Freaky temple night tour.

Today we actually had no idea where we were going to.. but it was saturday!
So we went to the E-mart and got my camera.
My lovely grey and purple camera.

We walked to the bus stop and Minji bought some really delicious rice cakes.
We ate ALL of them.

After buying a camera and rice cakes we went to Bexco.
It's a really big building with a lot of expositions and meeting halls.
We went to an exposition called living arts.
They animated a lot of famous paintings and artworks.

I really wanted to go to the ''Trick Art'' exposition.
It's an exposition in which you can get involved with paintings!
You can be part of the painting and make really cool pictures.
I must visit this next year in Seoul!

After going to the Living Art expo we went to eat at Macdonalds.
Ofcourse this was a great time to make some pictures  with my new camera.
I always feel guilty when we take Minji to another fastfood restaurant since Minji doesn't like fastfood..

We decided that we should see the Dragon Temple, one of the most famous temples in Busan.
The bus trip there took a while so we actually got there too late.

It was already evening and the actual temple was closed.
HOWEVER.
We were able to see the rest of ''the way'' to the temple and sea which was also beautiful..
If we could actually see it.
It was so dark we had to use our flashlights.
It felt just like a ghosthunt, walking around with flashlights in the dark

After these photos I wasn't able to make good pictures anymore, it was way too dark.
We came across a couple and Minji told us that they were breaking up.
Such a weird place to break up..

There were a lot of bugs around the area.
Minji almost got attacked by a centipede while climbing the stairs.
In Korea there also a lot of streetcats.
The cats didn't eat the food Samantha gave them.. instead they attacked and ate some cicadas.
I loved it.
I totally hate cicadas.

We decided to call this place : ''Bugs and break-ups''

Annyeonghi gyeseyo!

Busan museum and hiphop festival.

Today Minji took us to Busan museum to do some culture experience and learn about tea ceremony, wearing hanbok and doing some calligraphy.
When we got to Busan museum there was still some time left so we viewed some of the galleries.
The first bit was about the prehistoric age.
It wasn't really interesting since I already have seen those things in many history books.

When it was 3 o'clock we had to get to our traditional hanbok session.
Two people were able to wear hanbok so Bert and me decided to wear them.
It was so cool!
I really wanted to wear hanbok ever since I came to Korea.
I even got to wear the queen's hanbok with headdress.
It takes such effort to put on everything and the headdress was quite heavy!

 

The base hanbok.

We had some extra time so Minji and Samantha could also try the hanbok :)
Samantha got the queen's hanbok with different hairstyle and Minji got the one for marriage.

Samantha and Minji.

Minji

Samantha

We were too late for the tea ceremony though..

We continued the way through the museum.
We saw a lot about how Japan conquered Korea and how they moved around in Korea.
I didn't really make pictures of it since I didn't find it that interesting to show.



The rest of the exhibition was about how Korea evolved during the Korean war.
You could see the resistance of the korean people and how they tried to maintain their culture.
Quite interesting..

And ofcourse after that you could see how Japan left Korea and Korea became independent.

After visiting the museum we got hungry so we went somewhere to eat.

Kitchen!

We ate some pork with a few sidedishes.
They were still preparing the pork though..
It was quite good but not as good as the samgyeopsal we had with Jinjoo and Eun Ji.

We also had some really delicious kimchi soup!
I forgot to make a picture of the soup.. but it was really good and had a lot of vegetables.

So we ate.. and then went to hiphop festival!
I was quite excited since Minjj told me that there were bboys.
We got to see some battles.
So much bboying, popping, housing and locking!
There were even some dutch bboys around!
Bboy Cisco was there as well.. I was so suprised!

I didn't make any pictures or movies since it would be nearly impossible to get it on camera.
We were too far away since we were sitting on chairs in a crowd of people.

It was a lot of fun.
I think me and Minji enjoyed it the most :D!

After that we took the bus back to the guesthouse and said goodbye to Minji again.

Annyeonghi Gyeseyo!

Haeundae and it's magic festival.

So today we were gonna visit Haeundae beach.
I was so bummed that we were so closed to the beach and couldn't go swimming since it was another really hot day.
We went to the beach and did ''face painting''.
Well.. ofcourse I was the only one who got a face painting.
I already knew it was going to be that way.

Minji and Samantha both got a ''painting'' on their hand and ofcourse Bert didn't do anything.
Did someone say ''PARTYPOOPER''?
Well yeah.. I did :").
Obviously I don't care to walk around to places with a bee on my left cheek.
Life is too short not to do so.

After we did some ''facepainting'' we took stairs across some rocks next to the sea.
Okay.. it sounds really weird but you get amazing view of the sea.
Once again there were many people just chilling on the rocks nearby the water.
You could get down from some places to get a better look.

The beach

The adventure club.

Walking on the bridges.

