Spending Chuseouk in Busan

In South Korea, there is this big holiday called "Chuseok (추석)", also known as Korean Thanksgiving. Many Koreans go back to their hometown to spend time with their family during this holiday. This year, Chuseok Day was on the 13th September, but the holiday started on the 12th. Since we had 4 days of holiday, me and my friends from my home university decided to book a mini vacation to Busan, the second biggest city in South Korea. 

We decided to fly to Busan instead of taking the train like many Koreans do. This is because it's almost impossible to get train tickets during Chuseok due to high demand. Since it's a big holiday and many people would want to get out of Seoul to go back to their hometown, train tickets were released on a specific date at a specific time. After researching on the internet, I found out that tickets are usually sold out within 5~10 minutes after release time during Chuseok. So, to avoid this stressful situation, me and my friends decided to buy flight tickets instead. The flight tickets were more expensive but it was definitely worth it. My tips is to buy flight tickets as soon as possible since it will only be more expensive the more you wait. 

A quick group selfie before taking off to Busan.

We also booked AirBnB since it was a much cheaper alternative than hotel. The apartment that we lived in was very clean, cozy and beautifully decorated. The host was helpful and fast at responding. If you ever visit Busan and want a place to live, I'd totally recommend you this place. 

We arrived in Busan at 9pm and after checking in at the apartment, we decided to go out to look for some dinner. Since it was a holiday, most of the restaurants/places were closed. We were all starving and desperate so we decided to go for McDonalds instead. After dinner, we went to a karaoke place (노래방) and sang out lungs out until 3.30 in the morning. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip haha. I didn't think we could have so much fun dancing and screaming to a TV 😂. 

The day after, we visited Gamcheon Culture Village (감천문화마을) which is definitely a must-visit whenever you're in Busan. The village is mainly known for its colorful and vibrant small houses, which looked absolutely beautiful from above, especially along with the sea. There are several souvenir shops and street food at the village and some small museums. There are no entrance fee to the village and you can tour it all year around. The shops' operating hours are 9am ~ 6pm (March ~ November) and 9am ~ 5pm (December ~February). There are buses that stop right at the entrance of the village so getting there shouldn't be any problem. 

Gamcheon Culture Village.

#WeAreChalmers at Gamcheon Culture Village.

On day three, we decided to visit one of the most famous temple in Busan called Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (해동 용궁사). It took us ~1h 30min (subway & bus) to get to the temple, which was quite a long ride, but it was so worth it. The scenery was amazing, the air was fresh and the smell of the sea was satisfying. There were several street food and souvenir stands at the temple. It's free to enter the temple and it's open all year around. Operating hours is from 5am to sunset. If you ever visit Busan, make sure to visit this place! 

Temple on the side.

Temple on the cliff. Absolutely stunning! It looks even better irl.

Golden Buddha statue by the sea.

Bodhisattva statue on top of the temple.

It was a short trip but filled with many highlights and memories. I'd love to return to Busan again if I ever get an opportunity, since there are many other places that I want to visit but couldn't during my short visit. I didn't get a chance to try seafood either which was a bummer 😔. 

Anyway, school starts again tomorrow. It's probably about time I get into "study-mode" haha. I'll try to update as much as possible! Thank you for reading and see you in my next update ~ :)