We survived our night in Busan – no dreamland trips to south gate village happened, and umbrella grannies did not visit us in our sleep. Our second and final day in Busan accidentally was fish-themed.
We started out with a trip to nearby Haeundae Beach.
Haeundae is smooth, sandy, sunny, and it’s nice to put our feet in the water for a spell. It’s surrounded by some of the only decent skyline we’ve seen!
We see storm clouds building up in the west. Ruh-roh, time to roll out! Perhaps presciently, we head to our morning indoor adventure: the Busan Sea Life Aquarium.
It was pretty nice – lots of interactive exhibits (mostly in Korean, but we got to sniff otter stench), playful penguins, otters, jellies, and feeding programs. We let a horde of schoolkiddies pass us up so we could enjoy the exhibits in peace.
After the aquarium, we decided to head to Busan’s famous Jagalchi fish market. Hey, the aquarium made us hungry…
Inside was a massive array of vendors with tanks filled over with water and various ocean creatures. We saw some crabs and one octopus trying valiantly to make their escapes, dried octopus hanging up, huge fish, and other things. It actually didn’t smell as badly as we had thought it would, but we did get a bit soggy
Outside of Jagalchi lies labyrinthine alleys filled with street vendors. Many of them sell fish, but you can also purchase fruits, vegetables, candies, knives, and lots of other things.
We’ve got some time to kill until our train to Gyeonju, so we headed over to the giant Lotte mall near the fish market.
Inside was a vegas-style fountain that was orchestrated to music. It shot water up and dropped it down from five stories up in various patterns. Totally necessary!
More importantly, we found a Krispy Kreme! It was way more exciting than any I’ve been inside in America, and perhaps the first time I’ve had Krispy Kreme since Tokyo in 2008. No line, only tasty donut realness.
Filled with donuts and visits to the mall, we head back to Busan station to catch our train to Gyeongju. Temples and culture await!