September 28, 2024
I went to Songdo Beach with my friends.
We bought some kimbap from a shop near the beach that a friend who knows Korea well had highly recommended. We ate it as a quick snack, and it was incredibly delicious.
It was a hot day, so we bought some cold drinks at the seaside café VARISTRO and took a break. We saw a sea slater moving incredibly fast, which finally made me really feel that we were by the sea.
We took the Songdo Marine Cable Car. The floor of the gondola was made of glass, which made the ride fairly thrilling. It was also quite windy that day, and the gondola swayed quite a bit, making one of my friends look very tense. It might be a little scary for people who are afraid of heights.
We took a taxi to Gamcheon Culture Village.
There were tourists everywhere, but the colorful roofs of the houses built along the mountainside looked beautiful. Somehow, the village reminded me of the Palmita district in Mexico.
Busan is also the hometown of BTS members Jimin and Jungkook, and there was a mural depicting the two of them in Gamcheon Culture Village.
We then took a taxi back to the hotel and met up with another friend who had arrived in Korea that day.
While we were eating pears at the hotel, my friend injured a finger. The friend had overseas travel insurance, so we called the insurance company’s assistance desk and asked them to find a hospital as soon as possible. However, it took some time to find one, and we started to get a little anxious.
In the end, rather than waiting for the insurance company, my friend who knows Korea well used their network of Korean friends to find a hospital, and we took a taxi there.
While my friend was receiving treatment at the hospital, another friend, whom I was meeting for the first time that day, and I had nothing to do, so we went to get some hotteok.
At Kkamale, they cooked the hotteok right in front of us. It was packed with nuts, and it was so delicious that I was genuinely impressed.
I found out later that my friend had briefly lost consciousness during the treatment, and apparently an ambulance crew was called, causing a bit of a commotion.
Meanwhile, completely unaware that anything so serious was happening, we were enjoying coffee at FM Coffee House.
Then we went back to Kkamale and bought some more hotteok. It had been so delicious that I wanted to try another flavor, this time with cheese. As expected, it was really good.
After the treatment was finished, we met up with our friends and took a taxi to Shinsegae Centum City.
The food section was full of things that looked delicious, and I had a hard time deciding what to look at. We ate soft-serve ice cream and bought sesame oil and stock tablets as souvenirs.
We took a taxi to Haeundae and went to 해성막창집 (Haeseong Makchangjip) for grilled intestines and other offal.
An insect was served as a side dish, so I tried it. It tasted good, but the flavor wasn’t impressive enough to overcome its appearance, so I decided to stop at just one.
We finished with udon and fried rice. I ate too much again, but everything I ate in Busan was delicious.
