Busan, part V - Nampo-Jagalchi Boardwalk and BIFF

A family of refugees during the Korean War

I walked back to Jagalchi station, and took the metro back to Nampo to the hostel, where I stayed for a bit to chill before heading back out, back to Jagalchi. I had a day pass anyway so it didn't really matter. I walked to BIFF Square - Busan International Film Festival Square. It was nice, but it was basically just a shopping district. Been there, done that, got the sweat stained Tshirt.

I went back to Nampo again, and walked down to the coastline, and enjoyed myself there some more. There isn't really much to say about Nampo at this point. I enjoyed the view and the weather, although it was still a bit hot. I wondered where my next Europe destination would be - probably first Vienna because direct flights, Wien flughafen which I've come to know so well now.

More walking, more hot weather, more castles in the air, and more to come.

Busan, part IV - Jagalchi and the Nampo-Jagalchi Boardwalk

Street food in Jagalchi Fish Market

I wandered down Jagalchi fish market, enjoying the dry, refreshing sea breeze, and basically just letting my mind wander. I approached a line of street vendors who were all selling something which looked like spicy seafood noodles with pig blood. I walked by, backtracked, and decided to try it out, and discovered that this was a variation of the famous pork rice soup.

This was probably one of my favourite parts of the trip. The lady who owned the spicy seafood noodles was very nice, and kept filling up my bowl and keeping an eye to see that I was well fed. A lot of other Koreans came to sit down next to me, and we all ate our spicy noodles together in comfortable, quiet camaraderie, and I thought - yes, this is what I came for.

I managed to finish all of my noodles, except for the pig blood, and rose, and went on my merry way, retracing my steps back to the beginning of the fish market. I stopped to buy some seaweed for the fam, and then walked on. The road broadened into a boardwalk, providing me with a lovely - though rather hot - view of the Tsushima Strait, and a panorama of the entire coastline, which was green mountains and ships and anchors and turquoise sea. I walked on.

To be continued.

Busan, part III - Lotte Department Store and Jagalchi Fish Market

Lotte Department Store and Jagalchi Fish Market. The department store was like any old department store in Taipei, but I went anyway because it was right next to my hostel plus I wanted to get some food for the fam and buy myself some coffee. Kafija. I've noticed that in SK, they tend to have these giant, monopolizing companies that basically run everything - at Beommil I think it was, there was a Hyundai mall and I was a bit surprised because Hyundai has always been a car manufacturer to me. Obviously I don't know enough about SK.

I took the metro to Jagalchi, which was only one stop from my metro, but I had that one day pass so figured I might as well. I found the fish market without too much difficulty - basically I just followed the smell of the sea and the way the wind was blowing from - and saw it, a long, covered market filled with vendors and hawkers in a scene so similar to my home country that it felt as if I had fallen into a portal and was now in a parallel universe equivalent of my home country, except that everyone spoke Korean.

I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed Jagalchi fish market far, far more than I was expecting to. I wandered along market in a sort of happy daze. The sun was quite bright but it wasn't hot, and the wind from the Tsushima Strait was clean and slightly salty and extremely refreshing. I strolled at a leisurely pace, stopping to look at the squids, the octopuses (is that even a word?; apparently so because google spellcheck hasn't underlined it in red) and the clams and all the other sea creatures who were happy as a clam, with no idea of the grisly fate that awaited them.

I raised my head and saw Gamcheon Cultural Village in front of me in the distance, and the lazy voice at the back of my mind said - well, if you can see it from here then there's really no need to go and see it in person. I decided to see how I felt about that later, and to go along with the flow, because it's my own damn holiday and I'm going to do exactly as I damn well please and there's nothing no one can do about that so there.

What made me really happy about the fish market was that I got to see some actual 'Beondegi (번데기)', silkworm pupae soup, in person. At first I thought that Kim Jaejoong was joking when he talked about this, then he posted a real picture of it, and then I saw it in person, and no I did not try it at all because it looks like cockroaches and there's no way I'm eating something that looks like cockroaches, be it steamed or fried or boiled or broiled.

Beondegi 번데기 - silkworm pupae

After reading reviews about that, I think I made the right choice not to eat them.

More to come.

Busan, part II - Sky Island Guesthouse

The hostel I stayed I whilst I was in Busan. As far as hostels go this one wasn't bad at all. It cost about 15 euros, and included an all-you-can eat breakfast. I'm serious. The definition of an all-you-can-eat meal is that you eat until you're full and can eat no more, and they did provide that. The hostel was very clean, and the guy working the counter (can't exactly call him a maître d') spoke remarkably good English by Korean standards, and ASTONISHINGLY good Mandarin as well. (I did not realise this till the second day lmao). It was a very clean hostel, and was one of those Good Ones that provide curtains for privacy, and your own personal night light and power socket in each bunk bed, which was also nice and big and spacey. If there's one complaint I have it's that it's not really a social sort of hostel - the common room is off limits after 10 I think and I even got shoeed out when I went there at about midnight. I dunno. I like my hostels to be a little more social than that. If you ask me which were the best, most memorable hostels I've ever stayed in, this is just off the top of my head but rightaway I'll tell you Corner Hostel in Wroclaw, Gate Hostel in Vilnius, and the Copenhagen hostel whose name eludes me now. These three strike me particularly, for some reason - not because they were particularly clean (although they were dirt cheap, even the Danish one - by Danish standards anyway), but because .. because I really enjoyed my time there? No that's not it. I did enjoy my time there and the people I met, but it goes deeper than that. It's one of those experiences you can't fully explain or rationalize with words. To quote Haruki Murakami, and a bit of Anne Rice, how pathetic it is to attempt to measure something which cannot be measurable.

No matter. I fried myself 3 eggs, got a mug of orange juice (which I normally don't like much but when you're on the road free food is not really something you pass up), sat around in a vain attempt to wait for my phone to recharge, which it did not, then headed out to explore.

To be continued..