Day Trip to Busan

There was a holiday this weekend that ended up landing on March 1st. As a result that didn't have any effect as far as days off for most foreign teachers. In Korea, if a holiday falls on the weekend, they don't make up for during the week.

Fortunately, I don't fall under the category of most foreign teachers. In my contract I receive a 3 day weekend once a month. These weekends are scheduled with the holidays, so I had Saturday Sunday and Monday off. My work weeks are also 6 day work weeks.

It was nice having those extra couple days in spite of not having anything planned. Sunday morning however a buddy called and said he was headed to Busan to check out the fish market and beach so I decided to tag along. We grabbed the KTX to Busan, which is also known as Pusan (similar to how Daegu is also known as Taegu).

Busan is a port city, right on the ocean, so naturally fishing and shipping are major parts of its economy. Busan is a little bigger then Daegu and is the 2nd largest city in South Korea and one of the largest port city's in the world. It has a massive fish market, and you can view the pictures I took at the market here. There are also pictures of the beach and city in that album.

I don't think the pictures do the market justice. There were so many tanks of fish and various other sea creatures. In an attempt to escape many fish were jumping out of their fish tanks, either onto the ground or into the tank beside them. At one point an eel jumped out of its tank and instead of picking it up right away the guy thought it would be funny to fling the eel at the foreigners and let it flop around near us for a while.

It kinda looked cool flopping around, although i am not a big fan of eels. They are ugly and remind me of snakes...which creep me out! After we were finished checking the fish market out we decided to head to the beach. Along the way we saw houses which was a bit of a big deal. Other then a couple farm houses in the middle of no where, I had not seen any houses.

After exploring the beach for a while we decided to try a fish joint for food and of course Mekju (beer). To decide on the fish we would eat the owner took it out of the tank and let it flop on the side walk for a while. I should have taken a picture of the way the fish was served, but I dropped the ball on that one. Someone did take a picture of it, so if I manage to get a hold of the picture I will add it to the others.

After dinner we went to a street called Texas street. It is known to be a little shady. There is a lot of Russian influence and any Koreans there were likely to speak Russian over Korean. It lived uo to its reputation as the vibe I felt down that street was much different then other parts of Korea i was used to. People were almost too friendly and persistent as far as selling us their goods goes. We decided to stop for a drink at a pub called London bar, or London club depending on which sign you read.

Inside it looked quite mellow, as far as the seats and tables went. The rest of the place however didn't seem to match the look. They played club music and there were neon lights. It sounded like a night club, but there wasn't a dance floor for you to dance on. Before we entered the club/pub, some man I believe to be part Korean part Russian approached us. "Hello Friends, I have what you need" he said to us. I'd be interested in what exactly he thought we needed, but we did not inquire, just said no thanks and continued walking. At this point we can only guess. Hookers? Drugs? Cotton Candy? I have no idea.

After our drink at the London Club/pub we headed back to Busan station to catch the KTX back to Daegu. I bought some more Mekju for the train ride home and that sums up my trip to Busan.