Our Surprising 72 Hours In BUSAN, South Korea (better than Seoul?)

After a turbulent but unforgettable ferry ride from Japan, we made it to South Korea's secondary city of Busan. Our 48 hours in this city on the southern Korean coast proved to be amazing, and you'll see why in a little bit. Let's get right into it. Despite living in Korea for four months, we actually never made it to Busan before, so it's going to be really exciting to see this other end of Korea. Okay, we're out to find bibim guksu, which is one of my favorite Korean dishes. I didn't know that's what we were looking for specifically. I guess we are. All right, we're having a bib with our bibim guksu. This is so exciting. Oh, you like it? Busan is really cool. I like the vibe. We might have to get some long bean pancakes. Look at this. All right, look at this. Yes, we got some chive pancakes. You know what's funny is that when we lived in Korea, we didn't really try any of this stuff because we didn't really cook Korean food at home, so we had no idea what was vegan and we couldn't really communicate it. Since living in Korea, we've cooked so much vegan food at home that now we kind of know. Yeah, we can also ask for like, is there egg? Is there milk? There's a lot of veggies inside, so it's good. It somehow feels so crazy. So we arrived last night from Fukuoka in Japan on a ferry. If you saw our last video, you saw what an interesting experience that was. So yesterday was like insanely windy, so we barely recorded anything yesterday. But it's just so weird because like we mainly know Korea from Seoul and maybe the surroundings of Seoul. And being here, it just feels so different. It's like a seaside version of Seoul because we're right on the ocean. There are so many mountains. It almost feels a little bit like Hong Kong. It looks a bit like Rio de Janeiro in a weird way. But it's still Korea, so we're trying to figure out exactly what Busan is. So Busan is one of the four candidate cities to host World Expo 2030, and they are really pushing hard to win. It's between Busan, Rome, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Odessa in Ukraine. So that's going to be interesting to see. I wonder how they're going to choose that one. Ah, the sea smell is just amazing. I love it. Even if, okay, right here, there's a bunch of like dried... You love the smell? Well, in general. It's rotten. Yeah, right here, there's like a bunch of dried seaweed, so it's not still overall... The ocean smell is great. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why, but like whenever I googled pictures of Busan, the picture I got of it was never this. I never thought about the beaches. I never thought about the mountains. It was just not the picture I got, so I'm really shook. So looking out the window of our hotel, we saw something that really piqued our interest, so we've now managed to find it, and let's see what this is. We're kind of winging it. So what we saw were these fake Lisbon tram-looking things, and there seems to be two different types of rides you can take. There's like a train, and then there's the elevated sort of tram rides. Turns out the colorful trams had to be booked in advance, because they were fully booked for several hours ahead. You can book them on this website if you're going. We ended up taking the train instead, which isn't elevated, but it's much cheaper and was still a super scenic ride. In hindsight, we probably should have just walked though, especially since we had to wait so long. All right, let's see if we figured this out. We didn't get the one o'clock. Oh no, that was already full? Yeah. So what time? 1 30. Yeah, let's see. This is interesting. Let's do this after a long wait. Hopefully it's worth it. All right, we'll get a little coastal ride. I absolutely love seeing this just as the Broadway version is closing. We've arrived in this area called Songjeong, which is another beach area. They announced it on the train as the Waikiki Beach of South Korea, so we'll see if it lives up to that name. But there are surf shops everywhere. We're trying to find a place where we can have a vegan meal. There aren't too many options that we can find online, so we're going to try to scour the office. Surroundings. We really squirt. This is the most beautiful bibim guksu I've seen in my living days. In your living days? So bibim guksu literally just means mixed noodles. Oh, oh wow. So I'm going to bibim this guksu. So the only reason that we could get that meal at that restaurant is because we know some very basic Korean phrases that always come in handy, and it's literally all you need. There's one phrase, and you need to know a few words to just substitute with what you don't eat. So the phrase is, which means I don't eat. So we say, which is I don't eat meat. And then you can add whatever words there that you don't eat. So egg, milk, and so on. Our goal by taking the train here was making it to one of Korea's most famous temples. But first, we had to find our way there. So if you've ever been to Korea, you'll know that Google Maps does not work here for navigation. So we're using Kakao Maps, and it is taking us quite an interesting backstreets route. Let's just say that it's very helpful to know a little bit of Korean, or at least be able to read and write in Hangul, because some of the destinations you can't write in English. Yeah, I'm doing my best. Luckily, Google Maps isn't completely blocked in South Korea, but there are many countries where common apps and websites like this are simply unavailable. That is, unless you're using a VPN. Today's sponsor, NordVPN, is the best you can get, in our opinion. It's the fastest VPN in the world, and it allows you to access all your favorite shows, apps, and content wherever in the world you are. Say you're going to the Middle East or China, you won't be able to access simple apps like