Spa Land: Scarred for Life

Sunday was a pretty laid back day.  Everyone was recovering from their hard plays of Gaelic football.  I was feeling great since I didn't play.  However, being a spectator can be hard work.  Their league has "Sunday Sessions" after their tournaments.  The Irish love to socialize, so we went to The Wolfhound that sponsored their weekend. I was feeling a little under the weather, so I was glad to get on that train back to Busan and get some rest.

I slept in this morning and still felt a little off.  Katie was off to work until 3, so I had some time to figure out what I wanted to do with my day.  First thing was trying to find some medicine for this killer headache.  After making a few stops into some random convenience stores, I found some Tylenol.  I went to my favorite coffee shop and relaxed with my latte.  Sometimes it is nice traveling by yourself. You get to think and people watch a lot.  

Rainy season in Busan started the day I got here, so I decided that I was going to try out a Korean spa.  Everyone has talked about how it is the "thing to do" here, so I decided why not?!  I've never been to a spa before so I had no idea what to expect.  Katie told me that the best one is in Centum City in the biggest shopping mall in the world called Shinsegae Department Mall.  It literally is the biggest mall I've ever seen!  Very high class stores inside like Louis Vuitton, Coach, Michael Kors, Lacoste...that just begins a few of the stores.  So there was no shopping for me, just drooling.  

Shinsegae Department Mall.  Google it!

So I find my way to Spa Land.  I paid 13,000 ₩ (approx. $13) for a limit of 4 hours at the spa.  How cheap is that?  I should've taken a spa 101 course because I had no idea what the heck I was doing.  You get a wristband with a key on it that is like your magic key.  It gets you anything and anywhere.  I first had trouble getting my magic key to work in my shoe locker.  It is of Korean manner to take your shoes off at the door.  I found a group of three girls that spoke English that could help me out a little.  I asked why my magic key wouldn't come out, and they urged me to find the right account number locker that was given to me upon entrance...Ohhh, so that's what that number was for?  Who knew...

Shoe lockers...now do you understand my confusion?

I then walked into the ladies' locker room and observed the actions around me.  That was really hard for me as THERE WERE HUNDREDS OF NAKED KOREAN WOMEN WALKING AROUND!!! Wait...so you're telling me I'm supposed to strip down stark naked and walk around in front of strangers?  Can I get my money back? I've never been so glad to be a foreigner in my life.  I really had a lot of hesitations, but thought, oh what the heck... YOLO!

I never knew what surprise was behind these walls.

So, I left my pride at the door and walked out into the spa area.  I wasn't sure what to do so I just plopped myself into a hot bath.  Holy hot! They're about 39°C...clearly I'm not quick at math so don't realize how hot it is. I notice that everyone's hair is wet so I take down my ponytail.  Well, the maintenance lady immediately came over and let me know that was not okay.  "You...go wash hair! Shower!"  So she kindly led me to the showers and showed me the communal shampoo and soap.  Ohhh, so you don't want me to just wet my dirty hair in your purified hot bath? Okay, I'm catching on. 

So I showered and enjoyed about every bath that was in the place.  There were hot baths, warm baths, cold baths, and saunas.  These baths come from hot springs that lie 100 meters underground and are sterilized 36 times a day.  Baths were either sodium bicarbonate "beauty baths", or sodium chloride "seawater bath".  The beauty baths are said to remove dead skin cells and make your hair shiny and smooth.  The seawater baths are made for good blood circulation and aches and pains.  These have high concentrations of salt so you won't prune up when you soak for hours.

All of the spa baths without the women...haha!

Outdoor spa bath...so relaxing!

This was amazing and the most relaxing thing I've ever done.  I was getting a little bored, so I decided to ask the kind maintenance lady that told me to wash my dirty hair if there were any places for massage. She pointed me in the right direction and realized this is how they rack up all their money.  I paid 35,000 ₩ do get a full body rub down.  The sweet lady just added it to my locker number and I paid at the end.  

