Busan Blast 2009

Busan Blast 2009 group

Well it was quite a weekend in South Korea.

I went to my dance class Thursday and rocked salsa hard. I then went back to Touchdown to meet up with Tim, Colin, Dan and their girlfriends. I have a lot of good memories with those guys, as they were the ones who really introduced me to Korea last year. It was great to all spend a couple hours in the same place again.

On Friday, Barry, Josh and Geoff came to my place around 12:30 p.m., and we headed to Seoul Station to start our Busan trip. At Seoul Station, we grabbed some lunch and last-minute supplies, and we boarded the 3:10 p.m. KTX train toward Busan.

On the way, we decided to so something special and all buy ties to wear on the trip. Make sure you look for them in the pics!

Barry very generously provided us some Johnny Walker for the ride down. We had a great 4-person area that we could face each other and chat the whole time. Unfortunately, old-fashioned racism may have come into play.

On the train

We were being very polite, and mostly studying Korean the whole way down. But twice, stewards came to ask us to be quieter. They said nothing to the two little kids who were SCREAMING their faces off, and nothing to the group of Koreans next to us who were cheering loudly as they played a game.

We certainly weren't the loudest on that train, just the least Korean. Either way, the ride was fun and went smoothly.

We arrived in Busan around 7 p.m. and hopped in a cab toward the Haeundae beach area. Thanks to Johnny C., we had a good list of places to check out. We first got dinner at a place called FN Taco. The tacos were great and the drinks were cheap.

Hanging on the beach

After a couple hours there, we decided to grab some makkoli and hit the beach for an hour or so.

Following the beach excursion, we headed to a bar called Rock 'n Roll, where the owner was a very generous lady. She gave us some free drinks and wasn't shy about chatting with us. It was a nice time. Josh and I even smoked some GIs in beer pong.

After that, we briefly went to a club. I mean briefly because I left after maybe 10 minutes. It wasn't my scene, and I'm a bit bummed that I paid to get in without really realizing where we were going.

We then decided to try to call it a night and find a place to sleep. A lot of places were full, but we found one place with rooms. The lady was overcharging for sure because of Christmas, but I talked her down to 40,000 won. She then showed us the room, which wouldn't have been worth staying in if she paid us.

So we decided to just head back to Busan Station. We got there at 5:20 a.m., and realized a KTX was leaving for Seoul at 5:30 a.m. So I pulled out my Korean and got our tickets changed for that train. We then hopped on it, all chose our own sleeping seat and dozed on the way home.

I slept all day Saturday, and then met Hye Yun for a drink in InHa at Go Bar on Saturday night. I then joined Barry and Josh, as they came in with a few friends.

It was nice to check out the south side of the country, and I'm happy to have ridden the KTX. The only issue I have is that we essentially did very little different than we would have done on any normal night. That was the basic plan, though, and I had a good time regardless.

So check out the pics and let me know what you think!