My Summer Vacation : Busan Day Trip

Well this is officially the first day of my summer vacation. I decided to head to Busan for the day to check out the Busan Art Museum and a beach. It was only a two hour train ride from Gumi to Busan, the second largest city in South Korea. Here is the the plaza in front of Busan Station. 

The art museum in Busan wasn't that great, but there were some nice pieces. I thought this one would look good in Todd's new house. It is a coat rack and a bench!

Here is a Korean mom explaining this painting to her son.

This one is a pretty good representation of what many Korean kids have to do when they get home from school. I really like the pencil sharpener.

This is probably a fishing port in Busan.

Kyle! Sea Squirts! This is a typical scene at a Korean traditional market. When Kyle was here I asked Erik and him if they ever saw a sea squirt. They started laughing and where like "What the hell is a sea squirt!"

Another market scene.

This was my favorite painting at the museum.

Then there was just rooms of traditional paintings. They were nice, but nothing really caught my eye.

Korean calligraphy. You can compare it with the Chinese calligraphy below.

Even though you don't really know what the calligraphy says, you can still compare the different brushwork of the characters. 

A looser style.

After the museum, I did a bit of shopping downtown, and then found my way to Songdo beach. The sun was already starting to go down so it was nice a cool. Here is a guy fishing with a really big pole. It was funny because he caught a fish only about the size of your hand with that huge pole.

It was dinner time so everyone was spread out on the rocks grilling shellfih.

And drinking makali, Korean rice wine.

When I got tired of the beach, I hoped in a cab and found a jjimjilbang (public bath/sauna/hotel) on the beach. It was pretty awesome because it was right on the water so when I was sitting in the hot tub I could look out the window at the harbor. Because the spa was on the sea they had all kinds of salt hot tubs and saunas. After I had enough water I went to the fourth floor, found myself some blankets, put in my ear plugs, and tried to fall asleep in a room full of snoring Korean women. I didn't get much sleep and woke up at 4 am. It was actually relly nice because I watched the sun come up over the harbor. For breakfast I had some warm soy milk, and then I headed back to the hot tub!