So she lays me on a plastic slab and goes to town.  Most amazingly awkward moment I've ever had in my life.  Pretty sure she scrubbed every crack, crevice, and wrinkle on my body.  She also put what I think was seaweed all over my face. Not really sure, I just let it all happen.  So basically I got a 45 minute rub down from a lady clad in black undergarments.  Feeling uncomfortable yet?  Imagine how I felt!  

So there was a whole 2nd level to this spa, but quite frankly, I was too nervous of what places to walk where...if you know what I mean.  There were restaurants and different types of saunas on the 2nd level.  It was a communal area, but you're given an outfit upon entrance to wear in these areas. Considering I lasted about 4 minutes in the ladies sauna, I didn't feel like I missed out too much.  

This place was just lovely despite the awkwardness that goes with it.  It was well worth the money and experience.  If I could do it every day, I probably would!  

Katie and I are having a chill evening with some take out and a movie.  Traveling is hard work.  Hope you got a good laugh out of my awkward experience today. 

Gaelic Football

Today I got a little taste of Irish heritage mixed in with a Korean scene.  Katie is part of a Gaelic football club in Busan.  This weekend they participated in a tournament with about 5 other teams.  This sport originated from Ireland and has slowly made it's way throughout Asia.  This is played on a soccer field, but consists of about 4 different sports. You can pick it up & run, but only take 4 steps. You then must do something with it, or pass it on to another player. You may bounce it once, or chip it with your foot.  In order to score, you may kick it over a goal post like football for 1 point, or into the soccer goal for 3 points.  It's very interesting to watch.

Katie's team huddled up before the game.

Each game is only about 25 minutes, but it is a very intense 25 minutes.  Watch it on YouTube if you get a chance.  This tournament lasted all day, so it was pretty easy going and very little walking. Thank goodness!  Katie even came home with some hardware.

Showing off her hardware!

We then headed back to the hostel and got ready for the banquet. It was in Gangnam, but I never got a celebrity sighting of Psy. Bummer!  We got a nice buffet dinner that was a huge mix of American and Korean food.  The meat was roasted right off the big in the banquet hall.  After the banquet we went to a place called the Wolfhound where we continued the evening with all her Irish friends.  Pretty low key day, but it was a great time seeing Katie's lifestyle here in Korea.  It was nice to have this day after packing all my days with touring. More fun to come Momday when I visit Katie's school!

More Busan

Today was my last day to travel with Todd, so I made sure to wake him up at the crack of dawn.  I also woke up very early and couldn't go back to sleep.  So we decided that we were going to tackle Dongbaek Park today. This had several different attractions and also had the APEC building where several world leaders came to meet in 2005. This was beautiful, of course, because it is right along the coast.  We also quickly found out that it is where people come to exercise.  Korean exercise is MUCH different than American exercising.  Their main workout is walking, aaaand that's about it! They also enjoy dressing up in long pants, jackets, face masks, and hats in the middle of summer. I'm not sure why they do it, or how they survive, but that is how I have found much of Korea. None of what they do makes sense!  It makes for great people watching.

Dongbaek Park with unusual Korean exercisers.

We toured the APEC building, which stands for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation.  This conference was held in 2005 in Busan and apparently they built an entire building just for this conference. There were 21 world leaders from around the world that came to this conference. At the time, George W. Bush was our representative.  Now, it appears that it just stands as a museum.  Pretty crazy to build one building for that nonsense!  I'm sure they were quite productive. 

The APEC meeting room where the 21 world
leaders sat to stare at each other.

Where George W. Bush sat during APEC.

A wall showing all leaders involved.

Next we just looped around the path and admired the beauty of this city.  I haven't gone one place that doesn't have a gorgeous view. 

Another beautiful sight in Busan.

Panoramic of the whole view.

Typical Asian photo on the suspension bridge.

Random mermaid sculpture.

