Christmas in Busan = fun!

This post is well over due so there might be some spelling errors. Enjoy though!

For Christmas, Lyndsey and I decided to head to a place that we love - the beach! So thinking of sun and fun we decided to head to Busan or Pusan (Koreans confuse B and P's like there is no tomorrow). This bustling city is pretty darn cool in that it has all the cool stuff like Seoul but with beaches! The beaches are the biggest pleasant surprise that I have encountered in Korea, next to Jeju. Man I wish there were nice beaches in Canada haha Wishful thinking! This is Haeundae beach in Busan. It is one of the largest and most popular beaches. Around here is a bunch of great restaurants and coffee shops that allow you to enjoy the view of the ocean. We had some pretty good East Indian food here. Yum curry! The weather was brilliant so we just laid around and occasionally Lyndsey took off her shoes and went for a strut in the water. I thought it was too cold! brrr





We stayed in the love hotel district in the downtown area of Busan. This was unknown to use because we forgot the 'Lonely Planet' travel guide. After spending literally an hour wandering around and not finding a hotel, we then came across the love hotel district. Shockingly, this district is rather safe and contains really cheap hotels that are clean! However, I didn't enjoy the pictures of women sitting outside of some of the hotels. I am not a fan of that and we avoided those places...We eventually settled up on a 'tourist hotel' that was really fancy for a really cheap price! Here is a picture of the nightclubs conveniently located just down the street from our hotel. We didn't partake in any night clubs unfortunately.





One night we decided to go to a giant Korean Sauna that had a variety of pools. There were about 10 different pools from blueberry to 48c water. I personally enjoyed the rose pool on the top floor of the sauna outside on the roof. It was on the roof that we met two identical twins from Canada named Julie and Sarah. They both worked for a conversational English school and we had a good chat about Korea. Here is a shot of the hotel lobby where the giant sauna was located in. I really enjoy the beauty of Christmas in Korea!





We then decided after the sauna closed at 10pm to go hangout and head for a drink. They first took us to Sarah's apartment which was incredible. She had a giant two bedroom apartment all decked out in stainless steel appliances. I was a little jealous because she only works for a conversational school and gets a way better apartment then me haha Anyways, we then went to the university district of town full bars and restaurants. We went to 'the Crossroads' which had some foreigners in it. It was nice to chat and have a pint with these girls. Afterwards, we were pretty hungry and we wandered the streets looking for food because we missed the last subway. Subways in Asia also stop around midnight which sucks. So Sarah recommended this rotisserie chicken place. So we went in and grabbed the menu that looked like this:





However there was a man sitting near by who noticed how confused we were and helped us out. That was sweet and we ended up eat a roasted chicken stuffed with rice, sweet potato, and other such veggies. It was So we were super confused with the menu because as you can see there are pictures of poo piles and toilet paper. I laughed because I wondered what this meal would do to my stomach hahasooo delicious. After dining, Lyndsey and I decided to head back to our super sweet hotel were we watched celebrity gossip! Unfortunately we don't get any English news here so any news will do even if it is about Britney Spears.


We were wandering down the street in the University district and I had to stop and take a photo of this. Kenny Rogers, you have got to be kidding. Why would anyone want to do this! I would never name my business this! I have seen a few of these karaoke bars around Busan. Definitely must be a coastal thing.





Here is another scenic video of Haeundae beach. The beauty of the video literally speaks for itself!





Lyndsey and I found this weird little bumper cart area near the beach. There were these old run down cars that some kids were ridding around in. Being the big kid that I am, I said that we should go for a whirl. So we thought the ride was 50 cents and we put in the coin and we just sat there. I honestly thought we broke it cause well we are not tiny like Koreans. So this man came over and said a bunch of things I didn't understand and then I realized it was a dollar. So we put in another coin and here is how the adventure went:





Here is another beach at night near Haeundae beach. I forget the name. Aww that seems to be a common trend because some of the names are too difficult to remember. So we went here at night and bought and it pretty much had the same set up. However, it did have the famous bridge in Busan. It was beautiful! The video will show you:





So there was a man selling fire works and we decided lets do it. So with my great ability to count in Korean I was able to get us some fire works. The video is really good! I wish we could play with fire works in Canada.





We found this super run down amusement park that reminded me of the Calgary Stampede near the beach. This ride was the oddest ride I have ever scene. It literally was fun to watch for the first 2 minutes but literally this ride went on for 5 minutes and didn't stop. So Lyndsey and I left because I couldn't believe how horrible this ride was. If I was on it, I would be super super angry!