Hotteok

One thing Korea is very good at is street food.
Delicious, tempting street food.

*ahem* Anyway, while in Busan I tried Hotteok.

 



 Ultra cheap at only 1,000 won, it's a type of mini-panake 'fried' in hot oil and flattened with a special stamp. It's considered to be a winter food and is served piping hot.

There are different varieties obviously, and the kind we had was sweet. I think it was stuffed with raisins or something similar. It's crisp, crunchy and very filling.  (Which is good because I'm told the calorie count is simply outrageous. XD )

These however are less to my taste and more than my bravery can handle.

Wow, wow, wow

We stayed in WOW guest house in Busan.

It was really, really good and quite homey. A great place to stay and so close to the beach.

But honestly, I liked it because of what everyone was encouraged to do to the walls and windows while there.

 

 

Nothing says home like graffiti and post-it notes.

Pork pots

 

 

These little guys were all over the street in our district in Busan.

Remarkably close to all the restaurants (Mmmm, let's go back to that barbecue place).

Less than subtle subliminal messaging?

Cable Car

I took my first trip on a genuine cable car swinging a distance above the ground and managed to restrain myself from doing this:

 

....externally.

 



 

Well, we made it up and down without comment. (Although peering down could get a bit of vertigo)

Ironically, the cable car broke down with a full carriage the following week and people had to be lifted down with special equipment.

 

 

 





I think that this Geumjeonsan mountain but I'm honestly not sure because someone else was playing tour guide.

 It was pretty spectacular but a lot colder. There also seemed to be a lot alleycats, particularly around the creepy abandoned(?) fairground at the base where you get on the car.

New Year Morning ................Party???

 

Despite ringing in the new on the beach, to the tune of Adele of all people, we levered ourselves  out of bed to great the first sunrise of the new year with drummers in animal onesies pajamas.

 

 

 

They were pretty good actually. Rhythm and style.



 



 

 

 

At sunrise they released a ton of balloons with wishes tied to them. I just hope marine animals don't eat them. That would kind of sour the wish.

 

 

 

After that, the sunrise.

 

 

 

I got up before dawn to greet the new year in 2013. It almost makes up for my horrible habit of sleeping ridiculously late of Saturdays.





New Year Morning Paparazzi

 

Here are Stephanie, Karen and I (Helen behind the lens) on beautiful Haeundae Beach in Busan. It was beautiful and the skies were pretty clear but it was still pretty cold.

 

The reason the beach is empty above is that this is actually off-season and the day before New Year.
It was decidedly crowded then.

We got tapped by a news crew who went something like "Oooh, foreigners. Get them to say Happy New Year."...which we did.

Note how Stephanie is wearing her pajamas. That's how close we were to the beach and how early it was.

Helen is not there because:

a.) She took the picture.
b.) As soon as the camera approached us she did this...

thus abandoning us to their tender mercies for two minutes.

Why aren't there more?

A pagoda praying for traffic safety. Why isn't there one of these on every block?
My experience with traffic in Korea is mostly like below. The green walk man means nothing to these drivers.