Busan in Pictures, Part II

Before I get to the rest of the pictures, I'll answer Mom's question from her comment on the precious post.  There are several markets in Busan, many of them devoted to fresh fish.  Some of the important ones are: the Gukje Market, the Jagalchi Fish Market, and the Busan Cooperative Fish Market.  It's winter, so we didn't really seek out markets on this trip.  But, we definitely will when the weather warms up.  Though, honestly, we don't have much use for fish markets. 

Alright, let's begin with Sunday (Lunar New Year's Day, Seolnal in Korean).

 

We intended to go to the Suicide Cliffs, but we ended up just walking around the city for most of the day.  This van/cart is advertising peanuts and eggs, two types of bread street food.  I've never had the peanuts, but the eggs are yummy. It's a whole egg cooked into a small piece of sweet bread.

I don't know why the peanut is drooling.

 

We walked down the coastline.  Here is the Gwangan Bridge (the 69th longest suspension bridge in the world).

These folks were pouring something from a bottle (soju, maybe?) into the water.  It seemed to have something to do with ancestor worship (a big part of the holiday).

Molded barrier stones along the levee.

 

These firefighters were busy getting something or someone from below, but we could never figure out what was going on.

Busan Cinema Studios.

 

Movie poster walls.

These ducks have dark red heads and gray bodies.  Very pretty.

We stopped at a restaurant in Haeundae called Hello Thai (which is the same as Thailand's current tourism campaign).  The food was pretty good, but the restaurant was empty save for another small group of foreigners.  So, the waitresses stood and watched us as we eat, coming to fill our glasses if they got low at all, say "Excuse me," each time.  Quite awkward.  Also, they played a random collection of American music, mostly from the 80s.

 

Artificial jetty for the fishing marina.

Ancestor worship or an abandoned picnic?  We'll never know.  There was also a feral cat down there, but he disapeared before we could take a photo of him.

 

Fishing marina.

We decided to officially give up on the Suicide Cliffs when we realized that we'd been walking for 3 hours and were only a little over halfway there, so we headed to the aquarium.

Snouty turtle!  Their noses' look a little like pig snouts.

 

Colorful crabs.

This fish only had one fin.  Go fish, go!

The aquarium was quite disapointing.  There was little education to be had (though, there was a magic show) and kids and adults alike were pounding on the glass with no one to stop them.  The only sign I say was on the seal tank.  The tanks were very small and the whole design lacked the initiative to conserve and educate that we are used to.

We finished the night by seeing Wolfman.  Not a great movie, but, our English choices are limited and it was fun, nonetheless.

 

Ian and Batman at the theater.

On Monday, the original plan was to go to 40 Steps Street and Geumjeong Fortress, but we later decided to save the fortress for another trip.

40 Steps Street is billed as a recreation of war-ear Korea, but really it's just an older part of town with some statues.  The signs and most eveything else, aside from the buildings themselves, were modern.  And the buildings probably dated from the 50s, which is the war-era, but the whole thing pretty much looked like Jecheon. 

 

We saw Busan Tower on a tourism map and decided to walk there.

 It's Busan's answer to Namsam Tower.  It's not as touristy, though.  It's quieter and more like a park.

The courtyard.

 

Here are some views of the city from the observation deck:

 

 

The triad.  I think the tower looks like a lamppost.  The statue is of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, a naval commander remembered for his victories against the Japanese during the 1592-1598 invasions. 

 

Birds!  The weather was so nice.  It was tough to leave.

Korean dragons have four toes, by the way.

 

This is the Citizen's Bell and that's about all I know about it.

After that adventure, we wandered down to Texas Street.  Texas Street used to be an American area, but now it's very Russian.  Chinatown is also there.  Confused?  It's just as sketchy as it sounds.

We then headed back to check out of our hostel and we grabbed a quick late lunch at Quizno's.  I took this photo of the IndyHouse living room right before we left:

After a four hour bus ride (which we nearly missed) we were back in Jecheon, where it's still icy and freezing.

Good night!