It was nearing time for Todd to head off on his next journey, so we headed back towards Gwangali and grabbed a quick lunch.  He was off to the airport for Thailand afterwards and I was on my own until Katie got off work.  So, I decided to hop on the subway and visit Nampodong.  This was an area with alleys upon alleys upon alleys of markets.  I couldn't handle myself.  There were big retail shops 

and very small independent stalls.  It went on FOREVER!  I probably could've spent all day here. 

Nampodong markets everywhere!

Then I met Katie at Busan Station since we needed to head back up to Seoul for her Gaelic Football tournament.  More on this very unusual sport tomorrow.  However, she felt the need to feed me because as you have learned, Koreans eat 24/7.  I love it!!  She took me to a typical sit down Korean restaurant for mandu.  This is a Korean dumpling filled with minced meat, tofu, green onion, garlic, and ginger.  They were DELICIOUS!  

Eating delicious mandu before heading to Seoul.

To the left of is, the locals take their shoes off and sit on the floor for a nice, sit down meal. 

Then we were off to Seoul on the KTX (another train system) and met up with her Gaelic Football players.  We got told about 10 times to be quiet on the train ride there.  I am not exaggerating with the 10 times.  Koreans love their peace and quiet time to sleep.

After we got to Seoul we cabbed our way to Itaewon, the area of Seoul that we were staying in.  This was very much a "foreigner" area and the place to be at night...as are most areas in Korea. I saw more English speaking people than I have since I left America! We are staying in a hostel which is very common among European and Southeast Asia travel.  So I pretty much crashed upon arrival with 9 strangers and 1 public bathroom down the hall.  Should be a solid evening!  More to come on Gaelic Football tomorrow.

Walking Across Busan

Remember when I said Todd and I did a tremendous amount of walking on Tuesday? I lied. That was nothing compared to what we did today! Wow! We saw some really beautiful sights today while out. We also got to meet 2 of Katie's Korean friends here that took us out for a very authentic Korean dinner. Read on, because you don't want to miss this story!

We started our day by learning the Busan subway system. It took us a little bit longer to figure out considering we kept trying to pay for our ticket with 10,000 won and it would only take 1,000 won at a time. As you can tell, we are REALLY bad at reading the fine print on things. Once we figured things out we headed towards the Hae Dong Yong Gung Temple.  When we got our subway tickets the "interpreter" told us our pass would be good for the bus as well.  LIES! We waited 10 minutes for the bus and found out we couldn't use it.  The next bus didn't come for another 26 minutes.  So we hopped in a taxi and he was about as coherent as a wall.  Todd showed him a picture of where we wanted to go and still acted clueless.  However, he turned his taxi around and started heading in the right direction so we were taking baby steps.  He made a couple different phone calls and eventually passed his phone off to Todd.  We assume it was his nephew trying to interpret for us.  I didn't think we were ever going to make it. I'm sure the taxi driver was thinking how stupid Americans are!  Anyways, we finally made it in one piece which is shocking because those drivers are nuts!!! 

The entrance to the temple. That is not a suawastika, but a swastika...an old Buddhist symbol.

Hae Dong Yong Gung is a Buddhist temple that is set in the mountain looking out over the coast. WOW! This was absolutely beautiful. We spent our time walking around and enjoying the beautiful scenery that was around us. 

A panoramic view of Hae Dong Yong Gung Temple.  It was very beautiful. Pictures don't serve it justice.

How awesome is that view? It was 10 times better in real life. I could've spent hours in this spot. There were several statues including Chinese zodiac signs and different "good luck" Buddhist statues. Very awesome sight to see!

Chinese zodiac statues representing the symbol for each year.

                 

I am the year of the Tiger. 

Todd is the year of the Ox.

                  

Buddha overlooking the coast. Awesome view!

Lucky wishing well if you can make it into the
cauldrons the Buddha and turtle are holding.

Dragon sculpture with lucky Buddhas surrounding it that tourists
have left.

Starting off my morning with big Buddha.

Todd hanging out with his besties. OINK!

There were also little markets in this area and we decided to try one random snack.  We tried something called hoddeok.  It was really awesome. It was like a fried pancake with a sweet sauce and nuts in the middle.  Yum! 

