Busan

Jumping straight into it.

After putting off going to Busan with my girlfriend (Sarah, 24, Alabama, USA) for the past couple of weeks due to various reasons, we decided to travel the 200-odd miles to Busan using the super-fast KTX train. At 300 km/h max speed, the KTX really is the only way to travel to Busan... unless you fancy the bus. We took the KTX, though, seeing as Sarah doesn't get off work 'til late. From Seoul station to Busan station it took close to 3 hours, which wasn't too bad.. got a bit of shut-eye on the way there. Saying that, I got woken up by some screaming kid who really wasn't being considerate... but other than that it was a nice smooth trip :) oh, actually, on the way back someone decided to bring a small container full of fish (or something that smelled strongly of fish) and chucked it on the overhead shelf.. and a woman sitting across the aisle from me brought a bag of kimchi with her, which smelled... and we were having so much fun in Busan that we actually forgot to eat so we were starving... can't fault the KTX though :P

When we got there, Busan was great! Slightly overcast but sweltering hot (I got sunburnt again..). Shorts weather, but I wish I had flip flops (tip: buy flip flops if your hitting Busan cos it's just plain uncomfortable otherwise). I'm not gonna sit here and describe all the beers we drank and the streets we wandered down, so here are some pictures :P louder than words, an all that.

This is me in the tunnel they have through the main tank in Busan aquarium. It's full of nurse sharks, which looked terrifying because they were bearing their teeth; huge groupers, which were really ugly but the same size as the nurse sharks, which instantly made me think of some kind of fight between the two mainly because I saw a video clip of an octopus killing a shark the day before and I wanted to see the grouper-nurse shark equivalent (I watched them more closely after that thought); and large schools of shiny fish.

Can't remember where this was taken, but Sarah and I are in the jaws of a huge shark (fake though :'( ).
We took a boat ride out into Busan's surrounding waters on a little tour and it got sooo cold. It was such a bumpy ride that I'm surprised we managed to keep our stomachs intact let alone take this picture :P but it was a great ride, to be honest. Busan is beautiful.

We visited a coastal temple on the Saturday, which was, again, beautiful. The view was great, the temple was nice, and authentic too because there were plenty of people about praying and that while we took pictures. I'm pretty sure I wasn't being disrespectful when I couldn't be bothered to switch my flash off but I'm sure I'll be forgiven somewhere down the line.

Another one of us at the temple.

This is me next to the - guess what!! - KTX :P It's a double ended train, which we didn't know at the time, and we were confused for a few seconds as to why the train was setting off in the opposite direction. Divs.

Other things happened like the amazing curry place Sarah took me too... argh, it was like heaven. It challenges some of the places in the UK, I tell ya. 'Ganga' it's called, if anyone reading this is planning a trip to Busan, and it's right by Haeundae beach below the TGI Friday's. 40 minute wait to get in, but I could've waited longer, to be honest..

And that was Busan :) Check my facebook for more pictures if you want.