keep going as I had bussed all the way over.

What ensued was half an hour of walking through the dimly lit sidewalk, terrified, and then heading down a dark path with my cellphone lighting the way, and this single, terrible shot of the lighthouse. I ran back to the bus stop and vowed to myself to never do that again.




I woke up early again the next morning, and dragged myself out of bed to photograph Chinatown in the early morning.





There is something about empty city streets that I really enjoy. I popped by a convenience store for some Busan milk, and then had it with my breakfast before heading to the train station.




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