More bridges to go.

People chilling by the rocks.

The view

Then we took the bus because I wanted to check out the Adidas store in Busan.
The one in Seoul told me they would restock on Jeremy Scott wings shoes.
So we went there to check out and ofcourse.. they didn't restock.
Those were limited edition shoes apparently and they only had size 39 but they only had it in Seoul.
Ah.. when can I ever get some Jeremy Scott's?!

We had to get some quick food so we went to Lotteria.
Lotte´s fastfood store (Lotte is a big brand department store in Korea)
We ordered some food and went to our seats.
The place looked TERRIBLE.. i've never been to such a messy place before.
There was stuff on the ground everywhere.. it was hard to find a ''clean'' table too.
The burger was okay but the rest didn't taste very good.
My green tea ice cream didn't taste like green tea at all.
The worst i've ever had since I arrived in Korea.

We ate our meals really quick and went to the Magic Festival.
It already started so it was hard to get seats.. so we thought.
People kept walking in and out of the gate.
So we took our chance went in and got some seats.
We were able to see things pretty well since there were several big screens.

We saw a french guy performing tricks with balls.
It was cool but the Busan strong wind kind of ruined his performance a little.
He had to chase the balls several times.. a pity indeed.

After that we saw some japanese guy doing a trick with sticks.
After that he did a few tricks with a unknown item (I forgot the name for it)
It's this thing you have to balance on a rope using two sticks.
It was pretty amazing!

The last one was my favorite.
It was a magic teacher from Busan.
He went for ''The real deal'' magic.
Putting a girl in a box stabbing her with a couple of knives and then open the box again and there's suddenly 3 girls there.
VERY impressive.

Too bad we couldn't watch the whole thing..
That's it for today.

Annyeonghi Gyeseyo~!

Boat and a broken camera

So today we had to go from Daegu to Busan with the KTX
We woke up quite early to pack our suitcases again because we also had to give our fruit basket to the reception.
After we left our rooms and made the women at the reception very happy we continued our trip to Busan.
This time it was just a 30 minutes trip to Busan.

When we arrived at the station we had to find our way to the metro and take 6 stops to get closer to our guesthouse ( Zen Backpackers)
I think Busan is really hard to get around and recognize things.
Luckily we got a map from June to find our guesthouse pretty quick.
For some reason the sunlight in Busan seems to be much more direct and brighter than I've experienced in the other cities.

When we got into the guesthouse there was a gjrl.
We said hello and introduced ourselves.
So Bert asked if he also stayed at Zen Backpackers.
The answer was: No.
Then Bert asked her if she worked at Zen Backpackers.
Again the answer was: No.
Bert got really confused..
Then the girl said: ''Don't you recognize me? I'm Minji!
Minji was the friend we were suppose to meet in Busan so Bert felt really stupid xD.
I didn't expect her to be at our guesthouse when we arrived either.

So after I got a shower we left for the tour Minji made for us.
I was still tired from dragging my suitcases around so I wasn't really that motivated.

BUT FIRST.
We got some lunch.




So much different sidedishes.
Minji said this stuff is great for vegetarians.

Then we went to this rocky coast where we took a cruise around the island.
It was pretty cool.
I got to take a lot of pictures and we even got to feed some seaguls.

Then I got the brilliant idea to jump on the boat.
It went fine the first couple of times but.. the last time I jumped.
I fell down.
They got everything on camera.
Great... ok it was kind of funny.
Until I found out that I fell on my camera's lense.
That's right.. it broke.

I didn't feel happy anymore since that camera is really important to me.
I bought it after i felt down for about a year due to some personal issues.
I bought it so I could make cool pictures when I visited Japan.
But the biggest reason why I bought it was: To make pictures of the things that make me happy and always being to remember it that way.
So to me that camera is pretty holy.

We cancelled the rest of our tour because I was feeling down and went to places to get it fixed.
Like I expected.. it was too expensive.
So I wanted to buy a new one.
We went to this electronical store called E-mart to look for a new one and I found a really cool one by Samsung.
The camera was silver with purple and had the most kind options I have ever seen.
The one I wanted was sold out so I had to wait for saturday to get it.

Bummer.
I couldn't make any more pictures until saturday.
Luckilly I could borrow Samantha's camera to make pictures.

So after that we went for more food.
Kimchi kalbi tofu stews and bulgogi stews.
And I had some really delicious Fanta grape soda.

It was pretty good but it was way too much food.
So when we finished we went back to the guesthouse.
So we saw this police car coming past us and we thought : ''Damn.. we shouldn't be crossing here''
So the police man came up to us and said.
''Are you Ban Minji?''
He was looking for Minji!
Apparently her mom called the police since Minji didn't call her and inform her about when she was coming back.
So we were just sitting there in the police station listening to the policemen talking to Minji.
A really weird situation.
Then her mom came in and she was so mad because she was worried!
I'm so glad Minji wasn't in trouble.
That would be terrible.