We grabbed the bus back and headed towards Haeundae Beach.  Busan is a huge beach area and this is one of the popular places to go during "beach season".  We grabbed some lunch here called Kimchi fries.  I told you they love kimchi!  This was just a huge mash-up of different cultures in one. Also a great way to clog our arteries. 

Kimchi Fries...good thing we like to share!

Don't ask me what's all on top because we're not really sure.  It was great though! 

Katie met us after work and took us on a long, gorgeous stroll up Mt.Dalmaji.  This was so beautiful.  I know you're probably thinking I say that about everything, but EVERYTHING is beautiful here. 

 A view on our hike up Dalmaji Hill.

We climbed all the way to the top and down. When we got to the other side we found ourselves in this cute little fishery town.  It was fun to walk around and see the lighthouses. A very quiet area that we later learned is very popular for couples to come to at night and enjoy a romantic evening. GROSS!! Glad we hit that up during the day. 

A view of the fishing area we visited.

We also came across huge gardens like the one below in the backyards of several houses. You don't see many houses in Korea, so when you do, it's a sight to see.

Tiered gardens that went on forever and ever.

We also found our first patch of sweet corn. So now I know I can make it over here if I don't make it back to the states!  Luke would be so proud! 

Can't get away from the farm life.

We took a different route back on a new train track path that has been closed for train traffic. We felt like huge rebels! 

Walking the tracks on our hike back to Haeundae Beach.

 It was really awesome and has been decorated all along the way.  There was a big memorial for the ferry accident that happened near Jeju.  Very cool!

A memorial for the ferry tragedy at Jeju.

Yellow ribbons were tied on the railroad ties for many yards.

My favorite part of the whole evening was meeting Katie's 2 Korean friends, Sunny and Nicki.  They took us to dinner at a very authentic Korean restaurant.  It was a dinner of several Korean side dishes that you share among your company.  Koreans love to share things!  I was very nervous about this at first, but it turned out to be delicious.  Sunny and Nicki did work on theirs and were finished before the 3 of us. Check out below for everything we ate.  Shoutout to Nicki for writing down and translating every single dish we ate!  Holy cow they love to eat!

Each picture is numbered with what it was.  So much food! Pretty sure that mackerel by #11 still had its eyes in.

고향맛 Hometown taste (this is what the name of the restaurant translated to)

1. 누룽지 (boiled water with rice, just water is called 숭늉)

2. 김치전 (kimchi pancake)

3. 겉절이 (hot pepper seasoned cabbage)

4. 고구마줄기무침 (sweetpotato stem)

5. 된장찌개 (soybean stew)

6. 고추장불고기 (spicy marinated pork)

7. 버섯볶음 (stir fried mushroom)

8. 잡채  (stir fried noodle with vegetables)

9. 샐러드 (salad)

10. 김치 (kimchi)

11. 고등어조림 (mackerel boiled with spicy sauce)

12. 쌈 (leaves for wrap)

Looks sketchy, but it was awesome!  So you think we'd be done, right?  Of course not.  I told you Koreans love to eat! They took us to another place and wanted to serve us makkoli.  This is a drink in Korea that they often love to mix with flavors. We tried banana makkoli and of course Sunny and Nicki order another dish to eat.  Seriously?! They're the size of my forearm and can eat for hours! I was so impressed with their eating abilities. 

More food and banana makkoli.

We had a great day and night. It was fun trying something new and getting a good taste of the culture. 

         All of us at the end of the night.

Headed to Busan

Today was our day to head down to Busan to meet my fabulous friend, Katie. We got our day started as usual and found another coffee shop.  Todd and I didn't plan on heading down to Busan until the afternoon so we wanted to make the most of our time. Of course, I'm still a bit gimp from these horrific blisters on the bottom of my feet. (I know, I love to complain!)

