Busan

We fancied a break from Seoul, so hopped on the super fast KTX train and 2 1/2 hours later we were on the south coast in Busan.

We fitted in lots over the 3 days. Beomeosa temple was adorned with lanterns in preparation for Buddha's birthday.



We took a long, tough hike to another temple, Seokbulsa. It was hard to reach, but worth seeing.



The city has some beautiful sights which we got to admire from the top of Busan tower. We spent an evening at the beach. Gwangan beach has a huge bridge that runs from one side of the cove to the other and it looked lovely illuminated at night. We thankfully avoided being hit by any of the huge number of fireworks that people were setting off. There didn't seem to be strict rules over the use of fireworks. People were setting them off in all directions - kids were even aiming them at each other!



Being at the coast we made sure we 'experienced' some seafood. We ate some blowfish just so we could say we ate a poisonous fish and survived, just like Homer Simpson. I liked it, although the experience wasn't particularly exciting - we just had a nice dish with small bits of blowfish in it. (Photo below, top right) Supposedly 100 people a year die in Japan from eating badly prepared blowfish, so maybe I should have been more thrilled!

We ventured to a huge fish market which was amazing! I'm sure you can guess which pictures below are the 개불 'gay-bool', which literally translates as "dog's penis" People actually eat them when they are still alive! The lady took great pleasure in showing us how you can squirt water out of them!

It never fails to amaze me how many animals people fit into a single fish tank. The crabs here looked so crampt.



To relax after all of this action we hit the Hurshimchung jimjilbang, reportedly the largest bathhouse in Asia.