After our Bukhansan adventure, we needed serious rest, so rest is what we did. All day, in fact. It was our laziest day in a month, and it felt well deserved. We gorged on bibimbap, blogged, watched Netflix, slept. We were so tired and sore from the hike, that it was needed. When you’re on the go all the time, it’s good to take a break here and there.

We had one more day in Seoul and had a few things we wanted to see before we left, so on Wednesday, that’s what we did. First, we went to Bukchon Hanok Village, which is an area of Seoul that has homes built in the traditional Korean style. It was a very beautiful way to spend our morning.

One thing we found in Seoul is tourist information helpers, dressed in red, sometimes with a cowboy hat, helping guide people through Seoul. It’s quite a friendly and awesome thing they are doing, especially since South Korea is trying to boost tourism.

After that, we meandered our way over to Jongmyo Shrine, which was pretty incredible, especially since we were two of only a handful of people visiting that day. Many kings have been enshrined here, and we loved the setting and vast courtyards.

 

After that, we made our way over to Gwangjang Market, which has food and sells all kinds of products. We were particularly looking forward to eating some street food, but we had a weird experience with the first vendor we bought food from, making us uncomfortable and unhappy (long story short: we weren’t allowed to eat at the table, even though that’s what we thought we were getting out of buying her food, and we ended up eating our food in a sad alley). The second stall we tried was much better.

The next day, we packed up our bags and headed to Busan via the high speed rail. We stayed in the Seomyeon neighborhood in Busan, which reminded us a lot of Japan. We had a delicious vegan meal our first night, but totally spaced on taking photos. Our first day out, we headed to the famous Haeundae Beach, which is the best beach in South Korea. Turns out it was not the best day to be at the best beach, because it was raining and pretty miserable.

We had wanted to eat at the food stalls at the beach, but everything was closed due to weather.

We decided it was only best that we get a taste of home and go see a movie, so we went to a nearby theater and saw Dr. Strange, starring one of our favorites, Benedict Cumberbatch.

The next day, we went to the Busan Cable Car (yay, another ropeway!) to do a hike to Seokbul-sa temple, which is apparently very hard to find. This day ended up being so incredible that Shawn is going to do a dedicated post for it. Stay tuned for the story of how we met some local drunken hikers at an outpost in the mountains.