We decided to take a few days off from work and explore Korea. Seeing how we have done a few stay-cations and have now been to Seoul a few times, we decided to head south this time to visit Busan.
It was a long drive so we took a lengthy pit stop at one of the many rest stops on the expressway. It is not just a bathroom but there are several restaurants and convenience stores. Here are the girls and Zachary enjoying a pastry.
I grabbed some Tapokki. It was large rice noodles and what I think were bits of fried egg all smothered in a spicy red pepper paste. Spicy yes, delicious also.
After another 2 hours and a total of 3 Disney movies en route, we found ourselves in Busan. Where else should we eat but Home Plus, of course? We have a strange love (addiction?) for the food court there and at E Mart. Oddly enough we ate at a Pho Noodle restaurant inside this Home Plus.
And here is Hazel going to town on a soup broth that was uniquely flavored. Best we could tell was it tasted like black licorice.
Charlotte's new favorite photo face.
Our destination was Haeundae Beach.
The water was a tad cold but hey, it's the beach and not working so I will take it.
Jari and I did not find a convenient place to change so we didn't.
Sand: love and hate it. It is fun at the beach but tends to find its way home and into children's hair for about a week or two and several baths. But the kids love it.
Zachary loved picking up sand and throwing it into the waves as they would come rolling in.
He had a blast getting blasted.
Sand in mid-flight.
Hazel got "stuck" om high ground. Stepping down the 6 inch lip to the wet sand proved to be too challenging.
Again, silly is in vogue.
Zachary found that he loved to lay in the sand and roll around. At one point he face-planted and was literally covered in sand.
My favorite part about the beach today was this lady.
Zachary inspired a group of sand rollers.
A quick video to share. Just copy and paste:
https://youtu.be/GproW8Vvyc0
With the exception of hair, Charlotte at least loved to jump in and get cleaned off. The other two, not so much.
Fun with sand. Its just big dirt which explains his love for it.
Hazel enjoying staying dry and warm.
Charlotte asked me to go seashell hunting which consisted of her holding my hand and humming while I looked for some seashells rolling in the waves. It was a one-sided endeavor for sure but I always enjoy holding her hand.
More sand throwing
After checking in to Hotel Almond near Busan Station (side note, it is a nice hotel where I got 2 rooms with a twin and full in one and a twin and queen in the other for 69,000 Wan total. That is about $65. Oh and that is for three nights. So about $11/room/night. Amazing!) we headed across the road to Chinatown.
We looked at a lot of shops but it is hard feeding American kids noodles and grilled fish in spicy sauce with their heads still on.
We soon found a Russian restaurant of all things and figured they would have something with potatoes in it. I am American and though I enjoy Korean food, variety is something I really enjoy. We were greeted by a blond lady with tattoos and a short skirt who started talking Russian to us. I've never been mistaken for Russian but considering we don't look Korean it was a good guess on her part. We sat down and eventually a guy came out to take our order.
Only in Korea would you be served Kimchi with your meal. Funny. I'm sure the owner serves it only out of obligation.
I ordered a soup (potatoes) which I shared with Jari as we thought they had forgotten about her Kabob. It was heavily flavoured with dill which was interesting. I was glad I shared as the Kebob came with Cucumber which Jari is allergic to, a sad day. It really was the best Kebob I have ever had.
We saw a lot of Russians in China town which was strange to me until the next day when I found a tourist map that showed the Russian Embassy was located a block away.
One other tidbit. The restaurant was not exactly family-friendly. They had some violent Russian TV show playing the whole time and it was hard for the girls to not watch. We talked about learning to control our eyes and such. What helped the most was playing Charlotte's favorite game "Guess the person I'm thinking of" where they each thought of themselves. Funny girls. Zachary was a pill.
We headed back to the hotel and split up for the night. Hazel tossed and turned and kicked me for an hour or two but finally fell asleep.
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