My options were limited, but it went a little like 7am bus/10am flight/5pm train/6pm train and I got to Busan before 10pm. It was not an entirely pleasant journey, and I will keep that in mind for future scheduling.
I finished my first night in Busan strong with a dinner of banana milk and instant ramen at a convenience store after an unintentional 15-hour fast.
Do you believe in fate? I couldn't call being in Busan at the same time as one of my good friends anything but serendipitous. I finally had a proper meal with them, and then off we went to explore.
Our first stop was Gamcheon Culture Village. Originally a slum, there was a concerted effort to reinvigorate the area with sculpture, vibrant paint, and redecorating existing infrastructure.
We decided to trek over to Centum City, and inside the biggest department store in the world, we came across a rendition of the Trevi fountain, artificial lights that made it seem like daytime, and a spontaneous coat purchase.
The reason for our visit to Centum City was to enjoy a relaxing stay at Spa Land. This was my first jjimjilbang experience, and not a fair one at that - they are usually not this luxurious. I have absolutely no photo evidence of our stay here, as cameras are obviously not allowed in the hot springs area, and I decided to leave it in my locker even after we headed out into the rest of the building.
A quick summary of our 3-hour long rest at Spa Land; showering and bathing with complete strangers is not as weird as my North American self had anticipated. Not to say I was not uncomfortable at first, for I was, but I quickly overcame it and enjoyed the experience. There were several hot springs inside and out, with temperatures ranging from 20 degrees to 45 degrees Celsius. After spending a good amount of time there, we headed to the outdoor foot spas, many themed saunas, ate bingsoo and drank sikhye on the heated floors while dramas played, put on face masks while getting a full-body massage on some really amazing chairs, and just lying around and enjoying our down time after a day of walking around in the chilly autumn weather. It was absolute bliss.
One member of our party had to head back home at this point, so my friend and I continued our journey, as it was both our first time in Busan. We decided to visit Gwangalli Beach, and sat on the sand for awhile and watched people light fireworks just a few metres away from us.
We got hungry and decided to find food; although Busan is known for their seafood, neither of us were in the mood for it, so we wandered the streets for quite awhile trying to find a non-seafood restaurant near the beach; alas, we had to walk quite far away for a BBQ restaurant, and enjoyed a meal of grilled meat.
A quick visit to the convenience store had me finding some coveted snacks, and with that, we headed back to our respective accommodations for the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment