Chuseok in Busan - Part 1 (market and city)

Our second weekend being in Ulsan we got a long, 5 day weekend (Sept. 5-10), because of the Chuseok holiday (which is sort of like a Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving). We would have loved to use this opportunity to travel further, to somewhere like China or Thailand, but we had not been given our Alien Registration Cards yet, so we weren't allowed to leave the country, In stead we settled for a Saturday-Tuesday trip to the nearby city of Busan.

Busan is the 2nd biggest city in Korea, only behind the capital: Seoul. It's famous for a plethora of things including markets, department stores, temples, fortresses, jimjubangs (public bath house and saunas), and much more. Even with the long weekend, we only got to try a fraction of what it has to offer, but it's no problem for us to go back another time because it's so close! Less than an hour away by bus for the small price of ₩3,000 (~$3.00)!

There were 11 of us meeting up for the trip and we were able to book a single giant room full of bunk beds at Pobi House. It was an adorable and cheaply priced hostel located only a block or two away from Haeundae Beach, and a short walk from the subway station. It was a great and pretty central area to be in. The first thing we did once we all arrived, to be the starting point of our adventures for the weekend, was take a group selfie. Many others were soon to follow along the way to mark the highlights of the trip.

This is Haeundae Beach, a large and famous beach in Busan that was super close to our hostel! We spent one of our late mornings to afternoon lounging on the sand and playing in the water. Then we sent one of the nights here sitting in a circle on the beach playing Korean drinking games.

The first day in Busan, we took a subway ride over to another part of the city to see the famous fish market. This giant beach market took us over 30 min to walk though and we weren't even looking to buy anything. Of course on the way we took a group selfie to document our adventure in trying to find the place.

Though a giant and famous market, it was still very narrow. The sellers got very angry whenever we stopped to chat for a moment or take pictures because we were blocking their goods and not buying anything.

These eel stands were everywhere. There was a tank full of slimy eels. The man or woman would reach in and grab one and then proceed to skin it alive and chop it into bits while it was still moving and squirming. At another stand, we watched a woman selling octopus. After the customer chose which one they wanted from the live tank, the woman would pick it up, pop its brain out, turn its head inside out and put it in a regular plastic bag to hand over to the customer.

Anything you can imagine that lives in the sea around Korea was being sold at this market. Every type of fish, crustaceans, sting rays, shell fish were in tanks or baskets or sitting on ice ready to be scooped into a plastic bag and dragged off to be made into someone's supper.

We ended at the main entrance to the market. Apparently we had started at one of the smaller ends without realizing it. Across the street from the entrance was the grounds for the Busan International Film Festival. They didn't have anything with film going on at the time, but there were still a ton of vendors selling street food, so we wandered around for some supper.

After the markets we went to a large mall that we saw by the bay in the distance. We explored around inside for a while and took a group photo by the water fountain. Then, we made our way to the roof to see the view of Busan at night from the top.

After taking millions of pictures from the top of the mall, it was time to head over to Gwangali Beach. Our class leader from orientation, Jun, lives in Busan and we had arranged to meet him there to hang out and go to a bar or something so he could show us some of his favorite places in the area. Of course on the way we took some pictures and another group selfie on the subway.

There were many live bands set up along the stretch of the beach and since all of the bars were extremely crowded for the holiday weekend, we ended up buying some drinks from the convenience store and playing games on the beach while listening to one of them.

The following day on our trip, we went to Shinsegae Department store. It was closed for the holiday, the first time we went, so we also went back on Tuesday before we left so we could experience the reality of it in action. It is confirmed by the Guiness Book of World Records to be the largest Department Store in the World.