So we went back by taxi and said our goodbye to Minji.
We would meet her tomorrow.

Annyeonghi Gyeseyo!

Buying fruit and going back to Gugi.

Today we wanted to go to a big market in Daeg but we slept until really late because we were so tired from Gatbawi mountain.
(This market is known for it's huge textile market)
We wanted go go here to buy some fruit to give away as gifts for the hotel staff.

We searched around for fruit in packages because Bert said it was normal to give packed fruits in baskets.
Then when we didn't find these i started to realise you have to make these yourself.
So we bought aq melon and grapes in plastic then we bought a basket, a thank you card and twe bought stuff to decorate it with.

Then we went to our hotel and Samantha and Bert started to decorate the basket and they did such a good job.
For some reason no one has a picture of the decorated fruitbasket.

These are the decorations:

We also wrapped the ribbon over the handle of the basket.

We also wanted to go to the herbal market but it was already 16:00 and we wanted to go to restaurant Gugi again.

So we just spend some more time at our hotel and went to the restaurant.

And.. the guy I like was there!

So lucky!

So I ate pretty simple bulgogi and rice nothing really special.

So when we were done we stayed there for a bit and then it was time for me to go up to him.

My friends went to the cashier lady to pay and I went up to him.

''Hey, can I ask you something?''

''Sure!''

''Do you have facebook or kakaotalk?''

''I have kakaotalk''

"'Can I add you?''

"Oh thank you''

So we stressed out because we couldn't find the button to add kakaotalk ID.

So I asked him if he could get his phone and then we went running for his phone and tried it on his phone.

All the waiters and some people in the restaurant were definitely watching us.

So then we still couldnt find it and he called a other waiter to help him.

We stood there for 10 minutes and the manager was just walking around us like we weren't even there.

So we finally got it right and he added me.

Then I was stressing out because he had to talk to me so I talk to him.

But I got lucky and could find him under the ''friends?'' menu.

I was able to talk to him.

I'm so happy!

Annyeonghi Gyeseyo

Gatbawi

Today we wanted to go Gatbawi ( a giant buddha statue on a mountain )
We didn't tell Samantha that we had to climb a mountain..
We couldn't go back anymore.
Or well we could but that would be giving up.

So at first the road went a little uphill and we walked past a river where people were chilling on rocks and walking through the water.
It reminded me of ''De rode beek'' in Brunssum.

As we climbed higher we noticed the road started to look like stairs.
Or maybe just because it were stairs.. A WHOLE LOT of them.
And believe me.. climbing stairs is not easy when the weather is really hot and humid.
I don't get how all these old people are trained to climb these mountains every day..
They walked past us the whole time.
It made me feel like I was just overreacting my hardships.
For some reason these people were really friendly and greeted us.
They were probably thinking : Ha-Ha stupid foreigners.. do you even know how much stairs you have to climb before you get there?

Bell!
Too bad i couldn't ring it.

I saw the most beautiful temples i've seen so far:


So beautiful.
I was just staring at it for minutes.

After we left the temples to go higher and higher up the mountain.
Samantha was being bugged by bugs.
Bugs everywhere since it was like a big forest with stairs.

But we kept going up anyways.
At some point we reached a man selling charms.

Charm for making my wish come true.
Can you guess what I wished for?

After buying some stuff we continued to go up and up and up.
Till we reached a souvenier shop.
I bought another bracelet with really cool symbols.
I don't know what the symbols have got to do with Buddhism though.

I like it anyway.

When we got up the mountain we could see people praying to Buddha.
Bert said some people even do a 100 days of prayer here.
These people are so dedicated to their religion.

Here is the Gatbawi buddha.



The view was amazing!
It was totally worth the climb big time.

I still can't believe we climbed this high!
We climbed about 2 hours.
And now.. we had to go back all the way down.
but luckily that just took an hour instead of 2 hours

So eventually we got down and my shoes suffered some damage.
I couldn't wait to get home to clean them.
Oh yeah.. and take a shower!
So when we took the bus.. the whole bus was full of ajumma hahaha!
I think old people climb these mountains regularly.
Ajumma's must be superheroes in disguise..

When we got home we showered and decided to go to the restaurant with the cute waiter again.
We got there and.. it was closed.
Bummer!

We had to go back tomorrow and hope that he was working tomorrow as well..
I was grumpy and we had to eat at mcdonalds instead and become fat.
Just kidding.

I ordered a australian burger menu it was quite good.
Not worth making a picture though.
And we've had ice cream with chocolate that tasted like nutella afterwards.

Annyeonghi Gyeseyo

Shopping shopping shopping!

