We stopped in Busan on the way to Jeju because people told us we should. It’s Korea’s second biggest city, right on the southern coast. Ocean, cliffs, seafood, the whole deal.
First order of business: lunch.
Naengmyeon. Cold buckwheat noodles with banchan. Ordered from a tablet because Korea has figured out that talking to waiters is optional.
Pokin was tired and had work to catch up on, so she stayed back at the hotel after lunch. Which left Nicholas and me.
I told him to take me to see the ocean. He needs to keep working that knee anyway. The big hike is day after tomorrow and I’ll be honest, it’s looking dicey. But he’s pulling through.
Busan’s coastline is something else. We started walking along the shore and just kept going, up paths we probably weren’t meant to take, along cliffs we probably weren’t meant to climb.
The beach was nearly empty. Off-season. Just us and the skyscrapers across the water.
They built this skywalk that extends right out over the water. Glass floor, waves underneath. I am on record as being dramatically anti-water, so I want it noted that I walked out there anyway. Bravery.
The coastal trail kept going. Rocky cliffs dropping straight into turquoise water. Staircases carved into the hillside. The kind of path where you’re either going straight up or straight down, and every landing has a view that makes you forget you’re out of breath.
Next day, all three of us went back out. Same coast, but farther.
Morning mist rolling through the pines on the hillside. Quiet. The kind of view you don’t need to say anything about.
We kept walking until we hit the Songdo Cable Car area, where things took a turn.
There were dinosaurs. Full-sized dinosaur statues. Just there. At the cable car park. No explanation. No museum. Just a T-Rex with blood on its mouth standing next to a ticket booth like it works there. Teeth bared. Eyes dead. I respect the commitment. This is how you welcome guests.
Korea does this thing where they put random sculptures and statues in public spaces and nobody questions it. Giant blood-mouthed predators at a coastal gondola? Sure. Why not. I’m into it.
We took the cable car back.
The Songdo Cable Car runs right over the ocean, connecting the coastal park back to the city. Gondolas gliding over turquoise water with the whole Busan skyline stretched out ahead of you.
More dinosaurs greeted us at the Busan terminal. Because of course they did.
Busan surprised me. I expected a city with a beach. I got a city built into cliffs, wrapped around an ocean, full of trails and cable cars and dinosaurs that nobody can explain.
Tomorrow: Jeju. The big one. The hike.
Nicholas’s knee has been warned.