Busan - Korea's Seafood Mecca

One interesting city in South Korea you shouldn’t miss visiting is Busan, situated in the south of the peninsula. Busan was the only city during the Korean War that had never been occupied by the North Korean troops.
From Seoul there is a hypermodern high-speed train called KTX running about every half an hour between these cities. The fastest train only takes less than 3 hours (I think it is 2h40min to be precise) to cross the whole country. It is very recommendable, though, that you book your seats in advance. Optimistic as we were (and due to the fact that a train is running every 30 minutes), we just went to the ticket counter at Seoul station on a Saturday morning and wanted to get tickets to Busan. Well, our optimism definitely didn’t pay off this time. The next train that had available seats they could offer us was at 5pm. After long discussions they told us we could get standing tickets for the 1pm train. Although we didn’t feel too much inclined to standing for 3 hours, gaining an extra 4 hours in Busan was the stronger argument, so we accepted.

Therefore on our way to Busan we stood in the hallway of the KTX for 3 hours, and we weren’t alone. A few soldiers, two young girls and a cranky old man stood there together with us – and we later learned that the girls and the cranky old man only had tickets for a later train, but sneaked on the earlier one. Probably they got their tickets even later than we did, so probably even the standing tickets for our train were sold out already. We actually were quite surprised that even the standing space was so packed – but then we knew why. At least there was a drinks vending machine where we stood, so we definitely didn’t have to die of thirst. The most awkward thing that happened was that the cranky old man deliberately scared the ticket controller, a friendly and good-looking lady, almost to death when she walked by a second time. We don’t know if this was out of revenge (we actually don’t know what penalty he got for being on the wrong train) or just because he found it funny to scare people like this. At least we had some entertainment since we didn't see much of the landscape from our miserable position.

Must-see places in Busan are Haeundae Beach, where the raw fish street is worth a visit. Prices are of course astronomic in Korean terms, and we didn’t know we should have bargained them down. Unlike in Seoul, obviously at such a place it is not outrageous at all to ask for a reduction of 50%, especially during the low season. But we didn’t learn that till we came back from Busan and told our Korean friends about it. There is also an aquarium that is worth while seeing at Haeundae Beach that shows creepy, sweet and weird creatures of the oceans, and you definitely should try the 3D ride, but be sure you do not suffer from whiplash injury when you go there since the ride is quite brutally shaking you around.

The next day we tried out a few places in the city of Busan. If you take a walk from Busan train station down south you will reach Busan Tower with a nice park surrounding where people fly their kites and from where you can overlook the city. For the more shopping inclined there is Gukje market (국제시장), which means international market and sells anything you can imagine from clothes, shoes, snacks, handbags, jewelry, watches, and lots of fake produce. If you continue strolling south from Gukje market you will come to the port where Jagalchi market (자갈치시장) is.

This is definitely the most worth while seeing spot of the city. If you enter the huge building, you will see one seafood stand after another, the place looks tacky and dingy, you can sense the smelly taste of fish in the air and you see people buying their seafood, still alive but being slaughtered the moment they are being bought, the leftovers spilt all over the floor. On the second floor there are tables and people that serve you a meal, you can go and choose your seafood alive and they will bring it on your plate, if you please - still alive and moving.

If you want some more weird experience walk down the Jagalchi fish market street just next to the big Jagalchi market building, where you will see ocean creatures as seafood you’ve probably never seen before in your life. Busan is supposed to be famous for its grilled eel, chopped alive and grilled while it’s still moving, that is.

So we went ahead and tried that dish. Although it tasted fresh and – interesting - it is quite uncommon for western palates. Probably you need to get used to it before you can really savor the taste and the consistency. Despite the interesting experience, after coming back to Seoul, we were really glad to bite into a hearty entrecote beef steak at a French restaurant.