We decided we were going to try the Royal Shrine today since it was closed yesterday. So since we are subway experts now, we didn't waste any time getting there.  I guess we both need to be a little bit more like our mother on trips, because when we got there we realized that they were guided tours only and we missed it by 20 minutes! Wahh! The next one wasn't until 12 and we just didn't have enough time to squeeze it in. Todd and I are excellent at paying attention to details. Ha! 

However, that didn't bother us. We just walked down to a popular river walk that is built below the roadway. It was a beautiful sight and very serene. Have you noticed so many things are "serene" here? 

Crossing on the gorgeous river walk!

The River Walk below the roadway.
Absolutely beautiful!

A great escape. I could spend hours here.

A neat waterfall towards the end of the walk.

We then headed down to an area called Insa-dong. The main road is full of little shops full of art, antiques, souvenirs, and tea houses. Every alley way even had small little shops with beautiful, beautiful pieces of art. We did some damage in this area and bought several great items. 

Next we grabbed our luggage and headed to Seoul Station. We took the nearly 3 hour train ride down to Busan. The ride was smooth and the scenery was great. It is much more rural outside of the city. You don't see much action until you get down towards the coast...at least that's what I gathered while my eyes were still open! 

Katie met us at the train station, we embraced and squeezed each other's cheeks, and headed on our way! We then hit up a Korean BBQ restaurant. This is very popular among Koreans and it was a blast!  

The beginning of our Korean BBQ. Yummy!

At Korean BBQs, you choose from a variety of sketchy meat items. We settled on pork neck & skirt steak.  Katie is the true chef, so we let her work her magic. If I get sick from raw meat, she's paying all my medical bills! 

The chef herself hard at work.

We also had a side of Kimchi soup.  Kimchi is VERY popular in Korea and is eaten with almost every meal.  It is a traditional Korean side dish made up of fermented vegetables and seasonings. It is considered spicy and it is very delicious.  I'm a fan!  They also love to dip their food in things, so all those surrounding bowls are different things to dip your meat in.

Todd feeding his face. He's a pro at that.

Todd loves it!  I always capture his best moments. As you can see we eat with chopsticks.  He's very good at it (per usual)...I could use a little practice.  

When we were finished we went next door to a small bar.  Katie said Koreans love to eat and will often make a night of hopping from one place to the next eating a variety of different foods.  Now I know why I'm such an oinker!  It all makes sense.  We had a nice beverage and enjoyed some chips and cheese sticks.  Very native of us!  Going out is fun because you get to meet new people. For example, we got to meet the probably 50 year old director of all the hospitals in Busan last night.  He had an assistant with him and he came to speak with us because the director wanted to "cheers" with us.  Come to find out, he thought I was very much "his style" and wanted to cheers some more.  Hey, I could stay here and never have to work again.  Sorry, Tyler! 

Enjoying an evening in Busan

That random girl is from London and is a friend of Katie's friend that is also visiting Busan. She was great to visit with and has been traveling Southeast Asia for about 4 months now. It is a very common thing to do after you graduate from university.  So we had a great day despite spending half of it traveling. We have a great view of the coast here. Looking forward to our adventures today! 

My view for the next week.

Travel Fail

Todd and I had a huge travel fail last night. We thought we were doing really well by visiting several differen popular attractions in surrounding areas of where we are staying in Myeongdong. We walked and wandered for probably 8 hours straight, came to the room and passed out at about 6.  Never woke back up to go out for dinner or continue experiencing Korea's crazy night life.  We are pretty disappointed with ourselves!  However, let me tell you what we DID do. It was an awesome day of sight-seeing.

We have learned that Koreans love to sleep in.  Now I know why I'm not a morning person.  Sorry mom, I know how fun it was to smack me awake every morning. Now you know why!  We got out around 8:30, and needed our coffee fix, but it was hard for us to find anything that was open.  Coffee shops are about every third shop where we're staying, so it just took a matter of finding one that was open.  

