I will be back : )

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Words cannot explain how excited I was for Busan and I was not surprised to find out how excited Jess was as well. The trip started with my alarm clock waking me up at 4:30am....that is so early. I had the hardest time getting up, but with the excitement of the upcoming trip I got up without pressing snooze. I did my last minute packing I had left and then started on my journey to the subway station. I had to sit and wait for the first subway to come while watching all the guys who were still drunk from the night before. I met Jess at the Daejeon Station and we picked up our tickets that we had previously bought on the interent. At 6:20am our train arrived and we boarded. The plan was to sleep on our 4 hour ride there as we got the slow train but sleep did not happen. It continuously stopped and they also sell standing room on this train so we had a lady standing in front of us. Over time with the sun shining in the train became incredibly hot and stuffy. Looking out of the train window you really notice how most of this country s developed by the landscape is still beautiful. When we arrived in Busan we found the subway and made our way to the hostel to drop off our bags. The hostel was incredibly easy to find and was also located in Seomyeon which was nice. The hostel was different then what I am used to as it is similar to an average sized apartment back home and it is June’s house. It has three room that have bunk beds in them and a communal kitchen and sitting area. It was such a friendly and comfortable place to stay. Right away June pulled out a map and showed us a few places to go.
First we set of to the Jagalchi Raw Fish Market. That is something that you have to see at least once in your life. It is just amazing to see all the fish and deep down I feel so bad for all the fish. There has to be hundreds of fish either dead or still alive shoved in these tiny little areas. When you pick out your fish that you would like they place them in a basket while they flop around slowly dying. Sometimes they will just cut their heads off and stab them. When you would like an octopus it is the same thing as they grab one out of the tub and let it die. I have never seen so many fish in my life and it is the older crowd that work this market. The smell is what I remember the most; just a horrid fish smell that just burns your nostrils. There is water everywhere either from their hoses or the buckets of water that they splash on the fish. While you are walking through you will see scooters coming through with more fish on the back. We went to the back area of the market and looked off the dock there and all you could see was dozens of fishing boats out there of all different sizes and shapes. When you order fish at the street restaurants you pick out your fish and then they cook it or you eat it raw. It is as if the fish is still gasping for air as you eat it. To be honest I was not a huge fan of the fish market but I am glad I did get to see it. From there we made our way to Yongdusan Park. To get to this park you exit from the busy street up an escalator. The way we found this park is that we were looking for the entrance to the Busan tower. You go up quite high to this beautiful park that was where the Japanese initially lived. They were not allowed to leave this area. It is quite beautiful and has a lot of greenery. We did go up in the Busan tower which was really beautiful. It was a nice way to be able to see the whole city and also to see where things were. I cannot explain how large this city actually is. It seemed like it just went on forever. Three quarters of the views was just miles and miles of buildings and the other view was the ocean with a ton of boats either out at sea or docked. It was so nice to sit up there and take a break while being able to see this amazing city. The stairway to the top was a little ridiculous however as it was so tiny. We both thought that in America a lot of people would not be able to get to the top of the tower. When I say tiny, I mean tiny. After we went down we walked over to the ferry terminal and found out times and prices for a coastal ferry ride. We figured we should eat even though we were not hungry as we had not eaten in so many hours. After supper we made our way back to the hostel where we talked with a few of the other guests and then crashed early. It is nice to be able to talk to other people to hear of their views on the country, what they have seen and where their travels have taken them.
