Dan had a hook-up with a friend in the band that got us free tickets to go see DrumCat! This is an all female percussion group from right here in Seoul. We were excited to have a date night out on the town and of course I was excited to see some drumming!

Here we are on the 3rd row of a very small theatre (smaller than the movie theatres on base), and there were amps and speakers everywhere. We knew right away this was going to be LOUD!


We enjoyed the show, though we weren't sure we would've felt justified in paying 50,000 won/ticket otherwise. It's probably b/c I'm a percussionist and 'know better'. They were great entertainers, put on a fun and flirty performance, but their technique was lacking. I'm not saying I could get up there and do all that choreography with all that passion and zeal, but for me the things that were meant to impress the audience weren't getting past me!

Oh, and at the end they had us all stand up and dance with them. A girl on stage pointed to Dan and started dancing. Dan thought this meant she wanted him to come up on stage. I think she just wanted him to do the same dance move right there in his seat. Either way Dan made his way up and danced with all the hot asian chicks up on stage. One girl even let him play her drum... hahaha..

We finished the night with dinner at Chicken Mania. My Korean friends, if you haven't eaten there yet you should. I mean, maybe you shouldn't because then you'll start craving it. Mmm...

Okay, it's time for the videos from the trip. First up is from our first time visiting a Noraebang. The koreans definitely have this one right. Karaoke is fun, right? Not in a bar in front of strangers, but in your home joking around. Well a Noraebang mixes the two. Here you get your own room to goof off, be as loud as you want and sing/dance/chill. Some Noraebongs require you to purchase food or drink, but this was 15,000 won for 45 minutes of fun. The kids thought it was great!

This is a video of these awesome Korean drummers we heard as we were making our way out of the subway station. Love it! (especially the director guys dancing!)

This is a little clip from our 'up top' out in the open bus experience! Ack!


Dan did a little video log of his time waiting, watching, and eating Hotteok.






Okay, last one I promise. This was probably Alex's happiest moment of the weekend.. eating ice cream!


We had an awesome time in Busan and I hope you enjoyed coming along for the blog!

I forgot to mention Day 2's dinner, which was McD's for the boys and Samgyupsal for us! And it was only 5,000 won for our dinner! We headed back to the hotel where we watched The Fugitive on the TV and the boys tried to fall asleep.

Okay, get prepared for a long post with lots of pictures. Day 3 was a little less planned. The only thing on the agenda was to go on the Busan City Tour Bus. There are several different routes you can take, and even interchange between them, all for 10,000 won per adult and 5,000 won for kids, alex was free. You can get off at any stop and then next bus comes around 40 minutes later, or you can stay as long as you like and catch any of the buses. We decided to take the Taejongdae course since we'd already been in the Haeundae area the day before.

So here we are on the bus getting ready to go.



Cade and his dragon hand. RAWR!


Our first stop was 75 square, which I had read had a playground. There was no playground that I could find, only nature's playground. We took some great pictures up in this pagoda and then noticed some hiking trails that led down to the water.





The trail steps all had rock designs in them, unique and fun :)

Gathering things for a bird's nest?












My sweet husband carrying Alex for me. There were A LOT of stairs and Alex wasn't moving fast enough on his own, nor could I carry him the whole time :)

At the bottom of those stairs Dan ventured far out onto the rocks with Cade. No way was I taking Alex out there!




We got back to the bus stop just in time, and this time it had an open top. Unfortunately there was only standing room, so this is a pic of Dan and I holding on for dear life (well, I was anyways) while this double decker bus winded around curves and steep hills. You can't see the boys because we're practically holding them still with our legs.

Some views from the drive. It looks like they're building a monorail.


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Going over the Namhang Bridge

And our next stop was Songdo Beach. Cade was so excited to see these sculptures in the water.



We walked around, found lots of cool shells and did some more rock climbing. This time it was Mommy's turn with Cade. We took Alex out for a little bit, but he was a little 'too' adventurous and gave a few Koreans heart attacks, and his mother.



We were getting kinda hungry and there weren't very many restaurants around so we stopped at one called 'A Twosome Place' and had a sandwich for me and a treat for the boys to tide them over. Dan was saving his appetite b/c our next stop was the Jagalchi Fish market and he was hoping to get some fresh seafood there.

So here's a view of Jagalchi fish market from Busan tower. That building is just levels and levels of fish, still living, raw, cooked, etc.


Now I have to give you fair warning about the following pictures. These are NOT for those who dislike a little crude humor. I'll give you the story and you can decided whether you want to see the pictures. We were walking along the long row of vendors selling their fresh fish. The floor is wet, the air reeks and all of the tanks are overflowing and squirming! We weren't going to be buying any fresh fish so most vendors ignored us as we just passed by. But this one korean man approached us and pulled some sort of creature out of its tank and gave it to Alex to hold. Then he squeezed all the water out of it and it was quickly apparent that he was pointing out how much this fish part looked and acted like a penis. He thought it was the funniest thing in the world to watch our boys try and hold onto these slippery things and he kept helping them 'pee'. This culture has no shame about these things. I mean, there's a kid's play park in Seoul that has a poop land and you can buy toys where the boys and girls have a swirly poop on their head and you can buy a poop on a stick squeaky toy. I thought the entire situation was hilarious and definitely a memorable moment for us Americans!




Alright, so here's the long view of the market! Mind boggling...







The last place we visited was PIFF square, which stands for Pusan International Film Festival. Even though it wasn't festival time this place was packed. For those in Korea it was like Namdaemun on steroids. Tons of vendors selling their wares and food. Dan waited in line for 30-40 minutes for Hotteok. One thing we've learned is that if the line is long for someone's food stall, it means it's worth the wait. We also had some chicken on a stick and then fed the boys (some more) McD's. I tell you, if we actually lived out in Korea where there was no commissary my boys would probably starve to death. But traveling on vacation is stress enough that I didn't need to starve them and make them eat korean all weekend.



After all of that we took the subway back to the hotel and rested a bit before our last night in Busan. Our last adventure will be posted soon!