Weekend in Busan

After a low key Friday night, which included Hapkido followed by some green tea, I decided to step it up a notch for my Saturday night. Joanne, Evan. Matt and myself left late Saturday to head to Busan. After a very long, hot bus ride...where we had to stand for 40 minutes and Matt managed to spill Coke on some Korean's lap, we arrived in Busan. Matt thought it would be fun to take the cable car up the mountain, however, after some poor attempts at calling the park and ignoring the taxi driver who told us it was closed, we indeed realized we had missed the last lift and decided to go back to the National University area for some Starbucks. Post Starbucks and too many stairs (damn subway stairs) we arrived at O'Brien's bar for a few pints and some burgers. Our friend Christina, having beaten the worst hangover in history, decided to make the trip after all and met us around ten to join in the fun. We got a Yogwan (cheap Korean hotel) and had some showers, then made out way to Vinyl Underground...a very cool club, unlike anything in Ulsan.
We danced all night, met some cool people (I managed to meet a friend (Anne) of Ryan and Kelly's whom I had only seen photos of before....small world) and drank enough beer to drown a small child. There was a crowd of Ulsan-ites who made the trip to Busan to see our friend Gino's Band play at a bar called Monk. We missed the show, but heard it was awesome after they arrived to Vinyl later in the night!
Sunday, after everyone woke up, we took a taxi to Haeundae beach to go for a buffet breakfast at the Paradise Hotel. It was very expensive, 30000won, and I can't say it was totally worth it, although the cheese was fabulous. I am sure we looked like a bunch of nutters during breakfast...each of us still giddy from the night before and lack of sleep eating among business men and women in this posh hotel...but it was good fun.
For the rest of the day we relaxed at the beach, tried to get some sun and even stuck our toes in the cold East Sea waters. We made it back to Ulsan around 8 last night, tired and gritty from the sand.
It was a fun weekend, has been a while since I laughed that much. Considering both Evan and Matt will be leaving Ulsan in the next month it felt like a small goodbye trip. Thanks for a fun weekend mates!
Sorry to those at home, I didn't make it to any temples for photos of the lanterns...sorry to disappoint (Valerie).
Ciao
Colleen