South Korea - Busan

After a sunny day at sea with little motion, we arrived at the port of Busan this morning.

By the way, I've already been asked several times whether we felt the earthquake. Luckily, no, we didn't notice anything!

At around 7:30 AM, we walked from the ship to the port terminal. We had to go through passport control first. This went very quickly and smoothly.

As soon as we got out of the port terminal, taxi drivers rushed towards us. One of them quoted an unbelievably high price for four landmarks. I was already slightly annoyed, especially at this early hour. ;-) Another taxi driver approached us and negotiated very fairly. We booked this driver for the entire day and many sights.

First, we headed to the Haedong-Yonggungsa Temple. As soon as we got out of the car, the driver ran off, signaled to us where to stand, and took photos of us. I felt like I was in a rally. “Hmm, I was slightly annoyed again, and I said: ‘We have knee pain, we can’t walk that fast.’” From that point on, it was very pleasant. As a local, he knew exactly where we should go and what we should see. That was really great. What was very uncomfortable for me was that we were supposed to take photos with some statue all the time. He just placed us there even though there was a long line of people wanting to take a picture too. “Wow, that was embarrassing for me.” However, we really liked the temple complex. There were colorful lanterns hanging, and the golden Buddha statue looked very impressive. It was just a pity that we couldn’t photograph the temple from the sea, as construction work is currently taking place.

At the temple complex, I also bought two great T-shirts.

The drive continued, and we noticed that Busan was definitely not as clean as the Japanese cities we had visited so far. Our next two stops were the Oryukdo Skywalk and the Skywalk of the Daritdol Observatory. Both skywalks were impressive, although I must say I started to feel nauseous. You walk on wood in the middle and only have glass floors on the right and left, through which you can look down. That’s quite unsettling. Eventually, everything is glass, so you look directly at the water. Phew, that’s not for me. The children running around there obviously thought the walk was amazing. The driver, of course, took tons of photos and even walked along a path by the coast. From there, we had a great view of the skywalk.

The tour then continued to a suspension bridge, known as the Songdo Jonggung Cloud Bridge. The 127-meter long bridge connects a park with the small, uninhabited island Dongseom. The view was gigantic. We had a fantastic view of the sea and the Songdo Marine Cable Car. Our driver kept asking if we were satisfied. Yes, we are thrilled because, to be honest, the suspension bridge wasn't on my list. ;-)

Our next stop was the Gamcheon Culture Village. There are many colorful houses, and it is very hilly. The area is known not only for its colorful houses but also for the