Busan day two

Andy is getting sick. Tuesday morning we went to find a drugstore in Busan. After walking around for 10 minutes we finally found a pharmacy, clearly marked. The guy inside spoke no english, so we mimed stuffy nose and cough. He handed us 2 packs of pills and a bottle of warm liquid and told us to take 2 of each pill and the entire bottle. Talk about drug overload. Andy took the pills but we waited until we could talk to a Korean to figure out what the bottle was.

Our first real activity of the day was to find the cable car in Geumgang park. It was about a 30 minute subway ride and another 20 minutes of aimlessly walking towards the mountain, where we could see the cable car but there were no signs to get to it. Geumgang park was a surreal experience. I didn't take any pictures because I was just too surprised at what was there. If you have seen Spirited Away, this park was a lot like the park in the movie, except more trees. But equally as creepy. There was a small amusement park and food stands mixed in with the forest. But there was hardly anyone in the park at all.

(This is just a small portion of Busan, it spreads all the way on either side of this picture)

We took the cable car to the top of the mountain where we were expecting to find an old fortress. For about 10 minutes we were doing really well, following the signs for Nam moon (south gate) until we reached this sign:

The first two characters say Nam Moon, but I don't recognize the other characters. So we followed the upper path since there was another, more official looking sign, that said Nam Moon this way. The sign says only 0.3m to the gate. Well, after walking for 20 minutes and reaching a food stand we realize that somehow we have gotten lost. We made it back to this sign but we didn't want to go on another wild goose chase for this stupid gate. We started heading back for the cable car.

That's when we met Nick, another fellow American also lost in the woods. Maybe it's a Korean thing, but these signs just weren't made for us Westerners. We had a nice chat with Nick about Korea and the culture and a little about home (He's originally from NY but living in Milwaukee). While up on top of the mountain we found another temple. At this point we're kind of unimpressed by temples. It's like looking at churches, there is only so many that you want to see, especially the unimpressive ones.

Next stop, Busan tower. It's just a tourist attraction, but has a neat view of the harbor and surrounding city. Andy and I hung out in the cafe at the top eating our snacks and just relaxing. We had a couple hours to kill before Kim was done with work and we were pretty tired of walking around. Plus, you can't ask for a better view.

For dinner we met Kim, Krissy (one of the girls from the Temple Stay) and their friend Jin, who is native Korean. Jin took us to a korean restaurant and ordered chicken and seafood barbecue. Not bbq like in the US with sauce and grilling and stuff. A giant round bowl was placed on a burner in the middle of the table and the food was brought out raw and cooked on our table. It was decently good, but Jin kept telling us that it was terrible, so I guess not really authentic.

(View of Busan harbor from Busan Tower)