Christmas Tree Festival

My apologies for the lack of posts lately. I've literally not written to you since 2013! That's, like, last year!

Obviously, Christmas has come and gone, but I still feel a little hole in my heart after having taken down my Christmas tree yesterday, so I thought I'd write about my holiday festivities.

The beautiful city of Busan held their annual Christmas Tree Festival during all of December, and I was able to catch one night of the festival before heading off to Thailand for a week. I spent the day with three awesome people who I have definitely not had the pleasure of spending enough time with during my time in Korea: Kelleen, Jeremy, and Tan Kia.

The festival was set to kick off at 6:30, so I wanted to visit Taejongdae Park beforehand. Tan Kia had an appointment to get to, so Jeremy, Kelleen and I set off to explore the park area. We got off at Busan Station and hailed a cab ride to the island. Once there, we looked for somewhere for Kelleen to grab a bite to eat, as she had been looking to eat from the moment Jeremy and I had found her in Busan. But with time working against us, and with minimal options to choose from, she opted to tough it out until after we were through with the park. Her stomach was like a disciplined ninja.

The park was supposed to offer up some of the most beautiful views in Busan, and it certainly didn't disappoint, as is evidenced by the pictures below.

Help me out, Perry! What do they say?

Fun fact: I had to traverse some cliffs in my old man shoes to get this shot and almost slipped on my way back to solid ground. My heart skipped a beat.

The Mighty Jeremy Barden. My only fellow cheesehead in all of Korealand! 

I think that's me and Kelleen.

The great thing about this park is that it is not only very scenic, but you can hike the whole thing in under an hour. A great way to spend an afternoon.

Talking Star Trek and video games. These are my people.

This guy had Ronald McDonald whacked because the clown owed him some money.

Once we were finished with the park, we hopped on a bus and headed back to the mainland. Half an hour into the ride, traffic had gotten really bad, but we realized that we were close enough that we could just walk to Nampo Station, where Tan Kia was waiting for us.

By this time, it was already around 7:00 and I was determined to find Kelleen a place to eat, as I feared that she'd turn into a hangry zombie and devour one of us. She took it like a champ, though, and we eventually settled on chicken. A lot of chicken. And some delicious cider.

We paid the bill and stepped outside to drift through the streets and gaze at all of the purrty Christmas decorations. The festival was located around Gwangbok-ro, which is a highly commercial area of the city. For those of you in or from Toronto, imagine if Kensington Market and Yorkdale Mall had a shiny and sparkly baby, and that's Gwangbok-ro.

I'll admit that the festivities were slightly underwhelming, but they were still pretty enough to merit the trip. I'll never turn down the chance to gaze at Christmas trees.

There were also various lit up decorations lined up along the street as well, offering ample photo opportunities for families and couples alike.

In the centre of it all, there was a large light structure in the shape of a giant tree. There was also a stage with some musicians who appeared to be warming up. We eventually tired of waiting for the show to start and continued walking.

Busan: The city that never sleeps. I love this place.

Jeremy missed a photobomb opportunity by mere seconds. See if you can spot him.

Once we reached the end of the road, we turned around and made it our mission to find a place to eat dessert before heading back to Ulsan. We scoured every inch of Gwangbok-ro, but nothing satiated our sweet tooth. We finally found one place offering some heavenly fruit-covered desserts, but the place was packed.

Our journey continued on until we reached the entrance to Gwangbok-ro. We had covered the whole area and didn't find a single restaurant. Our collective spirits were low, and were about to give up when Kelleen spotted a crepe place pretty much directly above where we were standing. It had a mountain of Nutella jars in the window.

Holy Houdini, Batman!

We ran upstairs and each scarfed down two. As soon as that Nutella touched my lips, I laughed uncontrollably; I forgot how happy that stuff makes me feel. Nutella, strawberry, banana...drooooooool..........

It was an honour to help introduce Jeremy to the wonderful world of crepes. Clearly, he enjoyed himself.

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