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elleiam · 6 years

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Trip to Busan

This past weekend I went to Busan to visit my mom and aunt who came to visit me (and Korea) from Taiwan. It was so great to take a breather from school, see my mom, and explore a new part of Korea, but somehow I managed to miss Ochang so incredibly much during the trip. I missed the routine of it, its quiet and family-like feel, and its homey feeling.

Busan is a bit rundown, crowded, and a very city type of city. There was trash in places, buildings were a bit old, and nothing really impressed me. The art museum that I’ve heard people rave about was small and its works only mildly interesting, its city views were underwhelming, the subway system was not user-friendly, and even the beautiful Gamcheon village I was so pumped to see was really just a collection of houses with people disturbing the residents at every corner. I felt so bad!

Also, this was the first time since being in Korea that I’ve seen so many Asian foreigners. When I went to Seoul, there were a bunch of Chinese tourists, but I think the foreigners I saw were predominantly non-Asian. In Busan, it’s basically like you just traveled back to China. People working in shops, restaurants, and even our hotel were Chinese or Taiwanese. They hardly spoke Korean but that’s okay because their visitors are probably only Chinese-speaking people anyway. It’s insane! Busan was such an easy city to travel in if not strictly because there was no longer that language barrier. Interesting.

I don’t mean to be so harsh on the city: its people were nice though there was a lot more shoving, and I really had a good time hanging out with my family, but when I think back seeing my mom was probably the only highlight. Anyway, here’s what we did this weekend!

Gamcheon Cultural Village 감전문화마을

We went on Sunday and boy was it packed. Everyone spoke Chinese and there were lines for every single famous photo spot, like the Little Prince overlooking the village, or the two faces kissing, or the fish on the walls. Since it was our only plan for the day, we decided to take the longest tour around the village, collecting all the stamps (we actually did!) and truly seeing everything there is to see. You don’t need to do that. None of the stamp-acquiring places were worth it in the slightest, and pretty much everything past the first stretch of the village path is just residential houses with weird sculptures scattered here and there throughout. I still loved the day though, walking around with my fam and attempting to take cool photos with them, like this one of my body so weirdly contorted in every which way.

Busan Museum of Art

The Botanica exhibit is a really cool concept. It’s an attempt to juxtapose two seemingly contrasting forces, city and nature. Yup, sounds like something artists everywhere have tried to do, like many an exhibit I’ve seen at art museums all over the world. This one, however, was a bit poorly executed. One thing we noticed was that all the works of art were placed in frames covered in a plastic shield, yet the lighting was only those sharp florescent lights that created glares on every surface. I’d say if you’re around the area, you could check it out since it’s free, and maybe your more cultured understanding of life will give you a better appreciation of the art we saw.

^ Actually the intense glare was pretty cool here - I call it “Altered Perspective - Is She Really There?” Yes, I’m really in the mountains finding myself after weeks of shouting at students, can’t you tell? :)

Best takeaway from the museum was a giant photo spot (Busan loves them photo spots) of the exhibit, where my aunt told me to strike a pose. Okay!

Haeundae Area + Busan Pride

The day we went to Haeundae was a crazy time. Police were EVERYWHERE because of Busan Pride and the countering Real Love festival right across the street. There was a giant barrier of police (maybe 100 of them??) standing between the two events and police lining the sidewalk shoulder to shoulder down the entire street. It was insane. The area was thereby a little crazier than I imagine it usually is, and made the experience just a little uncomfortable for me. I love who I am but am never the kind of person to really want to embrace it that openly or celebrate it that much. It’s just a part of me and not something I consider so defining as to want to celebrate it, if that makes sense. Just like I don’t feel the need to go to (if these existed) a women’s festival, an Asian-American festival, a college grad festival, etc. You get what I’m saying. So for some reason Pride, especially in the context of all these police, was very strange for me. Plus the Real Love festival with groups of people screaming religious sayings and songs and waving flags of a traditional family did not help. Glad I got to experience it, but boy...

I did manage to get some cool photos at the beach though! Like this reenactment of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Also I “went” to the Busan International Film Festival!

Takeaways

Perhaps my expectations were too high, expecting a shiny bright city like Shanghai (another city I’ve yet to visit and therefore have unreasonably high expectations for), but Busan was just not my kind of city. Forever happy I got the chance to see my mom, but am also quite glad to be back in Ochang. Until the next adventure ~ @Gyeongju for fall conference

#fulbright korea #fulbright #korea #busan #traveling #travel #haeundae #gamcheon #wow this post was so cynical #why #korean travels

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manateeinaustralia-blog · 6 years

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Perth

First off, a big shout out to Aunt No for being my fairy godmother all the time and especially for this trip! Love you girlfriend!

I stayed in Northbridge, a kind of hipster up and coming neighborhood with cool restaurants and bars. It was a 5 minute walk into downtown Perth. Perth had a beautiful mix of 19th century architecture and modern buildings with a big city divide of boarded up building a few hundred yards from Tiffany & Co. and Chanel. The best thing was the street art.

Saturday morning, I walked to the city to get breakfast and ate at La Veen. Then I walked around the city to explore and found cool shops and alleyways. I went to one shop and the girl working there was around my age. She asked where I was from and I said Chicago and she said she loved that musical and I was like “Oh haha yeah that’s a good one!” (I’ve never seen it) but then she kept coming over and dramatically doing quotes and impressions from the musical and I had already committed to pretending like I knew what she was talking about so I was like “haha ya” and then awkwardly left and never returned. One street called London Court reminded me of Diagon Alley and I walked through there and got some gelato.

