Korea 2013: day 5-6

Day 5: explore Busan
First, I need to address our toilet here at the hotel. There are so many buttons and I only understand a few of them! I must say, the button with the face on it scares me the most. I don't want to press it. And then I realize this is something you probably don't discuss, but I never read anything about this while researching and only found out days before I was leaving, but you don't flush toilet paper here. They have the fanciest toilets around (picture below), but culturally it is just something you don't do. It is hard to retrain oneself to remember this!

This morning we started late. We headed down to the beach and hiked along it a bit. Gorgeous scenery. And nice walking paths. We didn't really have breakfast so it was time to get food. Always a bit of struggle. We just start to wander and hope we find a posted menu with some English on it. And we did! I got a spicy tofu stew...with mussels. But I could just pick around them since they were still in the shell and it was full of tofu, not the biggest fail. It was really good. So glad I got a seafood allergy test before I left!

Then we caught a taxi to visit Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (picture below). A buddhist temple right on the beach. It was really beautiful. Some people were there to worship, some just to tour. We got some grape ice cream and sat on the beach rocks and just enjoyed the sun.

Dinner time came soon enough and we were craving pasta. It is nice that there are so many food choices. Love Korean food, but I couldn't eat any food every day of the week. So we googled a nearby Italian restaurant and headed out only to discover it was closed (explanation in Korean) so then we returned to our main strip where there 2 other pasta places. We picked the one with people in it, always a good sign! I gotta say, some of the best pasta I have had!

Lots of people were on the beach enjoying the pleasant evening weather and listening to the guitarists play on the boardwalk,  so we did the same!

Day 6: travel back to Seoul
Time to repack! I was ok saying good-bye to our Busan hotel. While it was nice to have a large bathroom, the decor was really outdated and wifi didn't work in the room (which is disappointing cuz everywhere you can get free wifi, even in the beach). Although it was a great location, a block from the beach. We needed lunch before we left so we started walking! After a few failed attempts at finding a readable menu we came across a Chinese restaurant. I ordered the noodles in black bean sauce with green peppers. Turns out the green pepper was jalapeno and it was crammed full of seafood (again, glad I got that seafood test!). Plus the noodles were just not that good, way too chewy (and Rachel said the squid was chewy too). Not the best lunch, but I have failed lunches at home too!!

We cabbed it to Busan station where you catch the express train to Seoul. It was really busy for a mid-Saturday afternoon! After taking time to get a donut for the trip, we only had to wait 1 minute til we could board. Oh and donuts here...not as sweet. The honey dripped on my donut was the sweet part. The train ride is a pleasant one, nice to stretch out just sit back and relax.

Arrived in Seoul and checked into our final hotel of the lag. After a minute or two pause to freshen up it was time to go on the hunt for food. We ended up making a big circle and eating right across from the hotel! I got a tofu dish (no seafood! ) and loved it. We spent hours after dinner walking and shopping. It was 11 at night when we returned to the room and no shops were even closing, crazy!