Busan for a last Hurrah

So my co-foreign teacher decided to get on with his life and follow his dream; he went out and got a real job with a gaming company. You can only imagine the extent of my jealousy. Anyways, this last weekend was his last weekend here before he moved on to Paris, France. (yeah, jealous). And it was decided to that we would explore Busan, for a last hurrah.

Our plan was to get to the Nampo Dong market, which was supposed to be the largest market in the southern area of Korea; then get over to Centum City (the largest Department Store in Korea), and then end up at Haeundai Beach (best concentration of foreign resaurants). Naturally plans never really go through perfectly. o_O

First we left early and got their before noon with all the energy and determination of all great adventurers. We found the subway just fine and started looking for our stop on the map. While looking we were approached by a Korean guy whose english wasn't bad. He kindly pointed out what stop we needed to go to after we explained where we wanted to go. I thought I said Nampo, he thought I said Nopo. (Two very different places.)

Well, thirteen stops later we got off at the Nopo Dong stop and started looking for the famous 'huge' market. We did find a market but it wasn't that big and we were the only foreigners there. It felt like a black market really, there was a lady who waved us away when we tried to take pictures of her caged chickens and ducks. Probably because there were about thirty chickens and ducks in one cage.

 
After a while we figured that where we were wasn't really the area we needed to be or wanted to be. So we started exploring the area more and more to find the 'huge' market. We walked all around the station and even called a couple friends. Joel wanted to keep walking around but I knew we had to ask someone or we would be walking around for nothing. I found a tourist counter and the lady helped us realize our big mistake. The stop we wanted was in the opposite direction we originally came from. So we had to take the subway back and Joel was getting to the point where he didn't care. But we were stalwart and got to the market.

This place was huge! It was a few city blocks long and a few wide. Picture yourself in a small town of small markets and booth stacked up against each other. Shops everywhere and the free places filled with people  with tables and wares ready to smile and nod to whatever you say as long as your buying. It was intense and they had socks galore! I ended up buying like a dozen, they were cheep too! We spent a pretty good time there.

The rest of the day went as planned, ending the evening meeting up with the rest of the guys at Haundai beach. We had a burger all together and then I left them to catch a bus back to Masan. 


This last thursday, we had a party for Joel where we all went out and had sangipsa and then headed to a Noribong. Sangipsa is like roasted meat that you roast yourself at your table and a Noribong is basically like a Karaoke bar but you have your own room. Yes they even got me up to humiliate myself and sing, thankfully all of them were drinking.

That's all for this week, next week we have a five day break and I still have no plans to fill the time. I am sure I figure something out.

till next week