Dear Busan, Fourth Time's the Charm! - Day 1

Yes, you read that right. Four times.
I have been to Busan far too many times than I'd like to admit.

Don't get me wrong. Busan is a very beautiful seaside city. Very lively, vibrant, and full of energy. 

Though I have to say, the way people speak there is just very alien to me. No joke. After two years of living in Seoul, you might think "Dhanisa must be fluent in Korean now!" Well, jokes on you - nothing has ever prepared me enough for Busan's dialect. Nothing. Even after the fourth visit. 

Not only they speak very fast, but they also speak with different 억양, or tones, than the regular Korean I'm used to. I couldn't help but felt dumb after every encounter with shopkeepers or waitresses. Or basically with Busan people in general.

BUT - language matter aside, I'm in love with this city.

Summer in Busan really is something. 
The sun, the humidity, the breeze. It felt like I was back in my home country. 

The second Lisa and I arrived in Busan, we head straight to the hotel - we dropped our luggages and straighten our legs. Just when everything seemed perfect we had a silly incident where we thought we were locked in our room because we couldn't open our door. We spent a good 15 mins just trying to get out of our room. 

Spoiler alert: it wasn't the door, it was us weaklings who were unable to channel our optimum strength to open the door. To our defense, the door was ridiculously heavy. 

our hotel room at Seomyeon

Our first pick for lunch was actually 양산도's 장어구이 (grilled eel) in Seomyeon, but we got there a little bit late and everything was sold out. So, we headed to our second option, a Japanese restaurant called 마마도마! 

Then the rest of the day was spent peacefully at Haeundae beach and then dinner.

A trip to Busan wouldn't be a trip to Busan without seafood, am I right?

So, putting seafood in our itinerary is in order and our choice of seafood was of course 조개구이!

We went randomly to one restaurant very close to the beach and it was indeed a nice closure for our first day in Busan ♡

Nami Island in the Summer

 102호's first trip together for summer 2022 is to Nami Island!

As we live in the northeastern part of Seoul, traveling to Nami Island wasn't really that far for us. We took the metro/train from near our home to Gapyeong station and then continue with a short bus ride to Nami Island. However, to actually get to the real Nami Island, we still had to take a 10mins ish ferry ride.

Calling themselves Naminara, Nami Island is like a little country of itself and is primarily famous as Winter Sonata's filming location. It is generally a huge outdoor space full of lushes greens and beautiful scenery. It is said by many that the prettiest time to visit Nami Island is around autumn when all the leaves turned red and yellow. I honestly haven't been there during autumn myself, but judging by the tons of pictures I've seen online, I have to agree with it. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean going to Nami Island in other seasons is bad! I personally think Nami Island is always a nice place to visit for anyone who appreciates nature and fresh air :)

                                         cute welcoming statue                    tour around the island

                                                                              us four ♡

                                                       trying to recreate Winter Sonata poster

After strolling around the island, we grabbed some lunch at one of the many Korean restaurants there. We had pajeon and some soup. We also ordered a bottle of plum(?) liquor that we thought was very interesting and unique to this Island - only to find out a couple of days later that they sell it everywhere around the country at most 편의점s! Good thing we liked it haha.

                                

lunch!

  labeled specially for Naminara

                                                  cute squirrel                                  hotteok!

After lunch, we strolled around the island a little bit more. The Island is pretty big and there were actually quite a lot of things to see and do. I just didn't take pictures of everything we did and saw. We took the tour bus(?) around the island but they also offered bike rents, picnic and camp areas, workshops, there were some gift shops, a manmade waterfall, and many more. There were a lot of beautiful areas for photos and most interestingly, we could spot some wild animals too!! 

                                            All in all, it was a nice day spent with the girls ♡