This started by waiting for 1.2k photos/videos to finish uploading. Was in Korea (again, yes) from 11-19 Ap! 1 trip, 3 segments: (1) the best weather and views in Busan, (2) the best performance and atmosphere at SS9 Encore and (3) the best food and drinks with friends in Seoul. A sign of a great trip was being perfectly content and ready to go home at the end of it.
But a bit no time to blog coz post-covid-back-to-normal life moves too fast. So it shall be chronological photojournal style, minimal editing, covering segments (1) and (3). (2) is still part of another story haha. For the first time, I shall let the pics take the lead in a post. This was originally just gonna be 1 post... Had to break things up coz 250+ photos/GIFs is too much but all 4 parts are up!
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Busan
It's a good feeling to be excited while planning a trip. For the Busan leg, I was super excited. Just got the feeling that the things I'd be doing there would suit me very well. And I was right!
11 Apr, 5am: Was on the red-eye Jejuair flight, the only direct route to Busan from SG. One-way flights are more expensive, but I saved lots of time compared to bouncing in from Seoul. Couldn't sleep well as usual, and happened to rouse from semi-consciousness to this dramatic view.
10am: It took all of 2h to get to hotel after touchdown. I was hungry by then but the stomach was confused about what it wanted to eat. So I took the easy way with my first ever croffle and was surprised at how much I liked it!
I relied quite a lot on buses this trip and found that they had quite peculiar seating. Here, I was sitting with my legs scrunched almost to chest level coz the seat was over the wheel. Also, I noticed that there didn't seem to be any double-decker public buses in Korea.
11:50am: Reached the start of the Igidae Coastal Trail (Yongho Starlight Park end), the first of the 3 walks over my 3 days in Busan. It started with a postcard view of the Gwangalli Bridge and Haeundae.
I stopped to admire the view/take pictures/enjoy the wind soooo many times that this ~5km walk took me 2.5h to finish. With the blue sky and the blue sea... it was that gorgeous. Also, I put on my sunglasses and practically kept them on for the next 3 days 😎
Took the coastline-hugging route which came with assorted terrains and many stairs. It started off easily enough in my chosen direction (heading south).
The first attraction was a set of 5 suspension bridges called 구름다리 - Bridge of Clouds.
Boardwalk, dirt, stone pavement, coastal rockface, scrub - this trail had everything. I alternated between watching the view and watching my feet. Didn't wanna hurt anything on the first day of holiday~
I especially liked the open rock faces because these were where the sea wind (can't really call it a "breeze") could be felt at full blast. The weather was like aircon + sunshine which sounds strange but was extremely luxurious. Must say that I was probably very fortunate to be there in a window where everything to do with the weather was perfect. Well, we do get these amazingly bright blue skies in SG too, except that it doesn't come with 15 deg weather...
Decided to chill awhile atop a nice rectangular boulder and enjoy everything in the picture + the rushing wind. Life couldn't get better (oh but it did actually, that was only halfway into Day 1 after all xD). I considered this one of the representative moments of the trip.
The second half of the walk was more undulating. I started to feel my knees since I came straight from the red-eye and there wasn't a chance to get my knee guards on. The inner areas away from the coastline were also very insulated from the wind so it got quite hot. T-shirt was enough.
Most of the route was quite clearly marked/intuitive so it's a safe trail to take even while alone (made sure of this before coming). This particular path was marked "길 없음" or literally "no road" haha. Of course I went down it out of curiosity and came to a dead end as expected xD
This short trail was part of larger trails (200+ to 1400+km long) across Busan/the east/south coasts of Korea, marked by coloured flags. Those sound like something to do on a sabbatical haha.
I pretty much stopped at every viewpoint along the way out of curiosity. At some of them, it was almost like the world was entirely made up of sky and sea (and maybe a random fisherman).
Near the end of it, there were many many stairs going upwards. To tell the truth, I met more people going in the opposite direction. But it was a conscious decision to take this direction since, from previous experience, going down stairs would have been much more damaging than going up. Also, not all the stairs were these nice wooden ones. I think going down all those the rocky, rooty dirt stairs would've killed my knees and my plans for the next 8 days. All in all, I preferred to climb upwards and was thankful that I managed to squeeze in some conditioning before the trip!
I was counting the stairs and lost track after climbing a full HDB block or so. So I turned back to watch the view for a bit.
2:10pm: I emerged out of the scrub at the end point: Oryukdo Sunrise Park up on a hill overlooking the Oryukdo Skywalk (the blue structure extending off the path, over the sea). The pictures sort of look calm and innocent here, but this was where I faced the strongest wind of the entire trip. Both jacket layers came back on as I moved gingerly, bracing with tired knees, to avoid getting blown off balance and rolling downhill. The Skywalk was closed due to "adverse weather conditions" and rightly so. It was all bright and sunny but I think it would've been possible to get bodily blown off the structure.
The park was full of bright yellow rapeseed flowers! Haven't seen so much of these since the days in the UK wandering through fields full of them. And the apartment blocks in the background made it look like a City in Nature promotional shot.
Maybe this will give an idea of how strong the wind was. No roaring sound coz GIF but visuals should be enough. Those weren't waves, more of ripples caused by the wind dragging the water surface along. I was having stand firm and keep an extra tight hold of my phone coz the wind was like some heavy thing nudging me along physically. Compared to this, the only time I've felt stronger wind was at Giant's Causeway. But that time was all grey and dreary and cold, so this was a much better experience haha.
4:15pm: Took some time to get back after getting on some wrong buses (some of them only plied partial routes). Here's a picture of my room coz I was super satisfied with it! Sleeping right smack in the middle of a king-sized bed is a true joy in life. Not to mention, this only cost about S$60/night with breakfast!! Seoul hotels cost more than twice that at that time :')
5:20pm: Went out nearby for dinner at Samjin Amook (삼진어묵) for some innovative Korean fishcake. There was quite a large variety so I picked whatever was visually appealing to me, including a cheese one of course. They were nice but would've been better heated up...
Agree with this haha. My hotel was the building on the right of the photo, just next to Busan Station.
6pm: Knowing myself, I might've been tempted to wander around a little longer after dinner even with sore knees. But the rain was a firm sign to go back and rest. I'd prepared for the Busan leg by packing knee guards for both knees and buying my own tube of Urah cream which was very helpful haha.
But I did visit the CU next door and came back with a small haul of my favourite 서울우유! I like it very much, especially the strawberry one. Fun fact: the strawberry milk is white, not pink. On any other day I might have come back with a can of beer instead, but they were having a 3-for-2 promo on the milk~
Crashed at 8pm that night. Which I guess is natural after going for a hilly walk on the day after a red-eye flight.
>>Day 2
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