We then headed off to try and conquer the subway system.  We had a list of items that we were going to try to visit and we did a pretty great job of it.  I've never seen a more organized subway system and it's SO clean!  You don't see them yelling and screaming like typical Americans. They just sit and play on their Samsungs or sleep (shocker!).  Our first stop was to Jongmyo Royal Shrine, but it was closed on Tuesdays. Our luck!  We also wanted to see the main palace called Gyeongbokgung, but it was also closed on Tuesday. Awesome. Luckily these were all in the same general vicinity of one another so we found our way to Changgyeonggung Palace. 

Wow! This place was beautiful.  It was occupied during the 1400s when Korea was still ruled by kings.  Much of these palaces had been destroyed by fire from Japaese invasion and later restored in the 1600s.  We had the cutest little tour guide that shared a ton of interesting facts about the place.  

Here is the entrance to the Changgyeonggung Palace.

This is the entrance where the king would meet his subjects. You'll notice that the walkway has 3 different parts with a higher section in the middle. The higher section was obviously for the king and his royalty, while the lower right side was for civilians and the lower left side was for military personnel. There are stone tablets that lead up to the palace, and this is where those walking in would stand according to their rank. 

A picture of the tiered walkway and the stone
pillars where civilians and military personnel
stood according to rank.

The stone Phoenix and justice gargoyles.

The above picture was before you walked up to the palace. The center stone is of a Phoenix and represents the royalty of the king, while the 2 scary gargoyles represent justice. Are you scared yet? (That's what our little lady kept saying. Todd just loved her!) 

This is where it all happened.

How beautiful is this? This is where he sat and did all his business.  The painted picture behind the throne had a very important story, but ya know, I can't remember all that now. 

The serene back gardens of Changgyeonggung Palace.

Here is the back garden in the Changgyeonggung Palace. Everywhere was just absolutely beautiful.  We walked around and observed some of the plants and bugs...no wildlife! Whew! This was a very serene area and we saw several people just sitting and relaxing. Koreans love to take their sweet time doing things. 

Next stop was to Changdeokgung Palace.  You're probably thinking, "that sounds exactly like the first one?!"  Well, you're just not pronouncing it right! Try again.  This was much like Changgyeonggung, but a bit more massive in size.  Here is a picture of the inside of the king's palace at Changdeokgung. 

The amazing and beautiful palace of Changdeokgung.

This was GORGEOUS! Notice that the supporting pillars are round. This is because round stood for the heavens and they believed the king came from the heavens.  All other building surrounding the palace had square pillars and stood for Earth. 

Me in front of the Changdeokgung Palace.

Todd in front of the breathtaking Changdeokgung Palace.

Next stop was lunch where we stopped in an area called Bukchon.  It took us a bit to find a place that we thought we could handle. For example, live octopus is often a dish served.  NO THANK YOU! We finally settled on a neat little place called Garage 107 where we had some rice pilaff.  Better safe than sick!  We then ventured to the Bukchon Hanok Village.  This was just an area of old villages that were gorgeous!

The quaint villages of Bukchon.

So now what? Keep touring of course!  Todd is like an energizer bunny traveler. Did I mention that we walked EVERYWHERE?  Did I mention that I wore a bad pair of flip flops? Did I also mention that it's mid 90s here?  Man, my dogs were barking!  I made Todd stop at a shoe store and bought a new pair...that was easy since there is literally a shoe store in about every block.  

Our last stop was to Gwanghwamun Square.  This seemed to be the heart of where most things happen and was where the main palace sits. This also has the statue of the 4th king during the Joseon Dynasty (the last dynasty to rule). He is important because he is the king that created the Korean alphabet, so he is highly admired by all.  

This is where the ever important King Hunmin
Jeongeum sits.

Of course, we were walking and saw an opportunity for a photo op.  These were the costume Hanboks that the king's court would wear.  This was so worth the whole day and made for a great laugh! 

Todd and I fitting right in.

This was far too fun!

Seriously, I can't handle myself. Hilarious!

Acting important. These were HOT!

It was a long day, but a great day!  Mad at ourselves for sleeping, but we were just trying to fit in with the rest of Korea!  We are enjoying our time and the people.  They are great!

A view of Gyeongbokgung Palace in the background with
the king.