Busan's Orange Moon

We're in Busan! It's a city in the southernmost tip of South Korea and because it's next to the ocean, the climate is much cooler than in Seoul. Thank goodness because just this morning, we left the wettest and the most warm-humid morning in Seoul ever!

We took the KTX to Busan and it took around 2.5 hours.
We got the taxi driver in Busan to take us to Heundae Station because there were a lot of cheap places to stay. We ended up at an interesting motel called Nobelesse for 40,000won/night for 2 people (haha sounds so sketch). It's actually pretty decent with a large TV and even a computer with free internet for you to use! The shower is one of those full body massage showers, too. What's great about the motel is its location - it's only 2 blocks away from Heundae Beach which is the most well-known beach in Korea.

As one of the busiest seaports in the world, Busan is chock full of seafood restaurants. So, for dinner, we went to an outdoor restaurant that specialized in... dun dun dunnnnn eel! I love canned eel haha... but I don't think I've ever tried fresh eel.
This guy took a good 5 minutes picking out a small one for us. Slimey...
2 seconds later, it was on a cutting board...
Uhh.. this picture - viewer discretion is advised... I watched him cut up my eel.
(Detail: he held the eel down on the cutting board and jabbed a nail into its eye to kill it faster and then slit it open and de-boned it really quickly.)
Then one of the guys grilled it for us and coated it in this red sauce that wasn't very spicy.
Ah it was interesting! Kind of hard to explain - not dense and meaty like canned versions - it was soft and didn't really taste like seafood. I enjoyed it, though =)
There was this friendly guy who came around to talk to us. He told us to try one of the side-dishes I swore I would never eat because of how it looked. I remember seeing large buckets of these being sold on the side streets in Taiwan, too. The guy didn't know what it was called in English, but he urged us to try, saying that it's nationally popular street-food snack.
Talk about Fear Factor!
I ate one.................................................................
So did Melanie. It didn't really taste like anything, but Melanie said it was a bit salty. I ate it, thinking it was some sort of seafood. All I can remember was the feelig of its "guts" exploding in my mouth.... gah it was the nastiest thing! And then I needed to know what it was so I used the dictionary on my cell phone and showed it to the guy. We eventually found out that it was a BUG. yup.............. some sort of small beetle!!!! I don't recommend it at all!

Afterward, we strolled down to Heundae Beach and dipped out feet in the water! It's very nice. You could smell the salt water from our motel.
It was lined with higher end hotels and restaurants.On the way back, we passed a mini street stall market except it was very much unlike any one I've seen in Seoul!
These ones only sold seafood!You can see the live, fresh seafood in the tanks before you eat them (raw or cooked).Must go to bed -- we've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow!