Day 5 – Temples and Beaches

A leisurely morning!! We started the day with sleeping in and taking it easy. What a treat! We decided to try the hotel breakfast. Some of it was self-serve (like cereal, juices, coffee, yogurt, nuts and salad) but the price also included shareable plates of a pork, mashed potato, pumpkin, green beans and mushroom concoction, a hot dog, ham, beans, scrambled eggs and salad. After we had our fill, we headed out and caught two cabs. No small feat!

Waiting for a cab

We put Steve, Andy and Pete in one cab, and Emily told the driver where to go. She and I then got in a second cab. It was nice to be with the person who could communicate with the driver!

Food offerings outside the temple. Yum!

After about 20 minutes, we landed at the Yonggung Temple  (also known in this family as the Overwatch Temple because it was used for the layout in one of the Overwatch maps.) We walked all around and took in the sights of this beautiful temple above the rocks overlooking the ocean. There was a monk saying prayers, and many people took off their shoes and entered the various temples for prayer.

They picked the perfect spot for this temple

As we walked around, the sun got hotter and hotter and hotter. We downed a few bottles of water and headed back towards the taxis. We passed a small market where we got a watermelon smoothie in an actual watermelon! It was so tasty on this hot, hot day. We caught two taxis and headed back to the hotel.

Heading in...it's SO HOT

Don't those domes look like something from Star Wars?

The temple

Pretty prayers

This is Andy's Spirit Budda.

A good full shot of all of it (well most of it)

A much needed watermelon drink

Enjoying odd pizza

 Once in the hotel, we changed into our swimsuits and coverups, and headed down to the “Monster Pizza Buffet” on the 4^th floor (lunch, and we didn’t have to go outside!). They had the most unusual pizzas. I got the gorgonzola pizza, sweet potato deep dish, hot dog pizza and the bacon and random meats pizza (I have no idea what was actually on it). There was also a sweet corn pizza which I didn’t have. They also had tater tots and chicken nubs that were sweet, along with salads, soups and a black ice cream that Pete said tasted a bit like lemon sorbet mixed with green tea. All in all, a very adventurous lunch!

We then spent an hour out at the beach in the water as the real feel outside was close to 100 degrees! Once back at the hotel, we showered, changed and just hung in our rooms for an hour. Well, I dozed and the kids watched a gaming channel in their room. We all then headed out to a famous coffee shop on the main drag called Coffeesmith. We enjoyed coffee while we played cards.

FRESH FISH!

We then headed over to the Fish Market. WHAT A HOOT! You enter on the main floor where there are women standing over tanks of fish. You choose your fish (or in this case, one fish flopped out on the floor and tried to choose us!) then you head upstairs to a restaurant where they prepare the fish and serve it to you. IT DOESN’T GET ANY FRESHER THAN THAT!!

Yes, those are bugs above the cole slaw

The restaurant was set up in what I would call a traditional Korean way. We had to take off our shoes and sit on the floor on bamboo mats. They served us a bunch of sides which we mostly tried (except the bugs…Steve and Emily tried the bugs…no interest here!)

They brought us the fish all prepared as sashimi. She had also thrown in more wriggly octopus and another fish as a thank-you for coming.  MOST of us ate the fish, but Andy was keen to try the potatoes and carrots. J

After the fish market, we crossed the street and had a very western-style experience at the Wild Wave Brewery Co. We had pizza, truffle fries and not-very-hot wings along with sodas and beer. We went from traditional Korean to traditional American!

After dinner, we walked back down the promenade where the performers and artists were out again doing their thing. There was a giant Zumba performance/workout going on at the main stage near our hotel, and I got some video of the ladies on stage and the audience all moving together. That was fun to watch! 

But then it was back to the room to pack and prepare for the early morning tomorrow. Busan has been awesome. But tomorrow we leave for Japan!