Busan Part I

I went to Busan for the weekend for the purpose of jumping in the shark tank. Of course we had to make a weekend of it.

Friday after work, my co-worker Jacob and I went home to get our things and then met up infront of the McDonalds (about halfway between our homes) at 5:15 to catch a taxi. I had thought about the traffic earlier but then didn't consider it. Needless to say, the traffic was horrible. We were cursing almost the whole way due to the fact that our train was departing at 6:00 SHARP. The freeway was backed up because some idiot drove into a brick wall. ARGH!! We were only near Yongsan station with only about 7 minutes to go. We told the taxi driver to please hurry, not that he could really do much. He did help a bit and drove on the shoulder a couple of times to pass. By the time our taxi pulled up outside Seoul Station, we had only 3 minutes to get to the train. Jacob threw the money into the front seat and we sprinted across the front area, up the stairs and into the building. THEN... with only 2 minutes to get through the entire station, my backpack zipper came open and a bunch of things fell out - socks, make-up bag, bra, etc. ACK!!!! Jacob ran back, scooped up my things while I worked on getting my zipper back up as to not loose anything else and we were sprinting again - him carrying my things. Up the stairs to the KTX gates and then down the stairs to the train. I was watching my clock the entire way. We JUST made it. The doors were going to close. We got into the closest car then walked back several cars to our seats. We were so out of breath and my heart was pounding for the next few hours. SO close. Another second and we would have missed it. Shane and Eileen, some friends of mine, were very worried that we had missed it and were trying to figure out what to do. They were considering trying to stop the train, as I had called when we were running into the station... Whether or not he understood what I was saying, I don't know, since I was concentrating more on getting there than what I was saying.
We were SOOOOO lucky.
We arrived in Busan at around 8:45. We were the first of the group (of about 12) that were arriving Friday night. We took the subway to Haeundae and then walked to the hotel. We picked our mats (first come first serve!!!) and then headed out to find some food. The 3 of them wanted seafood, of course - go to the sea, eat seafood. We went to one of the little restaurants along the boardwalk. Sitting on the second floor overlooking the sea was so nice. The weather was perfect. Cool, but warm enough that we didn't need coats.

Eileen (Korean) ordered fish soup for everyone.Not very appetizing if you ask me (well, since I don't like any seafood, that is not surprising). She ordered non-seafood pajeon (green onion pancake) for me.The side dishes were pretty good, too - a zucchini dish, a spicy squid and raddish dish (I picked out the raddish bits to eat and they weren't tainted by the squid, surprisingly enough), peanuts, and shrimp and little sardines which the others polished off several dishes of. Of course, beer and soju (Busan Soju - C1) were also ordered.After dinner we went back to the hotel to meet some of the others that had just arrived. The guys had a bit of fun on the little coin bumper cars, except for Shane.... Oh Shane! - he put coins in but it just wouldn't work.