Busan: Jagalchi Market and Gwangan Beach

Seeing as Busan is a port city, it makes sense that one of its numerous famous landmarks is a massive outdoor fish market. I'm not the biggest fan of seafood, but Busan's Jagalchi Market is a landmark, so I made sure to pay it a visit. Upon arriving I wandered up and down the crowded rows of vendors for awhile, gawking at the alien-looking sea creatures for sale and politely declining the invitations of dozens of fishmongers to try their wares. I definitely wanted to eat something at Jagalchi though, and just when I was beginning to think I'd have to suck it up and attempt to ingest a terror from the deep, I found a very welcoming booth selling traditional Korean potato and beef soup. Together with a bottle of soju, the soup was perfect: it certainly helped that the ajumma cooking the food would reach over and pour me another ladle-full whenever I neared the bottom of my bowl.

In the end, I never did sample any of the local aquatic delicacies. Did I miss out by not going out of my way to eat the most disturbing looking thing I could find? Some people might say yes... But I'm not one of them.

After Jagalchi I spent the rest of the day checking out the markets that didn't smell like fish; eventually I wound my way over to Gwangan Beach. While not Busan's most famous beach (we'll get to that in a future post), Gwangan Beach is notable for its spectacular view of Gwangan Bridge, a lengthy suspension bridge that lights up every night. I arrived at the beach just in time to enjoy that evening's light show, and I was relaxing with a friend and a beer when a peddler approached us and tried to interest us in her goods. My knee-jerk reaction was a quick no-thank-you; I had been refusing mongers all day and it was just natural to say no by this point. However, I did a double take when I realized she was selling fireworks. Can you imagine? Saying no to fireworks! So of course I changed my tone and bought some. Who doesn't want to shoot off some fireworks on the beach!