Awoke to sunny skies, Hurrah!  After the wet day yesterday this is nice to see. Cool this morning, 51 degrees, but much preferred than the hot, muggy weather they have in the summer. We will be doing a bit of sightseeing here in Busan before boarding the bullet train after lunch. Rob has been doing a great job guiding us through all the ins and outs of Korean culture. Also, he has us leaving our hotels at the leisurely hour of 9AM.

Busan is the 2nd largest city in South Korea, with a population of  3.3 million people. It is noted for its sandy beaches, seafood and a famous international film festival. It is the busiest seaport in South Korea and the 6th largest in the world.

After checking out of the hotel our first stop was at the seaside beach in downtown Busan for a short walk through Dongbaek park and boardwalk to the famous Haeundae public beach here in the city.  We  joined other locals walking on a padded, rubberized walkway through the wooded park. We stopped to view the APEC House, built specifically for the 2005 meeting and luncheon of the leaders of 21 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) member nations. It is hardly been used (4 times?) since that time and is now a tourist attraction.

After leaving the park we drove to the 120 meter high Busan Tower, one of those high rise observation towers that many cities have. We rode to the top for a territorial view of the city and its surroundings.

It was then on to the large, modern Busan train station where we had an hour for lunch in one of the many eateries located there before boarding our 1:10PM bullet train for the 2+ hour ride back to Seoul. Traveling at 180mph (300km/hr) for some of the time is an almost too quiet experience as I slept part of the time because of the lack of the normal “clicky-clack” of the rail ties, as these bullet trains operate on magnetic leviathan technology, meaning they are virtually riding on air most of the time. It is quite a pleasant experience.

Upon arrival back in Seoul we were hustled to Namsan Mountian , the tallest hill (270 meters) in Seoul where their famous YTN Seoul Tower is located. We rode a 50 passenger tram to the upper level planning to then ride to the top of the Seoul Tower. However, because of maintenance activities there would have been a 50 minute wait to ride to the top so that was not possible given our time constraints so we simply walked around the lower level taking in the views and watching people.

One more stop was made at the Namdaemun Market, which features shops selling everything but food. I wandered the street looking for soccer jerseys but they were not available anywhere.

It was then time to head back to the Prince Hotel which we had used earlier in the tour. Tomorrow we will be traveling to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), to view the most militarized area in the world.  We were on our own tonight for dinner as Rob was headed to his home to finalize paperwork. The one famous Korean meal many of us had not yet tried was fried chicken and beer. Yes, there are restaurants that specialize simply on serving platters of fried chicken with beer as the beverage of choice. I joined 4 others and we headed off to try it at one of these recommended specialty restaurants near the hotel. The restaurants are small with limited seating inside but with 10-12 small tables outside on the sidewalks. Even though we were early we had to wait about 10 minutes to secure a table. It was quite cool this evening and we had hoped for an inside table but had to settle for one outside. Menus offer only a few alternatives- regular, crispy, with/without sweet and/or spicy toppings. We ordered a few alternatives and mugs of local draft beer. I added an order of french fries (one of the very few optional dishes) simply because it seemed the right thing to do! When the dishes arrived we felt we had over ordered, but surprisingly, most of it disappeared before we were through!

No karaoke tonight. Back to the hotel as we needed to be ready to leave for the DMZ by 7AM so we could beat the hoards of tourists that normally visit the most major attraction in South Korea.