I woke up early on Saturday as I heard other people rummaging about and could not get back to sleep. I went and had my breakfast on the patio that overlooks some of the city, beautiful. Once we were ready to go Jess and I, as well as another guest at the hostel made our way to the ferry terminal. We were greeted with a smile as the man remembered us. After we purchased our tickets we were told that we were the only ones to get 50% off of our tickets because we had been there the day before. Bonus! We boarded the ferry and set off on our hour and a half ride around the Busan coast on the ocean. It was a beautiful hot day and that made the ride just that much better. We were able to see so much more of Busan by taking this ferry ride. The coast is just gorgeous and plus I love the ocean. Over the side we were able to see jellyfish and other sea creatures. It was really neat to go right by all the massive fishing boats. Towards the end I was starting to get motion sick and was quite glad to get off. It was in Busan that I was lucky enough to use my first squatter. Those are some interesting toilets. As soon as we got off the ferry we were overwhelmed with how many foreigners were in Busan in this area. It seemed as if the foreigners outnumbered the Koreans. You would see babies just a few months old all the way up to 80 years old. It seemed as if most foreigners went to Busan for the holiday. It felt as if I was back in Canada when I was in the Haeundae beach area. The beach was quite busy with people in the bathing suits tanning, drinking, playing Frisbee, beach volleyball or swimming in the ocean. Did I mention the weather was gorgeous? We made our way straight to a food place for lunch. As this was a holiday very few things were open. It reminded me of Christmas day back in Canada with how little was actually open. We then went down to Dongbaek Park. They have these walkways built along the cliff out to the APEC house. There is the tropical greenery to the other side. We slowly made our way to the APEC house and walked around there a bit. We spend a lot of time in this area as it was just beautiful. After this we walked down to the beach and walked along the shore. Just to put my feet in the ocean made me so happy. We then walked back through the street market vendors back to the cliffs and sat our arses down on the cliff wall and watched the sun set. Being in Busan I felt so relaxed and happy. I love being near the ocean and on the beach. We eventually made our way back to our hostel area where we picked up some dinner then went back. It was quite late at this point so after talking to some of the guests about their day’s adventures we called it a day.
Sunday I was up early once again and we were out the door by 9:30am. We packed our bags and set on our way to the subway station. We stashed our bags in a locker at the subway stop for the day and set out to explore the shopping market area. I honestly cannot describe the markets and how many people are there. We walked around the more traditional Korean market area and the one that is more tourist oriented. All you see our stands and stands of items and these huge yellow and red umbrellas in this tiny alley way with stores on either side. It is not the cleanliest area that is for sure. Anything you want you can find here and it has the designer brand knockoffs of EVERYTHING for cheap. Very interesting to see. We spend the day walking around here and then out to the main street off of Jaglachi Market where you find the higher end stores. I was happy to have saw American Apparel and Mango.
To explain this city I want you to think of somewhere like downtown Toronto. Now imagine a whole city like this. Their cities are nothing like we set ours up and it is so crowded. People everywhere! Underground they have a massive shopping center that runs pretty much the whole subway line. Plus there are three subway lines. It is one of those places that you have to see to really get a feeling for it and I am happy that my family will get to experience it. When in Busan I was quite upset that I did not get a job there as you would be living in paradise for a year as they have palm trees there and really hot weather. However, after a lot of thought I have decided that where I am in the best place for me. Living in Busan would be too easy. There are so many foreigners there, everything is in English and all the Koreans speak English. Here is a few examples when I moved out of the way of a man on a bicycle he said thank you and in a store you could day, ‘can you get me another size please?’ ‘sure what size?’ ‘medium’. Really? That does not happen here. You have to learn basic Korean to get by. Here I am learning so much about the culture and have Korean friends and there you could get away with not having to submerse in the culture at all. I am not saying that the foreigners there don’t, but it seems like you have a choice. What really shocked us was when cars stopped for us to cross the road!
We eventually had to go back to the train station to catch the train back to Daejeon. As it was a holiday it was packed. This train ride was horrible as there were so many people on the train. I would say at any given time you would have 50 people standing in our car. I had one ladies butt on my shoulder for an hour and this other guy shoulder to shoulder with me. The game was to see how small I could get and mad did I get cramped. You had to continuously move to allow people in and out of the seat next to you because as soon as they got off another person was booked in that seat. It was so hot, so crowded that towards the end I felt as if I was going to pass out. When we got up to get off at our stop we saw people sitting under the sinks in the bathroom area. People everywhere! Daejeon was quite cold when we got off the train and we were reminded that here it is fall. We were actually very welcoming to the cool breeze and the cleanliness of our subways. Overall it was a great trip and as my weekend motto went I will be going back to Busan for another visit.
C
PS A random fact ....they do not wear sunglasses here as they like to be able to se your eyes.

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