So you probably thought that everything from my last post was enough for one weekend. I mean, there couldn't possibly be more things to see and weirder things to eat in the same weekend. After all, I have to sleep at some point, right?
Wrong, say hello to Busan, the second largest city in Korea and one of the two destinations we travelled to with the remainder of our weekend. Oh, we also viewed this skyline from a penthouse on the 19th floor of one of the nicer hotels in Busan, no big deal. (More on that later).
The whole trip was centered around visiting a friend of Josh and I named Taeyoung. She was an exchange student in Akron for a year and we got to know her well during her time in Akron and we wanted to visit her in Korea. We left Saturday at noon and went to Gwangju, Taeyoung's home town. It was a 4 hour bus ride, then Taeyoung met us at the bus station and we took a Taxi to her parent's house. Her mom made an incredible meal for us with lots of variety, delicious fruit for dessert, and her homemade blueberry "juice."
Left to Right: Emily (Taeyoung's friend), Weston (Our American Friend), Josh, Mom, Taeyoung, Me
After visiting Taeyoung's family we went out into downtown Gwangju and ate a good meal and went to the "Speakeasy," a bar run by an Irish guy where foreigners gather to drink "the best Guiness in Korea" and listen to local Korean Bands. We watched the Rock Tigers (A Korean Rockabilly band) play a set and then went to bed. The next morning we took off to Busan to experience the popular spots in the city.
Quite possibly the most unique thing we experienced was at the Busan fish market. It was quite as huge as I was expecting, but there was no shortage of unusual fish, popular seafood and other unknown objects from the sea that people apparently eat. Our first meal consisted of fresh cooked eel, which is one of Busan's trademarks. Now you generally expect restaurants to use pre-prepared meat and kitchens to cook the food for you, but not here. We walked into a small tent restaurant big enough for about 20 customers and gathered around a table. As we walked in, we noticed some squirming intestine-like objects and realized that it was eel that had just been skinned. Many of the street vendors actually left plates of skinned eel out front as some sort of sick advertising scheme. PETA South Korea would have a fit if they only knew... or if they existed. Of course I thought it was brilliant and took a pictures of it.
Before (Nasty / Intestine-like)
After (Delicious meal)
(Left: typical street restaurant, Right: typical goods for sale)
The eel cooked right in front of us and squirmed for the first few minutes, but then as it cooked and as they chopped it up it got a lot less disgusting. Now the picture of our actual dish is missing some colors from the artsy camera mode, so it actually looked more appetizing than that. There were onions and some peppers and a good sauce with it.
After that meal, we explored for awhile and then went on a mission inspired by our friend Weston. If you thought the eel thing was weird... i'll put it this way, at least the eel was cooked, and dead.
That my friends is Squid. Not grilled squid, not boiled squid, heck not even dead squid. Weston had been talking about his desire to go to Busan and eat live, baby squid, and that is it. Now I pictured tiny little squids about the diameter of a penny, but apparently baby squid are much larger than that. The lady we purchased the squid from took it right out of the tank, chopped off the head, and then just chopped the tentacles into the pieces you see on the plate. If you would like the full effect just click on the picture of the squid to enlarge it and then just imagine every piece on the plate squirming around. That will begin to give you an idea.
Before eating it, we were warned to make sure to chew it well, especially the larger pieces. Why is this you ask? That's because if you eat a large piece without chewing it it could suction itself to your throat and you could choke on it. Comforting, I know. The first bite was awkward, but in all honesty, it was pretty tasty. After the first couple pieces I pursued larger, more lively pieces. When I stuck them in my mouth they would wriggle around and suction themselves to the roof of my mouth and to my tongue. It tickled a little bit, but all in all it was quite a unique experience. We even finished the whole plate (mainly because Weston ate about half of it and the lady kept shoving pieces in our faces).
In case you were wondering, I don't have any more crazy eating stories or pictures, so you can relax and enjoy the rest of the post. The rest of the night was spent at a restaurant, a couple of naribongs and a jinjibong. I may have spelled those wrong in Korenglish, but a naribong is Karaoke room and a jinjibong is a spa, bathhouse, hotel kind of blend. Our first naribong was one we went after dinner, but then as we were on our way to the jinjibong for the night, we got a call from Taeyoung's college professor. It turns out he was in the same hotel that our jinjibong was in and he had apparently reserved a room on the 19th floor for a celebration with some of his students. He really wanted to meet us because Taeyoung was one of his students. We took the elevator up to a room with an insane view of the skyline, platters of fruit and snacks, and a seemingly unlimited supply of beer. We spent a couple hours there singing Karaoke and eating snacks with him and the 10-15 students there and then left after a few toasts. The jinjibong (paid for by the professor) was very cool as well, but since we got their around midnight most of the hot tubs and pools had shut down so we just went to sleep in a large room full of people on small blankets they give you.
(Left: World's Largest Department Store, Right: Breakfast at Starbucks)
That is still only a glance at our experiences in Busan and Gwangju, but I think it highlights the most unique experiences we had. We also saw the world's largest department store and took a bus from the largest bus terminal in Asia. Who knew Korea had those two things?
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