Sea You Later, Busan!

Yesterday I visited two friends in Busan, the second largest city in S. Korea.  It is right on the coast of the ocean and is home to Korea's largest outdoor fish market!

I took the LTX train (the really fast one.  Took about 45 min. and cost around $17) into Busan station in the morning and explored 'China Town' while I waited for my friend to pick me up.  If you've ever been to the China Town in Toronto, then you know what I was expecting… But I was quite disappointed with what I found!   I found nothing interesting or unique in the area… It sort of felt as though they slapped some red paint on the buildings, put some Chinese lanterns up for decorations and added a few dragons for good measure!

Red Paint

Decorative Dragons

Since China Town held no interest to me, I went back to the station and sat on a bench under some trees and started reading a book while I waited. While I was there, I was approached by a man who was very intent on striking up a conversation with me despite his limited English.  I've gotta hand it to him; he tried hard.  He was very friendly and even showed me a music video on his phone… I'm not quite sure why, but he did.  He also wanted to take me out for lunch, but I declined, saying I needed to meet a friend.  While I was trying to pull up Google Translate to tell him this, it came to my attention that my phone wasn't actually connected to the internet, and I quickly ran back into the main station to connect properly since the only way I could communicated with the friend who was picking me up was via facebook chat. Once I found a proper internet connection, I discovered that my friend had been searching for me for a past half hour!! Oops. We found each other and all was good!

My friend showed me the outdoor fish market.  As we walked, the merchants were constantly trying to get us to take a seat at in their 'restaurants'.  At this market, you can personally select your dinner from the tank of living fish.  If you ever get to go there, I'm told it's pretty awesome food… just make sure you're clear on how much it's going to cost you.  Some of the fish go for $100 a plate… but if you like fresh sea food, this is the place for you!!

Fish market

Fried fish at Fish Market

We also walked through BIFF. Though the Film Festival hadn't started yet there was quite a crowd and we ran into the Panda mascot! 

PANDA maskot

We also went to the beach (it was raining a bit… and cold… but I'm told it's beautiful when the sun's shining!). 

We then picked up our other friend from the public school where she teaches.  It's right at the edge of Busan and backs onto some trails that go up the mountain.  We walked a short ways into the woods to a look-out point to get a full view of Busan.  We also ran into a stray cat and I used my first squatter toilet! (No picture proof, unfortunately)

Busan from a distance

Being adults at Laura's school

We then went on a quest to find the dog café and we were successful!  We only had to duck into 1 Starbucks for directions! Success?  I think so.  At the café, you pay $8 for a drink and access to lovely dogs.

It felt like a cloud

Overall, it was a lovely way to spend a Wednesday!