#nurimaru

@Nurimaru APEC House, Busan, Korea

We arrived in 부산 (Busan) at around 6 in the morning and made our way to the train station where we were suppose to meet our last couchsurfing host. After 30 minutes of waiting, I figured, "He's either stood us up or he's still asleep". Another 10 minutes passed & I received a call & he said, "Sorry sorry, I fell asleep. Sorry. I drink too much. Sorry, I go find you now" or something like that. It was hilarious. When he, 태영 (Taeyoung), finally arrived, we made the trek up a slope and up to his apartment. We put our stuff down and made our way out to the 자갈치 (Jagalchi) Market as our host had to work in the school office that day.

The 자갈치 Market is an extensive one - it's just one long row of stalls selling an assortment of seafood, situated along the habour. Fish, string rays, crabs & weird looking sea creatures that I've never seen before in my life - it's all there. We were drawn to the smell of this 아줌마 grilling fish outside a stall front and decided to have our lunch there. It was a little bit confusing at first, but we managed to order a set meal that consisted of spicy fish soup, sashimi and grilled fish. The side dishes that came along with our meal were a tad bit different as well - other than the usual kimchi, there were pieces of what seemed to be 'meat' from a sea creature.

After our lunch and a long walk around the neighbouring area, we set off for 해운대 (Haeundae) Beach, where we were going to meet 태영 (our host). Now, 해운대 beach is a thin stretch of sand that spans quite a distance. It looked nothing like the beaches in Singapore - it felt more.. beachy (if you could consider that as a word). We walked along the beach till we reached an art installation that looked like a slide. At this point, our 'brilliant' host decided that we should play a game of 가위, 바위, 보 (Scissors, Paper, Stone) to see who would be the lucky one to have a go at the slide. Ironically, he lost and had to suffer the pain of sliding down an art installation on the beach with three girls laughing hysterically at him while taking photos. True story.

So we continued along the beach and walked to a park next to it. Walking there felt like we were back in Jeju - many wooden walking paths and even a shaky bridge. At one point of the path, our host pointed out that, on a good day, one could actually see Japan from 부산 (Okay, not JAPAN japan but an island of Japan). We continued along the path till we reached 동백섬 (Dongbaekseom) Island. Side note: I had no idea we were on an 'island' till I googled it. It housed a lighthouse and the 누리마루 (Nurimaru) Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) House - an APEC conference Hall used for APEC summits. 

After our long beach walk, we decided to grab some dinner along with our host's friend, Aiden (상민). They decided to bring us to a restaurant that served 낙지볶음 (I'm hoping that I'm writing this right since I'm trying to decipher what our host wrote in my travel diary) - a spicy octopus dish. Amazingly, that was my first time ever eating Octopus and it didn't freak me out at all (okay, a little bit).

After our spicy and amazing dinner, we took the train over to their University - 부경대학교 (Pukyong National University) to see their Spring festival. This was a big eye-opener for us. Why? Well, for one there was a huge stage in the campus where they had performances and mini concerts - according to our host, the day before Psy was there performing. They also had a ton of stores inside the campus selling food and a lot of alcohol. Not only Korean alcohol, mind you - they had all sorts of hard liquor as well. I'm not from a local university but I'm pretty sure we don't and won't have such 'events' in Singapore.

We then made our way to a local bar (of sorts), frequented by many students from the University and had our first taste of 막걸리 (Makgeolli) also known as Korean rice wine. When we first reached the bar, it was painfully obvious that we weren't local even though we looked so alike. I remember commenting to our host when I saw a Caucasian sitting with some Koreans that I felt much better seeing someone more foreign around. His reply? "Oh, I know him! He's from our school. & there's a Japanese guy behind you and I also know him." My feelings? Back to square one. Once we were done for the night, we started making our way home. Stopped by a local mini mart to get some 청하 (to satisfy someone's craving) and 라면 (Ramyeon) and had another round of drinks at our host's place. We even tried his mum's home brewed 소나무주 (Pine alcohol).