My partner in crime for the first day in Busan was a gentleman from Italy, Giorgio. After a few comical jabs at each other, we quickly became friends (that’s how guys bond). He also laughed when I ordered an espresso after lunch claiming, “That’s NOT espresso”. Such an Italian.

By the way, speaking of coffee, Busan has the most coffee shops and cafes I’ve ever seen in a city. More than Vancouver and Seattle, if you can believe it!

The district of Gamcheon is known to be the cultural centre of Korea, and has adopted the nickname of the “Machu Picchu of Busan”. Gazing upon the colourful houses on the gentle slope reminded me of San Francisco. In fact, I noticed a few parallels between these two cities:

  • Both are artistic and cultural, complimented with plenty of shopping centres
  • San Fran has the Golden Gate Bridge and Busan has the Diamond Bridge
  • Busan is also known as “Dynamic Busan”, which is probably because the view constantly changes as you explore it’s slopes and valleys. SF has a similar hilly landscape.

My hostel was above a live fish market, the largest in Korea. For a reasonable price, Giorgio and I choose a big, fat fish from a tank, then went to the restaurant upstairs to eat it. Half was prepared as sashimi, and the other half was grilled. The first portion arrived so quickly after we sat down that we were suspicious whether it was truly the fish we chose or his cousin. In either case, it was delicious. Coupled with a local beer (Hite) and soju, a rice-based liquor, great conversations, and the meal was one of the best I’ve had in Korea.

I assumed the largest department store in the world was in Dubai. Well, I was wrong; it’s in Busan. It doesn’t feel that large though, as it’s a series of smaller spaces instead of one or two massive ones. Aside from countless food courts, 11+ floors of shopping, it also has one regular theatre, the world’s only theatre with reclining beds instead of chairs, a huge spa and an indoor skating rink.

For my last day, I jumped onto the hop-on/hop-off city bus, which allowed me to see the further reaches of this wonderful city. Being a warm and sunny day, my theme was beaches, and I spent the day enjoying two of them.

I noticed Koreans have a fascination with white:

  • Nearly all the buildings and skyscrapers are white
  • About 80% of their cars are white, 19% are black and the last 1% are various other colours
  • Women paint their faces white, even more often than in Japan. I can understand the desire to lighten their complexion, but they use white paint instead of light beige. This makes the face looks distinctively different than the rest of their body’s natural colour. Odd.

Busan ends my two week experience in Korea, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.