Laura woke up feeling much better so we elected to head to Haeundae area, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haeundae_Beach) we snagged a coffee from one of the myriad coffee shops around here. After my regular latte yesterday, I resovled to always get whatever crazy drink the shop is pushing, so today laura got a Dolce Latte, and I got an iced latte with Heath crumbled on top, just the wafer part of the heath bar, it was really good. The subway got us down to Haeundae area which is the beach/coast area, the Busan Port is so that was neat seeing where some of the containers of salmon we see at work end up going to. We sat down on a banch by the water and was immediately approached by a guy that was very excited to practice his English. Ashton told us about his living in New York and Las Vegas for a while, and his family that lives in New York and Texas, asked us what we have seen and what we have eaten here in Korea. He told us he loved eating at Jack in the Box and Whataburger when he was in the US. Which...makes sense...the US is the origin for that kind of fast food genre, the varying cuisines across the United States, and the prevalence of immigrant cuisines, means the uniquely american food experience is had at Wendys. As someone that loves food, it is a little disheartening though. We did eat the other batch of pastries throughout this conversation though. One was a red bean paste bun, that was very tasty, another was red bean and whipped cream which was even better, there was quite alot of whipped cream, and we of course had no napkins, the final one was a matcha green tea mochi pastry with red bean paste, which was probably the best, very dense and filling but very good. South Korea at large, and Busan in particular is working to make Haeundae Beach an international tourist destination, and they have retrofitted a rail line to be a tourist train line, with an above grade tram. The tram takes you at tree level about 2km down the coast.
There are beautiful views of the city and the water. There is a rather isolated part of town at the end of the tram with restaurants and cafes. We walked a little further and cought the tourist train line back to the origin point.
From there we went for some cold noodles, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naengmyeon). Right outside the subway station we needed to go to to get back to our hotel area was this place that had good reviews, and was excellent. No frils, they had 4 things on the menu; Regular Cold Soup, Cold Spicy Noodles, Cold Seafood Soup, and Steamed Dumplings.
The cold soup was initially unsettling, I am not used to slurping up noodles that come out of a (literally) icy soup, but it was very refreshing, and also allowed for the appreciation of all the flavors immediately. As opposed to my usual soup interaction; immediately burning my tongue to the point I cannot taste anything, and then waiting 8 minutes and eating lukewarm soup.
We also starting noticing gaggles of Americans, and realized they were probably servicemembers being released on Thanksgiving leave. Wow were they obviously servicemembers, roving in groups of 4-7, going to pizza places, while the well represented the United States, I dont think they were good representatives of the United States. We took the train home and went to craft Brewery, that mostly had imports, we drank a Golden Ale and a Pilsner from two seperate Korean craft breweries whose names escape me at the moment. We followed that with another local brewern Han's Brews, we got a Pale and the Pilsner.
All of these beers have been pretty good, its clear the craft brew scene is still developing, and I am happy to pay more to support the industry. At most restaurants we can get a domestic 1L beer for 3,000-4,000KRW (2.30-3.10 USD), but these craft beers are anywhere from 5,900-8,0000KRW (4.60-6.20USD) for a 400mL pour.
By now we had brewpub hopped our way closer to our hotel, and the cool hipster neighborhood surrounding it and there were more tufts of American soldier floating about. I did see at least a glimmer of hope in US servicemembers abroad as we passed a group on the stairs from the underground. The snatch of their conversation was "...its almost like they are annoyed we are here..." and as we turned the corner Laura and I were like "yeah bud, thats because they are" (I have just now googled this, and it looks like an aircraft carrier just got here as a show of force probably in response to the North Koreans launching the satellite in the coming days, which means these are seamen and not soldiers, so I feel slightly less responsible for them being obnoxious Americans, they wouldnt be my responsibility of I hadnt hung up the uniform). We got bibimbap (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap) that was solidly OK, but quick and inexpensive.
Given that this is a rather light day to write about, I will take this time to once again talk about the extreme differences of life here vs major cities in the US. Things are SO dense, the mass transit is quick, clean, inexpensive and ubiquitous. The subway stations are often malls unto themselves with small shops and food vendors, and because the competition amongst them is so great, every food stall is good, because the sub par ones dont survive.
This is a photo down one of the hallways of the underground shopping mall here in the Seomyoen neighborhood of Busan, and there are at least 3 others in Busan, and I dont know how many in Seoul, nonetheless in Daegu or Incheon of the other cities in the country. And ehre is a picture of the above ground of that same area.
There is just so much to see, smell, and eat here.
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