Experiences Abroad: Busan Fireworks Festival

A couple of weekends ago I took a trip down to Busan. This is the second time heading down to the coastal town of Busan. I went down there for a weekend away plus there was also a fireworks festival happening. It was a good weekend with a chance to ride a bullet train, visit a temple, visit a bigger city, and see a firework show.

To get down to Busan a few friends and I took the train on Friday night. In Korea there are different types of trains but for saving time we ended up going down on the bullet train. It is a quick train where the average speed is around 300 kilometres per hour. Once we finally do get on the bullet train it does only take two hours to get down to Busan, but it is two hours before that for a slow train and a layover. For math deficient people that does add up to a four hour commute. Once down in Busan we went out for some dinner and walked out by the beach setting off our own fireworks. Of course our little show was nothing in comparison to the show the next night, but still was fun setting off fireworks along the beach. We were staying at a hostel that is about a two minute walk to the beach and so that is even closer than my place back in Boryeong.

On Saturday we did get up in order to go see some of the sites in Busan. Our first stop was a temple. This temple is an older temple but at the same time one of the busier temples when it comes to having tourist visit it. It was my first temple in Korea of that size. It was neat to see how old the buildings were but at the same time still had a commanding presence. I still don't know much about what each building or statue signifies in regards to the Budhist Temple, but I will describe what I did see. Walking along the path towards the main building there were different statues that resembled each different symbol in the different Chinese years. Then we walked down this path that eventually led to the biggest building where it looked like prayers or meditation happens. Next to this building there was some smaller building that looked like shrines for different things. Plus there were a few bigger statues that were of figures of importance. The only one that I did recognize was Buddha. Plus throughout the whole thing there were mini Buddha figurines just sitting or laying on the rocks. The whole time we were there some music that was more like chanting was happening by the monks. I am sure I will visit other temples while in Korea because the temples are all over the place.

After the temple we headed back into town to grab some food. Shortly after that we heard from other people we have better get down to the beach where the fireworks are going to be because it is starting to fill up. We ended up on Gwanghali beach about four-thirty in the afternoon, and about ten minutes later there might not have been room for us. It was the busiest and most unorganised crowd of people I have ever been amongst. Obviously we had to wait around for dark for the fireworks so one person would leave our spot at a time to go get various items such as: food, drinks, and blankets. Only one left at a time for fear of losing our spot, but leaving and getting back wasn't easy with the crowd of people. Eventually the show started at 8:00 and it went on for a constant 50 minutes. They also did have some music that was synced with the fireworks. Plus there were a few fireworks I have never seen before. Overall it was an amazing show and well worth the wait and crowd.

That was a pretty fun weekend down in Busan. This week has been normal classes for the students until tomorrow. Tomorrow is a huge test for all high schoolers and is basically the college entrance exam. How well they do tomorrow could potentially have an affect for many years down the road. Basically saying if they can go to college and if so what they can study. So it will be interesting to see how that changes things tomorrow. This weekend I am going to try to go hiking somewhere to see the Autumn colors. I wanted to go last week but I rolled my ankle playing soccer so I needed to rest. I am sure there still will be some leaves left before the cold comes and ushers everything away. Below are some pictures from the weekend in Busan. Will write later.