Standing room only on the train, giant pizzas, coastal temples, taxis in traffic, pictures at the beach, rosemary-garnished margaritas, Irish Pubs, green beer, midori sours, shamrocks, naked underwear dude (this is why people should not drink in excess!), spilled wine, smelling like a bar...St. Patty Day in Busan. 

Last weekend I went to Busan to see the fireworks festival.  The day started with a walk along Heundae beach then 5 of us met up to grab a late lunch.  We read about a Mexican place that was given some good reviews, so we decided to check it out.  Even though the place was called "Hello Kimchi", the food was pretty good.  (And no, kimchi was not served!)

After lunch we walked around a bit then headed to the festival.  The moment we got off the subway, I knew it was going to be chaos.  There were tons of people so military personnel were called in to help with the traffic.   Upon stepping out of the subway station, we saw that it had begun to rain...hard.  Fabulous.  We followed the masses to the beach.  By the time we got there, the show was already underway. 

The fireworks were nice, but nothing spectacular.  Perhaps I'd feel differently if I could have gotten a view that wasn't obstructed by umbrellas.  I think we caught about 20 minutes of the show.  We decided to stick around a bit after it ended, as we knew the subway would be a nightmare.  As the crowd left, I was appalled by the amount of trash that people left behind.  Who gets the fun job of cleaning up that mess?

Anyways, we finally made it back to the crowded subway station.  After the subway ride, we had about 45 minutes before our train back to Ulsan.  We stumbled out of the rain and into a Korean restaurant for some dinner.  I had a delicious eggroll filled with crab while my friends enjoyed some fish soup...complete with eyeballs.  I'm not a fan of eating anything that is looking back at me.  Gross.

This was a holiday weekend in Korea.  Chuseok is basically like a Korean Thanksgiving... where everyone goes home to visit their families.  Schools and businesses were closed on Monday and Tuesday, so I enjoyed the long weekend.

On Saturday, I went with several friends to Busan.  We took the slow train, so the ride was about 45 minutes to Haeundae Beach.  It was raining when we arrived so we headed indoors to to have lunch at a "Mexican" restaurant then headed to the mall.  The food at the restaurant wasn't terrible, but it certainly wasn't Mexican food as I know it.  The best part was when my vegetarian friend discovered that the potato in her burrito was actually tater tots.  LOL!!  As for the mall, it was huge...I believe it was 9 stories tall and it had everything you could possibly need.  In the afternoon, the rain stopped so we had a chance to walk along the beach and take a couple of pictures.

On Sunday, I joined a couple of the gals at the local foreigner bar to watch a Rugby match between South Africa and Wales.  We have a couple of die-hard fans here.  Until this day, I have never really watched a rugby game before...I must say that it was much more entertaining than football or baseball.  After the game, we walked around the old downtown area and grabbed dinner.

Monday was Chuseok day.  We were invited over to a Korean gals home for dinner.  Five of us went and enjoyed the afternoon/evening.  Our host, Heidi, is a sculptor and lives in an artist colony.  Her workshop, with kiln, is across the street from her home so we were able to take a tour.  Everyone in the neighborhood is artistic.  One of her neighbors works with metal, the other works with stone and metal.  I took several pictures of dinner, the neighborhood and Heidi's work.  It was a very enjoyable evening.