G’day folks. Well, here I am continuing on the story of last year’s adventure for you. Last time I was telling the story I was taking the now sadly defunct JR Queen Beetle from Fukuoka, Japan to Busan, South Korea. Today’s blog I’ll recount the events of the rest of the day because I arrived at around lunch time and despite the inclement weather I had mapped out a series of things I wanted to do and see in a day and a half in Busan and was determined to complete my list.

I stepped out of the ferry terminal building into a brand new country for me, and followed the signs to walk to the main train station, which was all on a covered walkway. This was a good thing as it was raining pretty heavily at the time. The walk took probably 15 minutes, maybe less I did have my luggage with me.

I had booked the Hotel Almond, which was very close to the train station and super central, and so I needed to find the best (closest) exit from the train station to access the hotel. Even then when I found it, after a pretty long walk through the station and a stop for lunch, the 100 – 150 metre dash got me pretty wet.

The hotel was a bit strange, no floor 4 as that is a number skipped in Korea due to its association with ‘death’, the room was spacious and the bath was insanely big. The greeting was cold though the reception staff at this hotel were somewhat odd and appeared to hate their jobs.

I took probably an hour to settle and work out how I was going to approach the rest of the day. I had a couple of museums on my list that were close enough together and they were next to the Yongdusan Park which was home to Busan Tower. On the other side of the park was the Jagalchi Fish Market which came highly recommended. I felt they were all in smallish area and doable if the weather didn’t get too bad.

So I hopped on the subway in Busan which is pretty decent. Have the right denominations of Won available to buy your travel card because it I think only took 5000 or 10000 won notes. If my memory serves me correctly which it often doesn’t! I got out 200 metres from my first museum of the day, the Busan Modern and Contemporary History Museum. Yes, it’s a wordy title which doesn’t quite make sense, but it is a great little free museum over a few floors that shows the history of Busan focussing on the last 150 years or so, from when Busan was basically a Japanese colonial town, through the Second World War, the Korean War and through authoritarian rule after that until democracy was finally entrenched in the late 1980s. When in Korea you really get an understanding of the country by diving into it’s history which has certainly been tumultuous.

The museum also has this awesome café/bar on the ground floor which I didn’t stop in but looked fabulous and a little bit art deco, if that’s your thing. Outside I continued on to Yongdusan Park, literally next door and in the rain I walked up a few flights of steps and along the path to the top of the hill where I got a view of the Busan Tower. To be honest, poor weather and having already been up a couple of towers on the trip already, I passed on going up the tower. Doubt I would have seen much more than clouds anyways.

Busan is a modern and busy city, and like a lot of Korea there are very tall apartment buildings everywhere. This is how people live in South Korea I guess which coming from Australia is very different. But this is something I noticed straight off the boat as it were.

The Busan Museum of Movies was also next to the park not far away and that’s where I went next as it seemed to get rave reviews. It’s definitely a good quality museum even if you are unfamiliar with Korean movies it’s enjoyable and perfect for families. Learn a bit about how they make the movies too and there are a few immersive experiences as well. The Trick-Eye Museum is in the same building but two museums in one town is definitely enough for me.

So, I was done there and ready for things to get all fishy at the Jagalchi Fish Market. I left the museum and it was now TEEMING down outside. There in that moment I decided I was done and returned to the hotel for the evening after grabbing a few things for dinner from a convenience store – which like Japan are everywhere in Korea, just different brands. Such as ‘CU’ and ‘GS24’ along with, you guess it – 7-Eleven!

Next time as I recount this adventure I will give you the lowdown on the rest of everything I did on my one SUNNY day in Busan! Thanks for joining me today, take care wherever you are in the world, May the Journey Never End!