Busan: A Girls Weekend!

This past weekend, I headed to Busan with five of my girl friends from church!  Busan is on the southern coast of Korea, and is the 2nd biggest city after Seoul.  It is known for its beaches and fish market.  We took the express train (called KTX) to get there because it reaches Busan in under three hours.  We had so much fun!  We stayed in a women's hostel that was a one-minute walk to Haeundae Beach, the most popular beach in Korea.  All day Saturday was dedicated to the beach!  It ended up being a really nice day, so we laid out in the sun and even swam in the ocean a little bit.

In the evening, we went out to dinner to celebrate our friend, Melissa's birthday.  Our hostel owner drove us to this really nice restaurant, where we were able to eat on a terrace overlooking the water and a beautiful bridge.  After dinner, we went back to the beach to relax and talk and watch the waves crash against the shore.  It was such a beautiful night.

The next day, many of us (including me) were very sunburnt!  Apparently we had not used enough sunscreen, and were now paying the price!  Side note:  It's a really big deal to have a sunburn in Korea.  Koreans protect themselves from the sun all the time with umbrellas and lots of sunscreen because they want to keep their skin as white as possible.  So we felt like a disgrace to the Korean culture! :)  Anyway, the four sunburnt girls decided not to lay on the beach the next day, but to visit a temple called Younggungsa.  It is built into a cliff that is right on the ocean, so that provides a beautiful backdrop for the temple.  There are also many beautiful statues there that all mean different things.  It was a gorgeous temple to see!

After we got back from the temple, we ate some lunch and played card games at Starbucks until it was time to catch our train.  The train ride home was relaxing and beautiful, as we got to watch the Korean countryside pass us by outside our windows.  We also talked and reminisced about our year in Korea.  All of us arrived here last summer, so we've had lots of memories together.  Two of the girls, Jackie and Melissa, will be leaving soon, so this was our last big hurrah together.  It will be sad to see them go, but I've been so blessed to be friends with them this year!  I'm so glad I got to spend the weekend with all of these awesome girls in Busan!