It's like all I do in Daegu is shopping.
But let's be honest.. Daegu is perfect for shopping!
So today Samantha wanted to do some shopping as well.. she wanted some clothes.
So I ended up buying more things :

Shorts with a bow in the front.

An asymmetrical skirt.
I really wanted one of these although I have no idea how to combine it :|


And Samantha ended up buying foundation instead of clothes.
Cosmetics are EVERYwhere here.
Also the really expensive ones are available in ALL the department stores.

Little fact : a lot of girls have Louis Vuitton bags here but NOT sure if they're real or fake.
I really started hating brands even more when I arrived here.
Hollister? GOD. What a fail brand.. but somehow everybody wears that :|

AND I found the Dr. Martens store so I was finally able to get the shoes that look like the ones Krystal is wearing in the Electric Shock MV.
I absolutely love them.
I'm so happy I bought them even if they're quite expensive :).

After all the shopping we went to a restaurant and there I met..
the most handsome korean guy I ever seen. (he is a waiter at this restaurant.)
Big eyes, cute smile.
Geez. He was incredible.
I like his little imperfections on his skin too.
OH YEAH. RIGHT.
THE FOOD! I´m sorry. I got distracted.

I ordered Udon soup!

Ok.. not very korean of me.. i know.
But it's not my fault they had in on the menu

And then we ordered some mandu after that as well.

We're definitely going back there so I can ask for his facebook/kakaotalk. :D!

Annyeonghi Gyeseyo!

Hanging with cool girls Jinjoo and Eun Ji

Today was going to be my favorite day of all here in Korea.
I was going to meet my penpal Jinjoo who I was writing letters with for 2 years already!
She was going to bring her friend Eun Ji along so it was going to be SO MUCH FUN!

We planned to meet at 11 at Jungangno.
And.. didn't find her.
So we searched around for 15 minutes and found out she was on the other side of the rail.
Waiting for the train from the other direction.
I don't know.. something went wrong.
She saw me, came running at me and hugged me!
I was so happy we found them :)

The first thing we were going to do together was taking photos in a photobooth.
(purikura)
We actually took them 3 times Hahaha because I wasn't satisfied.
The booths we were in with Heelim were so funny!
These were really different but we still managed to take really cool photos.
Jinjoo and Eun Ji never went in 3 booths in one day before so I guess we set a record!

Graphic design with Samantha : decorating our pictures.

So many pictures!
Now I have enough pictures of eunji and jinjoo for an entire lifetime haha!

After this we went shopping again and I bought some really cool clothes!
These are so popular right now in Korea and I've seen them in magazines before too.

 I also bought some shorts

I bought some stuff at Etude house as well.
Etude house is one of Korea's famous cosmetics stores and not even that expensive.
I wanted to buy some lipbalm and apparently bought the special SHINee edition lipbalm.
I can't believe a guy group would advertise for lipbalm.. :|

Bert wanted to see a temple or just a big attraction in Daegu so the girls wanted to take us to house of Lee Sang Hwa. We had some trouble finding it at first and it was really hot outside so we wanted to cool off.

Searching for the house.
Me and the fan Jinjoo bought for me!

We entered a nearby warehouse.
I bought some really expensive foundation but it covers up red spots so i don't even care about the price.

After buying stuff and resting in the airconditioning we continued walking to the house of Lee Sang Hwa.
It's one of Daegu's most famous attractions.
It really amazed me how small it was..
Even though it had so many history.
The women at the counter was so friendly and she even gave us a little tour.

We were starting to get a bit hungry so we we're goint to eat samgyeopsal.
This was also a big search since the girls didn't know a nearby restaurant so we searched for a while and found one.
Jinjoo and Eun Ji were so happy!
They did a very good job finding this place :)

We went in and everything went really fast.
We got all sidedishes, the meat and the sauces incredibly fast since it was not busy at that time.
The whole table was full in a matter of time.

Lovely sidedishes.

Leaves and lettuce to make a pork wrap!

BBQ!

Someone turning our meat for us :D!

We ate a lot!
And ofcourse after eating it was time for NORAEBANG!
It´s korean karaoke.
Yes i know what you are imagining.
Me singing a song in a room full of people but NO.
It´s not like that.
It´s actually just a small private room with a TV, microphones and a device for choosing songs you would like to sing.
Okay so Bert and me did a few kpop duets.
Jinjoo and Eun Ji sang a few songs together as well.
I sang some english songs with Samantha too.
I think I sang about 80% of the time.
I absolutely LOVE Noraebang ( it means singing room if you literally translate it)

OH OH
And I want to tell you about the thing I never ever heard before in my entire life.
Jinjoo is about 1.55 meters so she said to me : I envy your height.
Hahaha. to me it's so weird because people consider me to be small in the Netherlands.

That's probably all..
I hope to meet Jinjoo and Eun Ji again.
They're really cool girls :)

Annyeonghi Gyeseyo!