Oof, my shoulders are pink and tingly; I roasted them to a crisp on Thursday Unfortunately, I was too dumb to wear sunscreen, though it would have melted off almost immediately anyway.

After a harrowing bus experience (“Is this our stop? No! YES! YES! GET OFF!!), the boyfriend and I took a relaxing walk along the Songdo coastal path in Busan. Busan has a few sandy beaches, but it also has a lot of rocky cliffs at the edge of the water. Ooh, I believe the word “escarpment” is appropriate here, points for me!

The coastal path is a mile-long fenced walkway that covers the cliffs between Songdo Beach and Anman Park. There are a lot of nice lookout points and areas to scrabble (or have a picnic) on the rocks! We also saw a few people fishing, sleeping, and collecting mussels on the rocks.

Best of all, there weren’t many people on the walkway at all, so we had a lot of space all to ourselves. After the craziness of Seoul, it was de-light-ful to take a moment to enjoy the surroundings, without the fear of an ajumma shoving me out of the way.

After hoofing it through the city in the afternoon, we met up with Jin to explore Taejeongdae Park, which is at the edge of a very big island. The park is quite large, and by the time we arrived, there was a long line waiting for the tram. We had two options:  walk to the lighthouse and scenic overlook in 20 minutes or wait an hour for a tram (and be squashed in the car with a bunch of sweaty Koreans).

Obviously, we chose the former, though the trek was quite hilly. We tried to walk backwards to give our legs a rest, but unfortunately, this picture just looks like we’re walking forwards.

I would also like to point out that Jin and I know how to dress for this weather: tank tops and shorts. This girl in her clingy, jersey-knit dress? Not so much.

I was surprised by the number of pine trees that Taejeongdae (and Busan in general) has along the coastline. I imagine this is how Maine is…except not nearly as humid. Good thing you can’t see how disgustingly sweaty I was in this picture.

The lighthouse wasn’t nearly as pretty as historic American lighthouses, but I suppose it gets the job done. What can I say? I’m a lighthouse snob.

One has to descend several steps to get from the main path to the lighthouse. This is followed by even more steps to get to “Suicide Rock.” We weren’t sure if this was so-named because of an actual event.

I was really shocked that there was no guardrail on Suicide Rock at all. There were maybe 30 people walking all over the rock and several couples taking photos very close to the edge. My legs got a little wobbly out of fear because holy shit, what if you slipped and fell down there?!?

Here’s a wider angle to show you how steep it was, just in case you don’t believe me:

I am not afraid to admit that on the walk back to the path, I got super-competitive. On our way down, we had seen several Koreans huffing and puffing, saying “Aigoooo!” and looking like they were about to die. Feeling full of vim and vigor, we raced up those stairs and came out on TOP!

Later, Jin got a spicy tummy at dinner:

And then we walked around Nampo-dong, which is like the less insane version of Myeong-dong Shopping district in Seoul. It also holds PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival) Square, which has handprints from famous actors. Look, Jeremy Irons’ handprint…and a piece of trash.

Finally, I got a kick out of this statue of two pants-less children. I can see their junk! Oh well, it’s the beach.

Phew, that’s my very long catch-up of Thursday. Now, it’s Saturday, and we’re in Kyoto, Japan after a ferry trip and a ride on a bullet train spaceship. I will write about that soon.

I have a funny story (Well, Jin, the boyfriend, and I think so…) about our Friday morning, but it may be another TMI post. In an effort to be somewhat more judicious about my postings, here’s a poll for you!