Hey folks. Time to wrap up the 2nd installment of the Busan recap over the Chuseok holiday weekend. We last left off on Sunday evening (September 11th), at which point we had just been to an awesome temple and finally fought off our lingering headaches and hangovers once and for all from the night before. It was time to move on to equally cool touristy things, so we hit the subway again and trekked to a place on the other end of the city, a place we had heard many things about and were excited to check out: Jalgalchi Fish market. At full running operating capacity, Jalgalchi is South Korea's busiest and largest fresh fish market. So a Sunday night, the night before the big holiday, didn't necessarily provide the buzzing atmosphere we had associated with Jalgalchi, but it was still a great shock to the senses in every way:
Just blocks from the ocean, Jalgalchi is lined with streets like this for blocks and blocks...folks selling fresh seafood on the left all day and night. This picture was taken around 9:00 pm, so it was amazing to see that business was still going on.
Here's a good example of what the inside of Jalgalchi looks like. The floors are all very wet; there are points in the complex where there might be an inch or two of standing water, thus justifying the big plastic boots, ponchos, and overalls most workers here don. This picture could have turned out better, as the lights were a little overwhelming to the lens, but Jalgalchi's interior looks much like this: yellow tables, crates, hoses and water everywhere, with any kind of seafood imaginable floating, flopping, swimming, or freshly butchered and fermenting.
Here are some more such baskets and tanks in which seafood is kept.
Nice, fresh fillets outside the complex. These fish, when checked out up close, don't even seem real...it's amazing to think of the skill it takes to come up with fillets that beautiful from fish who are so rail-thin and bony. I considered just buying a fillet in sheer admiration of the meticulous work it probably took to prepare it.
It's a shame I didn't take a more up-close-and-personal picture, but these are mostly crabs, oysters, clams, and mussels. One cool thing about the crabs is that they're all (mostly) still alive and clawing around, squirming on the table, and the mussels and clams all have that nice, strong seafood smell that tells you they came right off the boat or right out of the nets that very day.
What's all happening in this picture is a little more difficult to explain. I'm especially confused by the finger-shaped creatures in the middle basket of the left-hand column...they were all alive, squirming around, and to be completely honestly, did not look the least bit appetizing. And that might be saying a lot, because I love Korean food.
Here's Zach, our buddy from Texas, saddling up and getting friendly with some fresh squid.
Again, this would have been a cooler place to see at, say, its peak at lunch-time or thereabouts. It was, however, still really great to see at night, if for no reason other than the look of pure joy or confusion any Korean gets from observing a foreigner walk back and forth from vendor to vendor either licking his or her lips in anticipation of how delicious everything is, or standing in pure, underwhelmed disgust at the smell or sight of some of these crazy seafood options. Jalgalchi Fish Market is a must on my list of essential spots to check out in Busan, and I'll be back someday.
After a quick shower and change at the hostel, the boys were primed to hit the town yet again. Sunday night, we all agreed, would be a little slower and easier than Saturday; we figured we were just so excited to be in a new place on Saturday that we more or less lost track of just kicking back and having some fun. Sunday night, although agreeably more relaxed, was, nonetheless, spent on the 14th floor of a 14-floor building overlooking all of Haeundae Beach and thus Busan, at a rocking bar full of foreigners (and really, this weekend was crawling with foreigners just about everywhere) called "Rock 'N Roll" bar. A really cool place with some familiar drinks and even room for our backpacks.
Here are Zach, Toni, and Erik enjoying their night. Zach and Erik, I believe, brought home the gold for the Jeolla Province teachers at a beer pong tournament in the bar.
Me and my Wisconsin brother, Aaron, digging the scene.
Sunday night wrapped up pretty early, and I think everyone was excited to get some sleep and get ready for our last full day, the official Chuseok holiday. Woke up at the hostel at a pretty decent hour, unlike the day prior, and caught the subway down to Haeundae Beach by noon only to find this beautiful scene waiting for me at the subway exit:
Can't even explain how clutch the weather was that day.
One cool part of it being the Chuseok holiday is that the beach was pretty empty, with the exception of foreigners dotting the sandscape. The most logical thing to do was alternate between about half an hour of water time, and half an hour of beer drinking/frisbee/land time.
Some of the boys in the sand. Clockwise: me, Aaron, Erik, and Monti. Beers in hand, of course.
I'd be kicking myself if I didn't get a picture with the girls as well...I think we can all agree they were looking absolutely foxy on the beach. In fact, when my co-teachers came across this picture, 4 of 5 more or less gasped and yelled "oh, SO SEXY!" or "Sam, you spend time with SEXY GIRLS!" Yes I do, co-teachers, yes I do.
Cool picture of all the umbrellas under a nice 6:00 pm Busan sunset.
I might as well have been on vacation. One of those days where you just refuse to believe that you're in South Korea and you're actually there to work.
And what's a better way to get clean after a day at the beach than with a little bromantic tubby time? Me and Monti at a motel where some other friends were staying at, getting cleaned up and fresh for our last night in Busan.
We hit an amazing barbecue place for dinner, because we decided we ought to reward ourselves for a great weekend thus far. That, or we really were just starving for beef and copious amounts of booze again. Maybe a little bit of both. From left to right: me (in rare tomato form), Zach, our friend Gabe (not sure if I have any pictures of him yet, he's a San Francisco Bay-area native, one of the nicest people I've met here), Monti, Erik, Toni, and Julia.
After dinner, we met up with a huge gang of foreigners which brought our total to about 20. I can't imagine how ridiculous we must have looked, taking 4-5 cabs at a time, all to the same location, in hopes of finding each other at every stop. We decided to spend a few hours having some drinks on Gwangali Beach, which, along with Haeundae Beach (see other ocean pictures), provides some of the greatest cityscapes and nightlife in the whole city. Here is a picture of the main street on Gwangali Beach, with some buildings, mostly hotels, in the background.
And here is Gwangali Beach looking out toward the water, with a few of some buildings and the Geoje Bridge, which is the largest and longest bridge in South Korea, coming in at just over 5 miles in length, and spanning the shallow bay from the Haeundae/Gwangali area toward the more western part of the city in which our hostel was located. We didn't have the opportunity to take a taxi ride on the bridge, so that will be saved for next time. But how cool does this city look when it's lit up?
Here's a parting shot of the Geoje Bridge, and this only accounts for about 5% of it.
So that's about all there is to say about our weekend in Busan. We were thankful to have purchased our return tickets to Gwangju in advance, as the second we did so when we arrived in Busan that Saturday, there was only 1 remaining ticket back to Gwangju on Tuesday the 13th. Dodged a bullet there. Then, it was back to the Hampyeong for a short week of Wednesday through Friday classes. And then, that following weekend of September 16th, it was time for the Wando Beach Party, which is an epically advertised gathering of foreigners around Jeolla Province and beyond. Numbers often trend into the triple digits, as many come out for the party to drink, socialize, live it up and get some sun for a few days.
After the school introductions, it's probably fair to think that I do more traveling and sightseeing than I do actually working and teaching at my schools. Just wait. After the Wando Beach party pictures, it might blow your mind at just how much fun and beauty you can take in alongside your work here in South Korea. But that's for a different post on a different day. Maybe tomorrow? You keep reading, and I'll keep blogging. Thanks for reading. Love to all, and all the best.
-Sam Teacher
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