laura in translation: Lunar New Year in Dynamic Busan

새 해 복 많이 받으세요! (sae hae bok manhi badusaeyo) This phrase translates as "Have a Happy New Year" in Korean. This past Monday was Lunar New Year, the biggest holiday in South Korea. Traditionally, it is a day when South Korean families get together to eat, exchange gifts, and honor their ancestors. More recently, some families have started using the long weekend as an opportunity to do some traveling in and around the country. I followed the latter trend this particular weekend, and hopped a bus for an anticipated three-and-a-half-hour ride to the coastal city of Busan.

Some Korean natives with whom I spoke advised against attempting to travel during the Lunar New Year, as the traffic would be so horrendously bad it would take me at least twice as long as it usually would to get anywhere. The older and wiser ajummas and ajusis that populate my religion class, however, told me not to worry. According to them, I should have little to no trouble going wherever I felt like going. As I would soon discover, they were right!

Our little traveling group made it to Busan in a record time of only three hours. One member of the group used to teach in Busan, and so he had some Korean friends happy to meet us and help us navigate around the city. Our first stop was dinner at the Loving Hut, a world-wide vegan food restaurant chain. This is actually my third time eating at one of the branches. My first experience with the Loving Hut was in Chicago, and then I tried it in Sinchon, South Korea. One of the things I like about the restaurant is that no two menus are ever the same, and the Busan location was no exception. I ordered the vegan cutlet along with some passion fruit soda and boiled vegetable dumplings. Delicious!

After dinner we made our way to Gwangalli beach, which has a beautiful nighttime view of the Gwangan Bridge, the second-longest bridge in the country. We wondered along the cool and breezy beach front, just admiring the sights.

Out of the darkness an old woman walked up to us and offered to sell us some small fireworks for 2000 won. I decided to take her up on the offer, and she even took it upon herself to light it for us. I held it away from my body as little mortars puffed their way out of the tube and into the night sky with sparkling flowery bursts. We oohed and awed as we pondered the legality of the activity.

Our fireworks fun ended, we continued on the shore. In the distance I could recognize some amusement rides, and someone informed me there was indeed a small theme park nearby. We decided to go check it out. Hidden somewhere between a swinging viking ship and some bumper cars there was a fun-looking ride I had never encountered before. It had a very simple name, disc-something-or-other, and when I figured out the concept, I knew I had to give it a try. Basically, everyone sits in a circle in a padded ring sans seat belts or any other safety gear. The disc spins around speedily until the operator develops a deranged sense of humor and begins teasing and roasting the passengers. The disc begins to bounce erratically, and riders try desperately to keep their seats as onlookers laugh heartily at their plight. I know, sounds like some sort of torture instrument, right?

Pretty much.

By the time the ride was over, my arms were throbbing from holding on so tightly. I was shaken up and physically spent, but I felt a great sense of accomplishment that I never tumbled to the floor even once during the entire ride. I will definitely be doing this again, but maybe after I recover a little from the soreness.

Since this was a very low-budget trip, hotels and motels were mostly out of the question as accommodation. Korea is, however, the land of the low-budget traveler. Therefore, we spent both nights of our trip in jimjilbangs (more details on what those are in a later post), for a grand total of 20,000 won (less than $20) each. The first night's jimjilbang had a perfect view of the beach out of gigantic picture windows and boasted salt water bathing pools. The second was not quite so charming, but it was also the less expensive of the two.

Our second day in Busan turned out to be an eight-hour long walking tour from Gwangalli to Haeundae beach. Along the way we took in many of the sights, including...