Busan 부산 is the second largest city in South Korea, and is the largest port city as well. I originally didn’t have anyone to go with to Busan, because Stef had previously already gone to Busan with our Singaporean friends, but she decided to go with me again so I got a chance to go!

We had originally bought our bus ticket for 8:30am but we arrived at the bus terminal 5 minutes late… and we’ve figured out that buses and the KTX here departs right on the dot – they don’t wait for anyone. So we had to buy new tickets – and I don’t know what was wrong with me but I bought the most expensive ticket.. but that’s okay. Once in a while is okay.

We ended up departing from the Express Bus Terminal at 9:30am and I think we arrived in Busan at around 1:30pm? Along the way, we stopped at a pit stop that lets you buy food and snacks midway through your bus ride. It was really surreal to me that I got to go to one of these since I had seen Running Man play games at these before…

Upon arrival we took the subway in Busan to our hostel, Kim’s House in Busan, which was near Daehyeon station. You can use the T-Money card in Busan as well!

The hostel was really easy to find, and it’s super close to the subway station as well. It’s literally a house and you live in a room – and Stef said it was much better than the hostel she stayed at in Busan last time. The host was extremely friendly and was really helpful in explaining how to get to everything and explaining what places were good to go to. The rooms were also clean and the entire atmosphere there was just very relaxing and safe.

Since it was already the afternoon when we arrived, we decided first to head to Haeundae Beach 해운대해수욕장 to take some pictures.

The view was absolutely beautiful!

While in the area we ate some ice cream similar to Soft Peaks back at home, and we also walked around the market area and bought some bread.

Then we took the subway to Seolmyeon station, which is like the downtown of Busan. We went and ate dwaeji gukbap 진주돼지국밥, which is famous in Busan (I know the link is for Jinju.. but trust me it’s famous in Busan) – there are stores selling this dish almost everywhere in Busan. Stef brought me to the place she had went to before, and we got udon instead of rice – but it was still delicious!

There was street food everywhere on that street but I thought it was really strange that every single stall sold the same food…

We then went to Samgwangsa 삼광사, a temple in Busan. That weekend was Buddha’s Birthday, which is seen as a big deal in South Korea. There was a huge lantern festival 삼광사 연등축제 and I’m really glad that we decide to go to Busan on this weekend – seeing all the beautiful lanterns was totally worth it.

Sleeping at the hostel that night was okay – I’m pretty sure someone snored in our room but I put an earphone in to act as an earplug so it blocked out some of the noise.

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I woke up really early since one of the girls in our room decided to go to the bathroom early in the morning… and I got mosquito bites too ):

The next day, we went to the Gamcheon Culture Village 감천문화마을 in the morning.

The hostel doesn’t provide breakfast, but you can buy food to cook yourself… but we just ate the bread that we had bought yesterday.  Again a good decision – there was a festival happening there that day! Stef said that last time they came, there was a lot less stuff to look at.

We ate a lot of snacks while we were there: this red bean pancake thing, hotteok, fishcakes, and the pearl drop ‘cake’ (which is more like a blob of jello). Everything was delicious!

The houses there were all different colours too and it was really amazing to look at from above.

We then went to the Busan International Film Festival Square (BIFF 광장) via bus, which was really like the Richmond Night Market but during the day instead of at night.

We had a churro (it was actually really good) since churros are, for whatever reason, really popular in Korea, and Stef got a croquette that she had wanted to try since last time.

   

Then we walked around the area, and went a bit into Jagalchi Market 자갈치 시장.

Previously I had seen that a cafe in Busan sold bibimbingsu, which was just shaved ice in the shape of a bibimbap. So we looked and we looked… and it wasn’t in the place that we expected it to be. Then I realized it had changed its name and was at a different station, so we went to that station and actually found the place… only to find out that they don’t make that dessert any more T.T So we just had a really early dinner of pizza there instead.

Then we walked around some more and had Baskin Robbins – my first real BR scoop in Korea!

We waited until it became dark, and then we headed to Gwangalli Beach 광안리해수욕장 to see the bridge at night. The sand there was really fine and the bridge was absolutely beautiful!

To end off our night Stef got another dessert, a Nutella toast which was actually really yummy.

I wore my raincoat to sleep that night so I wouldn’t get any more mosquito bites!

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 I woke up again early this morning because the girl went to the bathroom early… again.

Since we had bought our bus ticket to Jeonju 전주 for 1:20pm, we decided to go the Busan Museum 부산박물관 to take a look around before leaving. The museum was surprisingly close to our hostel!

Then we took the subway back to the express bus terminal and took the bus to Jeonju from there. Again, we stopped at a pit stop for a bathroom and snack break.

Upon arrival in Jeonju, we had to take the taxi to the Hanok Village 전주한옥마을 where we had booked a room at Gaeunchae for the night. We actually got off at the hotel near the village and then our host came to get us with his dog ;A;

Our room was a good size for 2 people, and it was perfect because the washroom was renovated extremely well. It might have been a bit expensive on the wallet, but I think the experience was worth it.

Since we had arrived late in Jeonju, after our host told us about where everything was we went out and explored. In Jeonju the only thing there is to look at is the Hanok Village, so we didn’t have to worry about public transport or anything. The area of the Hanok Village isn’t very big so it was easily doable in half a day.

There’s street food everywhere – I wanted to eat a lot of stuff, but I didn’t have the appetite to eat a lot of the things. We did buy the famous Jeonju chocopies made by PnB, though – those are famous for a reason and they are really really good.

We also had some dumplings since they smelled really nice!

Jeonju is also famous for their bibimbap so we decided to share one as well – it was double the price of the ones we would usually find in Seoul. I’m not good at eating expensive things because I won’t understand what’s so expensive or important about them, and it was the same for the bibimbap – I thought it tasted exactly the same as a normal one. Stef thought it was really yummy though!

Everything in the Hanok village closed unexpectedly early, so Stef got Sobok  소복카페, a rice-based ice cream, for dessert. Then we walked around some more and then headed back to our room. There was a TV with a lot of channels so after scrolling through them twice I settled on watching a re-run of the 100 vs. 100 episode of Running Man.

Marcius, Jay, Kiven, and Alexia were in Jeju while we were in Busan, so they livestreamed us them doing the fire noodle challenge! #prayforjay

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Stef woke up a lot earlier than me because she wanted to go and see the Catholic Church, but unfortunately it wasn’t open at the time she went ):

After I woke up, we went to the edge of the Hanok Village and walked up a little bit to a place called Omokdae 오목대, where you can see the view of the Hanok Village from. Originally we were a bit disappointed because we couldn’t see the rooftops due to the tree branches, but when I moved to another spot I found it was really clear and the view was really nice (:

We also went to Cafe Jeonmang for a quick morning drink and also to look at the view since it was four stories high!

Then we went back, bought a few more chocopies that had been sold out last night, and then we went and took the taxi back to the express bus terminal.

The bus ride from Jeonju to Seoul was the quickest one, and the ticket was also the cheapest one as well.

My trip in Busan and Jeonju might not have been really exciting, but I’m still really glad I got to explore outside of Seoul. Even if you live in a foreign country for four months, you don’t really know the country until you really explore more parts outside of the single city you live in!