Busan Birthday for Jeff!

Our ship made one stop in South Korea, and, as luck would have it, it was on Jeff's birthday. His top two requests were going on a cable car and eating real Korean bbq. The ship didn't have a tour that matched with that, and since it was his birthday, I figured it was worth a splurge, so I booked a local guide with car to take us around for the morning.

The weather when we arrived was not promising. It wasn't raining, but the sky was overcast, and it was extremely windy.

Our guide was very friendly and met us with his van at the port. We went to check on the cable cars, but they weren't taking passengers because it was too windy. Our guide very kindly kept calling and checking, but it stayed windy, and the cable cars stayed closed. Luckily, he had other ideas for keeping us busy. He took us up to an area known as Gamcheon Cultural Village. He explained that it was a poorer area of the city where a lot of North Korean refugees had settled. The people who lived in the area had chosen to paint the houses different colors, put in photo ops, and set up businesses selling arts and crafts. It was a perfect tourist trap, and we saw two tour groups from the ship as we were walking around. We were glad we had our guide, because the streets were narrow and the photo spots were crowded. It was also still very windy.

Our guide was clearly experienced at taking pictures to make it look like we were the only ones there. This is the final shot he got.

As opposed to the initial wide shot.

One of the most surprising things we found were representations of the Little Prince. Apparently, people in the area identified with the story. Jeff managed to get me pictures without the crowds of people.

We ended up coming out the entrance, and then we waited for our guide to run back and get the car.

We had told him that for lunch we wanted bbq with steak. He offered us a couple different options, and we said we wanted the one with the best meat, so he took us to a market where they sold the meat fresh downstairs, and you grilled it upstairs.

The front of the shop was lined with fridges displaying plates of meat. Jeff picked the one he wanted, and they brought it upstairs with us to a table.

One of the ladies who worked at the restaurant, brought us a series of side dishes, and then proceeded to grill the meat for us. She would cut finished chunks into smaller pieces with a fabulous pair of scissors, and then put them up on the little rack for us to retrieve.

We also got some delicious plum flavored soju. The bottle was bigger than the ones we'd gotten before, and it had little plums at the bottom fermenting. I made the mistake of trying to take a bite out of one of them. Don't do that.

The meat was so good that we tore through our first plate pretty quickly. Even Elena, who is not usually a steak person, was devouring it. We figured, since it was Jeff's birthday, that it wouldn't be a problem to get another plate.

We agreed that this was definitely one of our best meals ever. After our decadent meal, a walk around the market seemed like the perfect activity. There were the standard vegetables and fruits.

As well as lots of interesting looking foods.

There were also non-food stalls with different housewares.

And lots of different kinds of fish, 

and grains.

We also came across a shoe store.

One of our favorites though, was the bowls of greens for sale.

Then we spotted the strawberry sticks.

This particular vendor only took cash, but our guide took us around the corner to another one who would take a credit card. The result was a very happy and sticky kiddo.

Our guide took us back to the ship. The girls went to play, and the birthday boy relaxed on our balcony.

At dinner, our fabulous wait staff presented Jeff with a happy birthday plate.

We also went to listen to the ship's jazz band, who Jeff had befriended, so they played him happy birthday and gave him another birthday plate.

Luckily, by then I had picked Elena up from the kid's club, so she helped with eating his second birthday cake.

When we got back to the room, it greeted Jeff with birthday wishes. It was a good birthday.

We didn't go to many of the evening performances in the theater, but the next night we went to basically a jukebox of opera and musical top hits where the singers could all show off what they could do, and we really enjoyed it.

Have I mentioned we love cruising?