Kicked out on the street: Haeundae Beach

This post recollects events that occured on Oct. 15th 2009.
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Well, today boredom kicked me out on the street.  Waiting for the start of my job, and living in a temporary apartment has started to get me a little antsy.  This being said, I packed my stuff in my ruksack (A backpack (also called rucksack, knapsack, packsack, pack, book-bag or Bergen), and headed off to Haeundae beach. Haeundae is the main tourist attraction of Busan.  It is the coastal beach area of the city.  People from all over Korea, as well as the rest of asia (esp. Japan), come here in the summer season.  It is home to a lot of touristy things, global chains, and shops/attractions that cater to a Western population.  Feeling a little bit 'out of touch' with everything in Dongnae,  I decided that I needed to get a little bit of the 'Western' vibe into my life.

I jumped on the subway (which I had recently 'mastered' earlier in the week), and headed to Haeundae.  When I arrived at the beach, the first thing I did was find a place to eat (I had, at this point, not had any breakfast, and was feeling downright grumpy).  I saw a place called Breezeburns that looked sufficiently Western. To my surprise, it offered western-style burgers, as well as a daily brunch option.  I opted for brunch.  It was actually pretty good, not too expensive (just over 7$ US), and had a great little raised patio on the sidewalk.  I sat there, enjoyed my breakfast and did the 'people watching thing).

After Breakfast I hoped across the street to a Starbucks, because apparently I wasn't appropriately caffeinated,  I sipped an Americano while working on my Hangul.  The Korean script is amazing for a bunch of reasons, and I won't bore you with my high-geekery in singing its praises.  Needless to say, I am a big fan of it, and am working on learning it.  So, that's what I did at Starbucks.

Once my Americano was 'drunk-dry', I decided to pull an intervention on myself, and not order another one.  On the verge of the 'coffee-shakes', I thrust myself outside, and headed across the street to the beach.

Right now is a very cool time to be on Haeundae.  Its the home of the Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF for short), and there's a lot going  on the Beach.  There are tents, activities, and other 'goings-on' there.  I strolled through the 'pavilion' that had been set up, and admired the wares and waves of intriqued people hustling and bustling to-and-fro.  There was a really great kind of 'sand-sculpture' that had been created on the beach near the PIFF pavilion.  I thought it really amazing.  I stood on the sandy shores, admired the view, took some pictures, and then rambled on home the way I came.  A good day, I must say.  I'm pretty psyched to be moving out to Haeundae sometime next week (oh yeah, I forgot, that's where I'm going to be permanently located....).

So until next time....

H