My little women and me: the train to busan

We were sitting around the apartment yesterday feeling pretty hot and planning a day trip to Gyeongju for Saturday when we checked the weather. The typhoon had switched directions, making a trip to Busan doable again and Collin was hunkering to meet Busan. The kids threw a change of clothes in their backpack and we booked it to the train station, barely missing our train. Just kidding. We only thought we had missed our train. I may have tried to get them to reopen the door but I learned a valuable lesson. Always check the train number before pounding on a train. We ventured into downtown Busan with me being promoted to lead tour guide since Chris wasn’t here. I found I may not have paid very close attention to my surroundings when he was leading us around Busan two years ago.

A few things that we learned from our trip:

•Busan is more fun with a seafood lover at the helm. Some of the girls love seafood but they didn’t even know where to begin when ordering.

•Don’t hop onto a tour boat before asking where it takes you. It could be fun though!

•If you have lost your cat in Korea, look for it around Busan Tower. We saw more than 20 cats wandering around on our way up. It is now dubbed “고양이 공원”.

•Koreans (who sure do love their umbrellas) aren’t as wimpy with rain as I thought. They will play in the ocean in the pouring rain.

•If you look hard enough in the direction of Japan on a cloudy day, you can convince yourself that you see Japan. The mind is a wonderful thing.

•The street food in Busan is alive and well but choose a tempura stall that re-fries your order instead of microwaving it.

•Guest houses are the way to go. They have yet to let me down, they’re cheap, they fit our family AND every one that I’ve stayed at has used great decision making skills when choosing their fonts, graphics and decor. This trip, we stayed at Kimchee House @ Busan Station and they did not disappoint.

•You may be mistaken for an American tv show when you have a huge family walking down a street food alley with two GoPros.

The most important lesson? Always be willing to throw a change of clothes into your backpack and run off on last minute train trip.

side note: My korean skills are a bit rusty but they are getting us around. Tonight we hopped into the elevator with some Korean women who said their floor level to each other and I confirmed in Korean and pushed the button. They were so surprised that I understood. (yeah...I know numbers. sort of. The darn Koreans have two numbering systems but that's a story for another day) They proceeded to discuss our yummy smelling fried chicken and we had a nice little chat in Korean. Small successes.