On Saturday, I woke up and took the subway to Bucheon, where my old housemate from college, Mike, lives. The train took an hour, even though there was only one transfer. Seoul is so big.
Mike gave me a walking tour of Bucheon. He showed me the school he works at. His favorite bar, which we got drinks from later, was two floors below his school.
We went out for Korean BBQ for lunch. Having Mike order made everything so easier. It was also great being able to ask him questions about Korean culture.
Beers at Mike's apartment
Mike purposefully walked me by this group of school kids who were rallying in support of keeping the city clean or the environment or something. Groups like this apparently love foreigners and Mike knew they would try to intercept me because they love to take pictures with foreigners while rallying for their cause. The girls are trying to explain to me what they want me to do but their English was not very good. They wanted me to write I love you on a post it and post it on their sign. I think.
When I arrived in Seoul, a lot of my plans got shuffled around. I ended up needing to extend my stay at the hostel a night. It was really easy. The staff was so laid back, they spent all their time just hanging out in the kitchen with the guests. I asked one of the staff over breakfast if I could stay an extra night, he said yes, and I gave him 18,000 won cash (18 bucks).
I was woken up by a girl packing up to leave, so I was awake and out the door about an hour and a half than I had expected. I went to Seoul Station to pick up my train ticket and asked the guy if I could change it to an earlier train and he changed it for me. I got to Busan a lot earlier than I expected.
I'm trying to learn how to read Hangul, the Korean alphabet. I practiced on the train! It's a really pretty alphabet, and very logical in its design. Whenever I'm sitting, either on the subway or a restaurant, I try to read the words. I have no idea what any of them mean, of course, but I could pronounce it if needed! I know two words in Korean (barely). Hello and thank you. Annyeonghaseyo and gomabseubnida, respectively. I'm sure I'm butchering the pronunciation, but shopkeepers and waitresses get very stoked to hear me try.
View from Busan Station
The hostel wouldn't let me check in until 3, so I dropped my backpacks off and headed back out. I really just wanted to shower and get settled, so I went to go find a tourist attraction that would keep me busy for two hours.
I didn't even really want to go to the fish market, looking at piles of dead fish didn't seem appealing to me when I was researching Busan.
When I got there I was amazed. Hundreds of tiny stands with types of fish I'd never even seen before lined both sides of the street. The walkway was shaded by endless multi colored umbrellas. And it was packed with people. I felt like a fish myself, caught in the current. It was a head spinning, smelly sensory overload. It was crazy. But it was so cool. And I'd never seen anything like it before.
This is something that would not be legal in the U.S. for a hundred reasons. Shop owners were casually slicing and dicing their product right there in the street. Discarded octopus legs still wriggled in the bin. Crabs tried to crawl off the shelves.
There were octopi, squid, those flat fish I forget the name of, flat long shiny fish, crabs, oysters, sea cucumbers, and so many other types of fish piled on tables, fish tales dangling into the street, even fish jerky.
If you so desire, you are able to buy your fish and take it into one of the many restaurants behind the stalls and they will cook it up for you for an extra fee.
It was really crazy at first but after awhile it just started to feel like a sad aquarium.
It turns out I wasn't even at the Jagalchi Market! The only reason I found this is because I was just wandering around the area and on my way back to what I thought was the fish market I found the actual fish market I thought I was at.
It was cool, but quite anticlimactic after the outdoor fish market.
I took a break at the hostel and then headed back on out to see Busan Tower.
This is Busan Tower. I couldn't be bothered to take a non blurry picture because I was struggling quite a bit from the thousands of stairs I did realize you had to go up to get to the base of the tower.
I thought Seoul's humidity was bad. I have never sweat so much in my life standing still.
It's a lot cheaper than Seoul Tower, but less impressive. I liked seeing the bridges! They lit up and changed colors.
Food
Mike took me to authentic Korean BBQ for lunch. It's all communal food and they cook it in front of you.
For dinner yesterday Mike ordered this dish. It was very spicy chicken and cabbage. It was quite good, but it made my nose run.
I see these little guys at little stands in the train station. They smell so good! It's fried dough filled with custard.
Very, very few people in Busan speak English. I was having trouble finding food, and this was the first restaurant I went to that had pictures when I was hungry for dinner late last night. So I pointed to this. It's called gimbap, I think. Seaweed and rice, and to be honest I'm not really sure if parts of it was fish or vegetables.
