Busan (or was it Pusan?)

Koreans and Americans in Daegu strongly encourage us to get out and see the country. I don't need much encouragement, but we hadn't made any plans for this weekend. So when Mr. Kim asked us where we were going this weekend, I replied “Busan” without much forethought. Busan is Korea's second largest city, weighing in at about 4 million people. It's a port city with several inlets and islands, with a river heading inland on its west side.

So we hopped a train to Busan. We got off to a late start, and we didn't arrive until after 2, hungry for lunch but determined to make it to the famous fish market before we ate anything. On the advice of Mr. Kim (and Mr. Kim), we wanted to eat at one of the fish market restaurants where you buy a fish at the stall and the restaurant cooks it for you. This was well worth the wait. We ended up having a delicious fried flounder. After eyeballing the fish on the frying pan, we were waved into the restaurant by a shopkeeper who said, “Good! Good!” We wandered in, mildly confused whether we had ordered anything, and a group of young men motioned us to their table. We sat there and glanced around nervously for awhile, but soon enough the shopkeeper who had motioned us in brought us the fish on a platter, along with the requisite variety of side dishes. The men at the table next to us ordered another bottle of soju and poured us drinks. I tried to say a few things in Korean to them, but one replied, “No Englishi.” I think my library staff are being polite when they say my Korean is good. We picked the fish apart with chopsticks, pulling out the bones and leaving them on the platter. Our tablemates encouraged us to try their dish, which was good. We encouraged them to do the same, but they were probably deterred by the discarded bones on our platter, many of which we had pulled out of our mouths... The men left, giving us a hearty goodbye and leaving me once again overwhelmed by the welcoming, friendly nature of the people in this country.

We wandered through the fish market for awhile, snapping pictures of squid and octopi. The crush of people in Busan is a bit overwhelming, and we felt pressured to keep walking. They only have a million people on Daegu, but the difference is pretty overwhelming.

We headed towards Busan tower, keeping it in our sights while we wandered through a downtown shopping area similar to Daegu's. On the way, we passed a small temple. We ducked into a parking area to discover an enclave of serenity amidst the crush of weekend shoppers. There was a little lantern garden and a stone pagoda with a little shrine with burning candles. I bowed to a monk sitting on the steps, and he replied.

Back in the streets, we found the park. We were relieved to see a road where cars weren't allowed. In Korea, cars drive right through the masses of people, and we have to step aside frequently. We followed this road up a hill, and emerged at a plaza with a temple, a statue, and the viewing tower. We caught Busan in it's sprawling glory at sunset. The city is massive, spreading up the mountains on three sides, and down to the ocean on the other. We could see two port areas with cargo ships, ferry docks, and several larger ships anchored out at sea. We grabbed a drink—I had (something) tears tea, which turned out to be brewed from peanuts—and watched the sun set. At nightfall, I was surprised to note that Busan has many less colored lights than Daegu. Nonetheless, she put on a show for us, with a few buildings changing colors and a bridge flashing at intervals. A young Korean woman asked to have her picture taken with me. I guess I'm an exotic species here.

On the ground, we discovered that all of the trees in the park had strings of lights on them. On the way back down, we encountered rows of colored lanterns with papers attached to the bottom. My ignorance of eastern religions annoys me, and I was left with the impression that I was looking at something significant. We wandered back through the shopping area until we found a large bookstore. The covers of the Korean books were so enticing, and I wish I could read them. I've always been a sucker for pretty book covers. Instead, we browsed a small English book section, and I bought a book of Korean fairy tales. We found a sushi place for dinner where I tried (cooked) conch, and made our way back to the train station. We grabbed the KTX, Korea's high speed train, for our trip back, only to discover when we arrived that Camp Walker's Gate 6 was closed. We had to walk all the way around the Camp to Gate 4 to get in, an exasperating end to an otherwise memorable day.


The roof of a cafe below the tower















Colored lanterns in a shrine















Part of Busan
















In front of the viewing tower




















A temple downtown













Busan fish market