Then I went to the art museum back in Northbridge for THE HEATH LEDGER EXHIBIT. The museum is free and so was the exhibit and I had so much free time so I walked around the other exhibits pretending like I cared but then I heard Heath’s speech as the Joker when he sends in a video to the news and says “LOOK AT ME” and I got chills and ran upstairs to check it out.

It was amazing. He was from Perth so they have this exhibit for a few months. I learned that he was a director and a photographer as well as an actor. His photographs, costumes, scripts with notes, awards, and some personal objects were on display and they were all so interesting.

After that, I grabbed some groceries, ate fettuccine alfredo, and watched tv!

Sunday morning, I studied a little bit and then went to Cottesloe Beach. It’s the Indian Ocean, which I’ve never been to, and it was beautiful and really clear. I ate a little picnic and read a book and then got a beer and studied before going back. Back at the hostel, I talked with a girl from the Netherlands. She’s staying here for maybe a year or two. She surprised me by saying that the homelessness and racism in Australia was much worse than she could have imagined. There was more homelessness in Perth than in the Gold Coast, but unfortunately I haven’t noticed much if any of either of those things because I am too used to what happens in the US.

Monday morning, I had booked a walking tea tour. It was fun seeing all of the people on their way to work and then I met my guide, Emily. She was from Adelaide. There was only one other person on the tour, Elaine from London. Our tour was really great; we grabbed tea and walked around learning about the city and explored downtown. They were really fun to talk with and I learned a lot. We grabbed gelato and hung out by the Swan River. After the tour, I went back to a place that Emily said had really good dim sum and Elaine was there so we hung and talked for a while longer. Later, I booked my tour and bike for Rottnest the next day, and facetimed Aunt No and Maria.

Tuesday, I booked the 8:30 ferry to Rottnest Island. On the way, I grabbed a croissant and it was fantastic. On the ferry, we passed some of the most expensive houses in Australia and the most expensive house in Australia (around $70 million). Like he had a Ferrari collection and multiple boats and a yacht that were somehow in a garage carved into the cliffside? and his daughters and their families live in their mansions on the same property? Okay. After I grabbed my bike, I started along on a trail. Side note, the only vehicles allowed on the island are a few tour buses and one train, so everyone rides bikes. I definitely felt like Squidward in that one episode.

So I made my way along this trail and got to an awesome look out point and ate lunch and then within the next hour or so I realized I lost my bike key :) yay! So I went further up along the coast and took the same way back to look for it and ya didn’t find it and my lock was wrapped around my bag so they had to cut the lock. I don’t know why I’m allowed to go outside sometimes. But anyways the island was absolutely stunning and the weather was beautiful.

It is also home to the world’s happiest animal, the famous quokkha. They are precious and super friendly and all over the island. Look at their little faces!

Their rat tails are what actually named the island. People saw them and said hey these are huge rats, let’s call it “Rat’s nest Island” and then they were like nah but we’re too lazy to change it completely so now its “Rottnest Island”. I also saw a black lizard that looked like Dart from Stranger Things. Later, I took a break to take in the views and eat an orange and ended up yelling at/ threatening a seagull that was tryna fuck with me. On the ferry ride back, people were extra. So the ferry was also kind of a speedboat because we were going really fast at some parts and then when we were crashing into waves, the boat was rocking. Yeah a little surprising but literally the only thing this company does it take people to Rottnest Island and back on ferries multiple times a day so I’m like yeah they know what they are doing and I’m not gonna die. So I hung out and read a book. Too bad people on my boat were straight up screaming. Not necessary! If they could’ve kept balance and stood up, I know some soccer moms or grumpy elderly people would have gotten up and complained. The staff knows how fast they can drive the boat and not flip over. Also it’s a ferry and it won’t flip. Also calm the fuck down and let me read.

Anyways, after that I went to one of the hidden bar/restaurants I wanted to find: Alfred’s pizza. There’s a London telephone booth door that leads underground to the restaurant. The vibe was super cool: Guns and Roses meets an Italian grandma’s kitchen meets The Nightmare Before Christmas meets pizza.

That night, I went to go see Juno at a rooftop theater. So I knew the address of the place and found it easily, but when I got there all I saw was a boarded up Chinese restaurant and I was like hmm okay. So I’m walking up and down the street looking at the roofs for a movie screen and then someone at a restaurant next door told me to go through the parking garage next door and go up the stairs. Great! So I climb six flights of stairs, get to the roof and realize I’m on the other side of the theater and it has a chained gate and I need to go around. So I go back to the staircase and all of the doors are locked but the one on the ground floor. Then I go to the other side of the garage and straight up get trapped in that staircase for a minute and I’m freaking out and sweating and swearing and negotiating with God that I’ll be a nicer person if he just lets me not die in this staircase. Finally, I found the entrance to the theater just in time for the movie and I actually had a great time and spoiler alert I lived and everything is okay now. After that, I facetimed my babies Lo and J, talked with a French dude about cuisine around the world, and ate tim tams in bed!

Wednesday morning, I was up, got a croissant, and went to the library to study for finals cause #thegrind #responsible. I spent the day hanging out there and enjoyed the view of the city from the terrace. That night I took the red eye flight back to Perth, drank free wine and ate cheese balls and slept like a baby.

Overall, Perth was so so lovely and I enjoyed being able to travel by myself. I just finished my finals today so only a week til I see the fam!! xoxo

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