Saturday, 8 January 2011

Busan revisited.

I woke up this morning with a wee bit of a hangover, nothing major really, but I was pretty de-hydrated.  However I was also running late.  I needed to get up and go, so I packed my stuff together and got ready to skedaddle. Luckily just as I was about to leave one of my friends that lives in the same town as me turned up and as he was heading into Busan too, we wnet in together and he showed me where I needed to go and what buses/trains to get.

The ride into Busan wasn't too bad really, it only took about half an hour once we got going, of course the little hang over I had going wasn't so good.  But by the time I made it into Busan everything was good.  I parted ways with my friend at this point and joined up with my other friend that I was there to meet, I'll call him the Brit (as ever I am being rather coy about names of people just in case since this blog is open to all to read, although realistically I don't expect it to be read by anyone other than people I know, but others are welcome). 

The plan was to check out the markets in Nampo-dong first.  It took us a little while to get to where we wanted to be, firstly because it was all the way across town and secondly because we have a tendancy to get lost.  We did arrive in the end though and it took us a little time to get to where we wanted to be. Once there we came across the fish market and it was huge.  At first we just saw lots and lots of dried and gutted fish, just stacks of them, but later we came across the live ones. At first it was amazing, but it didn't take too long before I found it groteque and wanted to leave.  It's not that I will stop eating fish, it's just that I do not agree with the manner in which they are kept before they are sold.

Once away from the fish market we wandered through some of the other markets for a time, but there was nothing that we really wanted to buy, so we just moved on. Also it was getting on in the day, so we went elsewhere.  We went over to another station, a transfer station, because we were planning to go to haeundai beach.  I have heard it's a good place to visit for food and drink, but it was too early in the day for either and we had no inclination to travel all that way. So instead we agreed to get some dinner if we could find anything we wanted and then go our separate ways to return home.

The food wasn't too bad, actually I would go as far as to say it was good.  I also picked up a really expensive pack of English tea and only 20 tea bags at that.  Now I'm not a tea drinker, but I do like to have one now and again, so I'd rather drink that than the standard stuff you can get in Korea.  I suppose in reality we didn't do anything of any real note, but we got to check out more of the city and catch up.  Also we played a little game of 'cock'.  Those of you that read this that are from my highschool will know this game. The principal is to start saying the word quietly and progressively get louder and louder until you are shouting.  Yes, I realise this is not exactly a mature game, however when you are generally being ignored by everyone you see, it is pretty amusing.  So Brit and myself played out in a part of Busan, we got a few looks as we got reall loud, but generally it didn't matter because all that they saw were to mad whiteys saying incoherent words.

We parted ways just after having had our meal, but shortly after our split I came across a group of students promoting the education of CPR, at first I assumed that since I was a whitey they would just let me pass since I don't speak Korean, however they waved me over.  The three girls that dealt with me had some English between them and so we had some fun, them trying to teach me and me trying to learn best I could.  It didn't last long, but it was a good side-track to my return home.

The ride home, both by train and bus was pretty uneventful, but I got back alright and I got to get back to reading my book, which I have not done for almost a month. Also with the journey a success it now means I know how to get into Busan and how to get back again.  So far it's been a pretty busy, eventful and fun weekend.  I am however looking forward to having a nice long sleep tonight and speaking to some family and friends tomorrow.

* Side note - I will add some photos to this later, but I'll have to get them from Brit first.

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