BUSAN FOR A DAY

Last week I had to goto Busan due to a family emergency... so Aiden and I went for a day. I cried a lot so that is why in most of these pictures my eyes look swollen =(.

I haven't been to Busan since 16 years ago when I was visiting Korea with my grandma for just two weeks. I got to meet my mom's side of the family again and all my cousins! I can't believe we were all so young the last time we saw each other (cousins) and now we are all married and have kids!

Busan has changed dramatically since the last time I was there! Before there were not a lot of high buildings and huge shopping areas, but now Busan is pretty much like Seoul! A lot of the places we visited ... it seemed like we were in Gangnam or Myeongdong!

The flight ticket to Gimhae Airport cost about $110/roundtrip and only took 40 minutes from our house since we live right by the gimpo airport! If you take a KTX it's about the same price, but train takes about 2.5 hours.

My mom and dad were both raised here in Busan, Korea. When I visited Korea as a child this place didn't seem that interesting to me, but now as an adult it's amazing to discover the place my parents were raised...... walking the streets where my mom use to shop and hang out with her middle school friends.

We had about 2.5 hours left to head back to the airport after saying goodbye to my family members, so we quickly stopped by the Haeundae Beach 해운대. My mom told me to take lots of pictures and show her so she can see how much this place has changed. As soon as we got there, I was shocked at how beautiful this place was!!! There are a lot of places to eat and shop by the beach. Aiden and I went into a restaurant to eat early dinner and it was SOOO good!!! We each ate two bowls of rice!

The day we went there they happened to be doing the Busan International Film Festival at the beach!! There were hundreds of people and celebrities. We ran into this guy (actor) and this actress! Jang Dong Won and Yoona (snsd) attended the day before~ boooo

We also stopped by "gook jeh she jang" 국제시장 which is pretty close to the Gimhae Airport (where we had to take our flight). My grandma use to work in these streets in her early 30's... selling fishes! My dad told me as a kid he use to always run around this area and eat yummy food! If you ever visit Busan area, make sure you visit here!! There are LOTS of delicious street foods all lined up. There is also a huge shopping area (looks just like Gangnam .. with almost all brands like h&m, forever21, zARA, etc.