Gmail, Google, Skype, or FaceTime in some of these places. By downloading NordVPN before your trip, yes, before, because once you're there, it's too late, you'll have access to everything that you would usually have access to in your home country. And you're protected online, since NordVPN blocks anyone from seeing your data, your browsing, or monitoring you. You can check out NordVPN at the link at the top of the description, or by going to nordvpn.com slash Oscar and Dan. You'll get a huge discount, and every purchase of a two-year plan will receive an additional free month on top. Now, let's go back to finding that temple. You know what this looks like? A Swedish island in the archipelago outside Gothenburg. Like, there's always this little port thing. I mean, it's a Korean version. Look at all the seaweed drying. Wow. We're having one of those days where you just have such an internal conflict, because all we want to do is stay at our amazing hotel, buy that beautiful view and beach, and just enjoy. But, since it's our first time here, we're like, but we have to go and see this? Nah, it really tears you up, because we know that the second time we come, then you don't feel any obligations to do the touristy stuff, because you've already done it. So, the second time is really about enjoying, and the first time you just have to take things off a list. This is definitely a choice. Yeah, this might be the most inconvenient pavement I've ever seen, because the rocks are so big. So, your feet go like this. Completely crooked all the time. Good exercise for the ankles. The only time we went to Jeju, my mom and my aunt were visiting us in Seoul, and the weather was horrible the whole time. So, honestly, we don't really know what Jeju is like on a good day, but if it's anything like this, maybe we should give Jeju another chance, because Busan is incredible. So, every country has a flavor, or a few. Sweden has pear. Korea has grapefruit. Everything is grapefruit. And this, from Ediya Coffee, the grapefruit navel orange tea, it's amazing. And I got the sweet potato latte, which is kind of weird, but I'm liking it. This has to be one of those beautifully located temples, ever. So cool. Someone's messed up. Yeah, someone really messed up. There's a Swedish crime drama going on right now. Not crime drama, maybe, but just a Swedish drama. So, everyone writes their wishes and stuff on these leaves, but there's one in Swedish that we found, which says, for my dear Emma, I'm sorry. Let me show you that I want to repair and do better. I'll leave it up to you to fill in the blanks. Whoever is dating Stephanie is doing a bit better. Yeah, this is a successful Swedish love story. Love you, my nicest, my Swedish, Swedish Stephanie. I'm so happy I met you, and I hope this is forever. Oh my god, no. Wait, what just happened? This is so crazy. My cousin just became a father. His little cousin, we should mention, not his older cousin. It's so crazy. Like, I can't believe this has actually happened. Lisa just sent me pictures. Wow. I'm getting emotional. That's so amazing. We'll be in Sweden in two weeks. So, hopefully, we'll be able to meet little Leia, little daughter Leia. So. So, we decided to take a taxi back, and now we've got a feeling that we really need to do this. When you're in Busan, and you're at such a beautiful beach, you just have to go for a swim. Our inner Swedes are feeling so embarrassed right now, like, walking through the city for a little bit, but it's worth it. I hope it's safe. Like, I don't see anyone else swimming. The only other people I've seen are the, like, professional divers or surfers. Do it. Show off. For health. Okay. Do it. Two different boys, two different standards. So, being from Sweden, this is not something we're not used to, but Oscar saying it's not cold is a huge lie. No, it's not that bad. It's fine. No, it hurts. It hurts a lot. Not for a Viking. It does not. Well, I'm not a Viking. I'm five percent Greek. That's true. I think your mom would be proud of us right now. My mom would be very proud. She would definitely swim here. You know, as you travel, you have to bring a little bit of yourself and your home nationality with you as you go, and this is our way of bringing Sweden to Korea. And it's our last day in Busan. To be completely honest, we're almost at our wits end with this trip now. It really has been an amazing trip, but this was the first trip that we really took since slowing down a little bit and quitting full-time travel, really. And we do feel like we still haven't really recovered a hundred percent from, you know, going to a hundred countries and traveling so intensely. So travel does still feel a bit like a chore, you know. We just need to recover even more. We need to gather even more energy to be able to continue doing this in the future. So we're gonna do our best now on our last day in Busan, and then we're taking the train tonight up to Seoul, which of course is a city that we know very well, so it won't feel like travel in the same way. Something we really didn't understand or notice until we got here to Busan is that the city is insanely spread out. Like, it's huge. Now we're heading more into, like, the, I guess, downtown part of Busan, but going there by public transport was over an hour. So we were like, yeah, we don't really have the time. So we had to get a taxi. All right, we made it to Busan station, where we'll be taking the train later today up to Seoul. First, we're just gonna leave our bags for a few hours, because we're not quite done exploring Busan. That was easy. No problems there. 