Busan has been on my list of things to do in Korea ever since we moved here. I always heard how amazing it was – with it’s incredible views, pristine beaches, and friendly people – and we were longing to visit for ourselves. But, sitting right around a 4-hour drive away from where we live, it required some planning. This past weekend we FINALLY made it happen. And I have a LOT of thoughts about it.
Our long weekend in Busan
There are some real dangers in bucket lists. For one, they can get OVERWHELMINGLY long – which can sometimes feel discouraging. But for another, when you finally check that ONE THING off your bucket list that you’ve been waiting FOREVER to do… it can sometimes feel underwhelming and disappointing. That’s not always the case (remember our trip up to the JSA and how that was a LITERAL dream come true for me?) but unfortunately it was exactly what happened with Busan.
Now LET ME CLARIFY: we really did love Busan. It’s an incredible city with all the things that we hoped for. We just also happened to schedule our trip during the “perfect storm” – for lack of a less cliche description. The day we arrived in Busan, we learned that there was a nation-wide “train strike” going on, making use of the subways difficult, if not impossible. In addition, the forecast for the weekend was rain, thunder, lightning, and more rain – which basically canceled all the beach time we had planned. (Of course, we knew there was going to be rain a few days before we got to Busan. But this was really our one shot to go, so we decided to brave it.) Our hotel was right on the beach, so it was frustrating not to be able to take advantage of it.
THEN Brandon came down with some kind of food-poisoning… or something. I’m not really sure what was going on, but he was feeling pretty crappy for about 36 hours. And the icing on the cake was my period showing up six days early (yay) which meant I got to explore the world of Korean Convenience Store Feminine Hygiene Products. And, for what it’s worth, GS25 carries some of the most comfortable disposable period underwear I have ever found… just sayin’.
So, no, we didn’t get to do all the things that we wanted to do while we were in Busan. Still, I look at the list of the things we DID do, and I’m happy with how much we covered even amid the thunder storms. Monday was the day we left to come home and it ended up being hot and humid and sunny. We checked out of our hotel and drove over to Songdo where we got to ride the cable car and take in the incredible views. It would have been the perfect day to visit Songdo Beach (which was DEAD since beach season is technically over), but since we had a 4-hour-drive ahead of us and no way to rinse off, we decided to forgo the beach. Still, Songdo and it’s attractions turned out to be the perfect ending to the trip. It was just the taste of Busan that we were looking for and I’m grateful that the weather cooperated.
Overall our Busan trip was filled with many different emotions. I’ve often heard that life in general is a 50/50 mix of nice-feeling emotions and not-so-nice-feeling emotions. No matter the circumstances, there is going to be a mix of different emotions. And this trip was the perfect illustration of that. I felt a LOT of disappointment. We’d been trying to get to Busan since we moved here, so of course there was some disappointment when various things messed with our plans. Still, I think we managed to make the best of it – between the grumbling and moping in the rain. We visited some amazing places, basked in some KILLER views, and made some really great memories. At the very least, the trip was memorable for so many reasons and we are so glad we could make it happen!
I’ll do more detailed posts about all that we did in the coming weeks – along with pins, costs, hours, and all the other important things to know. But for now… here’s to more adventures and embracing the 50/50!
’til next time…
Ash
