On our final day in Busan, Romana and I took brunched at Surfholic Cafe, then bussed down to a fishing area called Haenyeochon to eat seafood on the rocky coast. This was day 3 of a three-day trip to Songjeong Beach in Busan (송정해수욕장, 부산), Cheongsapo Harbour (청사포), and Yeongdo Island (영도) for a pre-New Year’s Eve break. We had fun time exploring the area, basically eating and drinking.
DAY 3 OF 3-DAY TRIP to Busan
At about 10:30 on the last day, we strolled along to Surfholic (서프홀릭), a beachfront surf school with a cafe and bar (this is my second time here). We got croissants and coffee and watched the December surfers. I came here last month on my solo trip. Next time down here, we’ll try some surfing and then some beers in the bar; they have a craft beer on tap.
With our bags, we got on a red bus direct to Busan Station. The trip is just over an hour. We stashed the suitcase at the subway station lockers then took another bus to Yeongdo (영도) for seafood. We’d been to this island before for seafood on the rocky coast underneath Yeongdo lighthouse in the winter of 2012. This time, Romana had found another place to try on the west side of the island, called Haenyeochon (해녀촌). This is a place where (traditionally) woman seafood divers (Haenyeo 해녀) go fishing and sell their wares! I suppose the are has been modernised a little as they seemed to be operating from a new building by the sea rather than from tent. Also, I don’t know if the woman here were the actual haenyeo or just preppers and sellers; perhaps they fish in the mornings and sell in the afternoons. In any case, we saw quite a few haenyeo working on our seaside walks yesterday.
At Haenyeochon, you order your food at the building then walk (carefully) down to the rocky coast, set upi your own plastic table then eat! We set up right by the sea as you can see… I’m not a huge fan of the weird looking seafood like sea cucumbers and slimy innards, so I mainly had mussel soup! However the woman in the building recommended topping the kimbap with the orange sea urchin; this seems to be a nice way to enjoy sea urchin! This, with a few beers looking out to sea on this clear day was very nice. It also wasn’t that cold or windy which helped!
After that, we took the bus back to Busan Station, retrieved our bags, then got on the KTX for Seoul. Once in Seoul, we dropped by Lotte Mart to get some sparkling wine to see in the New Year at home.
Places visited this trip (click the ‘door’ icon to see a list):