Haeundae Beach @ Busan

The day after landing at Busan, I took a stroll around Haeundae to get a feel for the place. It's a culturally diverse, tourist friendly and extremely expensive area; reminding me of the general feeling you get walking around Santa Monica.

Sand sculpture on the beach

Haedong Yonggungsa & Dalmaji Hill @ Busan

Haedong Yonggungsa is a Buddhist temple which was originally constructed 700 years ago, and like most tourist attractions, was recently restored. The temple rests on the edge of the ocean north of Busan, nestled within mounds of coastal rock formations. The contrast between the ancient architecture and the natural beauty of the sea shore is clearly the selling point which brings tourists here.

Haedong Yonggungsa

Galmegi Pub & Tap and Tapas Gastropub @ Busan

With it's location on the third floor of a building a bit off of the Gwangalli strip, Galmegi Pub seems like a decent place to sneak off to if you don't want to be seen while your getting loaded. It was nice to try some of the local beer here, however lots of them had a very similar taste, and my favorite turned out to be an import from the US. The food menu was mainly pizza, which I've personally not enjoyed as a compliment to craft beer, so I decided to skip having a meal here and move on to the next place. This place didn't strike a chord with me, however to be fair this also isn't their main venue, their sister place Galmegi Brewery is located in the back streets of Gwangalli and may offer a different array of choices.

Galmegi Pub from the street

Taejongdae Lighthouse @ Busan

Getting to the Taejongdae Lighthouse from where I was staying in Haeundae Beach took about 2 hours, and consisted of a subway ride, a bus ride, and mini tourist train called the Danubi for the final leg of the journey. After hopping off the Danubi, there seemed to be infinite stair steps from the road to the Sinseon Rocks below the lighthouse. The rocks have a steep drop-off, going maybe 250 meters down, with no barrier or signs to prevent a naive tourist from stepping right over the edge.

What I learned later after a bit of research is that the lack of protection may very well be a gimmick, as the Korean word Sinseon translates to suicide. Apparently many locals come to this spot each year specifically to jump off of this cliff.

Taejongdae Lighthouse

Looking down toward Sinseon Rocks

Pyong Ga Ok @ Seoul

Since I was closer to North Korea then I've been before, I decided to track down an authentic North Korean Restaurant and see how it compared to the state sponsored one I'd had in Beijing. I goolgled for a bit and was fairly frustrated with the results, most of the directions to get to these places made it sound like I would need to be able to read Korean to be able to track the place down. Lucky I finally found a blog post on Pyong Ga Ok, which described it's location just outside the Gwanghwamun subway station in detail. 

North of Gwanghwamun

Pyong Ga Ok from outside

Craftworks Taphouse & Magpie Brewing @ Seoul

While I was in Insadong I googled Korean breweries and found that there were two craft breweries to the south in Iteawon 2 Dong, Craftworks and Magpie. I decided to try my luck at locating them and took the subway down toward Noksapyeon station. Without wifi to tap, my ipad was useless in helping to locate the place, so I walked in the general direction I figured I might find them. After strolling up and back down the street I'd hoped it would be on, I hung a right back onto the main road and spotted it in plain sight.

When I walked in there were a couple people waiting for tables, lucky for me someone had just left the bar so I was able to sit down immediately. I orderd myself the sampler pallet which serves you a taste of every beer on the menu except for the seasonal and got the Craftworks burger to fill my starving tourist stomach. While I waited on the burger I managed to clear through everything on the sampler, although not all astounded me, the IPAs were decent and the Oatmeal stout was worth ordering to go along with my burger. The burger was beef, yet topped with bacon and pulled pork, which turned out to be an awesome combination.

Entry to Craftworks Taphouse

Insadong and Bukchon @ Seoul

Before flying to Korea I did a small amount of research and found that the only attraction which seamed of much interest to me was Bukchon, an area preserved the same way Koreans lived in Seoul 75 years ago. I made visiting here one of two goal for my trip, the second goal was to use the subway as my main mode of transportation.

After getting up I emptied out my backpack and walked to 711 to buy some water and some junk food to hold me over for the duration of my ride from Gangnam to North Seoul. I boarded at Seoullong on the green line and transferred to the orange which got me up to Anguk station in about 45 minutes. Not having a smartphone or a compass to work with, I guessed which direction north might be from my exit.

It didn't take long to figure out that my guess was wrong, I had walked south into Insadong, but with the thousands of tourists walking about and restaurants lining the area my senses were stimulated. I decided to look around and find a bite to eat here before heading north, after a small hunt walking up and down the side-streets from the main walking street, I decided on a little restaurant called Tree. Although it was quite a cookie cutter of a Korean meal, the beer was cheep and the wifi helped me plan for the night ahead.

Insadong

I have no idea what these were but everyone wanted one

Gangnam Station @ Seoul

Shortly after arriving at my hotel in Gangnam at 2:00 am, I ventured out to discover what this area was about. After having a drink at one of the first bars I could find near my hotel, the bartender told me that I was basically in the wrong area, and that it would be a good idea to catch a cab toward the Gangnam station subway stop.

The first alley way I walked down on the east side of the station was lined with restaurants and bars however they were all closed or closing, eventually I made my way to the west side of the station where I was able to find some signs of life. After walking the street for a while I decided to try a beer themed place called new Bray Beer, as I wasn't looking to wake with a major hangover the next day. As I got down to the bar I discovered they too were closing, however they were willing to let me buy one beer and hangout for a couple minutes to munch on some of there neon pink appetizers and listened to k-pop.

Emptied out bar street