6,000 won for two extra large lockers. So our bags are stored, and we're ready to head out. We were staying all the way up here in Haeundae-gu, and now we just made our way all the way down here to a very separate part of the city. I think the weather is especially helpful in making Busan seem like the most idyllic place compared to Seoul. Look what we found. This is the best passion fruit hibiscus tea from Gongcha Korea. Some things in Korea just kind of get to us as non-Koreans, so we asked for takeaway instead of dine-in cups. And when he delivered us the drinks, he was like, you cannot stay here if you're gonna drink in these cups, which is such a Korean thing to have. It's like all or nothing. You know, sometimes you want to sit for a minute, and then you want to leave. You want to have the option to leave, but no. Literally not allowed to sit there if we got this. And it's not like there's a price difference or anything. It's just like policy. If you have a plastic cup, stay in. And also just obviously the reason they do that is to encourage sustainability, so people will choose reusable cups as often as possible. But if they care about sustainability, the best thing they could do is offer any alternative milk, because they only have cow's milk, which is by far the worst option. So sometimes you just go, okay, ironic. Oscar and I are just discussing as we're walking here. When you walk past someone, do you look at them as they get closer, or like look into their eyes, or do you look away? Because we always point out that we have very different things we pay attention to. Oscar pays attention to people. I pay attention to surroundings and completely ignore people. So when someone gets close, I always look away. And I'm like, does it appear that I'm shy, or that I'm like reserved? Because that's totally not the case. I just get uncomfortable looking at a stranger when I'm quite close to them. Meanwhile, Oscar's like, yeah, like I stare at them the whole time they're walking past. No, Oscar's like, yeah, I'll look at them, you know, if they're going like this. That's not what I said. I said that sometimes you might lock eyes with people, and it's kind of awkward, but it's not like an intention when you look at people, like look them in the eye. Especially if you're in a country like Korea, where there are very few Westerners, for example. Once I see a Westerner, I'm like, okay, what is this person doing here? What's their story? What do you do? Which one of those are you? Korean people stare at us quite a lot, because we stick out. Swedish people tend to stare quite a lot. The reason I really don't like, you know, looking at other people, or feeling like I'm being looked at, is that I just like, you know, being in my own little world. I don't want to acknowledge other people. I don't want to see that they're here. There's shapes moving around, and I'm in my world, doing my thing. I don't want to feel like people are scrutinizing each other. Ooh, we found the shopping street. I love just walking around, and finding unexpected things, and then stumbling upon, I guess, one of the main streets. No, I like it. You hear that sound? Only in this part of the world, can they put all the products like this, just out on the street. All right, we just got a bunch of gifts for our friends, the TOPLIFE family. There's a birthday coming up, so we found all types of fun kids presents in here. Hopefully, they like them. We've never bought presents for a kid before. It's so hard. It's like, what do they like? When they're younger, it's one thing, but when they're teenagers, like younger teenagers, they're like, what the hell do we get? All right, and now it's the last stop in Busan. We're trying to make our way up into the hills to Gamcheon Village. This is like the only picture I'd ever seen from Busan before coming here, so. The funny thing is, we tried to make it here yesterday morning. Yeah. And it's taken us until now. We're really pushing it, because we haven't booked a train back to Seoul, but we obviously need to get there. Tonight. Not too late. Yeah, we also wanted to see the countryside in the daylight, so we'll try to hurry up. Not these stairs. Not this. We can do it. It's very interesting to see this. I don't think we've made it to the actual village yet, but I guess this is as close as you'll ever get in Korea to, like, a favela, or a barrio, or whatever you want to call it. Oh my gosh, it's really so much further up. You know when we went to a favela in Rio, they drove us to the top, and then we walked down. That's what we should have done. Oh my gosh. Keep going. We made it. I'm getting the weirdest deja vu to, I think, Brazil and Colombia. It's really, really bizarre. Gamcheon Village was originally built in the 1920s as cheap housing for workers. When the Korean War broke out, many refugee families settled here, and the neighborhood struggled with poverty for a long time. But in 2009, the Ministry of Tourism did an art-themed renovation of the village to convert it to a cultural hub and tourist attraction, an effort that was very successful, although some of the residents did not wish for the renovation to happen and have since moved away. This stairway was named Stairs to See the Stars because people used to feel dizzy and see stars in their eyes when they climbed up the stairs. Hopefully we've lost those stars. Guys, thank you for watching as always, and we hope you come back for our next video in which we'll share our train ride to Seoul and the cosmetic enhancements we had there. All we can say is stay tuned. Until you hear from us again, see you around the world. I'm Oscar. And I'm Dan. And we're on a mission to see as much of the world as possible during our youth. So far, we've traveled to 100 countries to show that anyone can travel off the beaten path regardless of who they are. However, we realized that constantly chasing new countries isn't necessarily the most fulfilling way to live life. So now we're finding a balance by exploring more of our favorite countries and seeing new places at a more sustainable pace. We'd love for you to come along for the ride. See you around the world.