I've been meaning to write this post for a while now. It was a beautiful date with J in Busan more than a year ago. I'll be doing a Nampo-dong series in the next few posts since I visited it again around thrice recently during my K-CLIP 2014 trip. Consider this my first (and super memorable) time and a short yummy food guide in that area. We didn't want to just go shopping with the others at Nampodong (has subway stop, we were there by 10:30 a.m.). So we went on our own around the area after a yummy bulgogi feast and had a blast exploring from late afternoon to sunset to early evening before meeting the others again for dinner! Of course, there's always a long route and we took that then found the shortcut after haha. Sometimes, it's the journey, the memories (sadly no couple photo LOL) and who you're with that make up a great adventure ;) ♥
We went to both Seomyeon and Nampo-dong subway stations to check out the underground shopping malls connected to the subway station. We heard this was where the locals shop =D
The cheapest goods are the accessories and blings.
It's more or less just 2 parallel long halls beneath the city.
Look at what J found hehe. Harry Potter.
We met a Korean friend at an exit (a common and very efficient way of meeting somebody) because we will have lunch somewhere in this area and we didn't know our way yet. Lookie, grasshopper! Hehe.
It was a Wednesday and it was around 1 p.m.
There were not a lot of people yet
but expect this place to be very crowded with middle stalls, locals and tourists on the weekends.
It was quite a zigzag road to the restaurant.
There's a main street though with cars and a wider road as you alight from Exit 7.
I was so tempted to buy this foot peeling thingie haha. Good thing we were too focused on getting to the restaurant..
We also passed by lots of food stalls and tteokpokki!! Hungry haha.
So she took us to this restaurant called 큰집(Keun Jip, I can read and type Korean now so I got the address of this place!! muhaha) =D
Just click to enlarge. Address and details at the end of this post.
See it turns out that it's not that far! Haha.
They have the traditional rooms
and normal tables. Lots of locals eating here.
This was only part of the banchan.
We paid for a set Bulgogi lunch menu
so I think we only paid for this
and this
and we got THIS! Hahaha.
Time for more sightseeing after lunch =) Just look at this manual ice maker!
There were too many of us in the group and each one liked to see different things but basically to shop.
I couldn't eat anymore but these seemed like the perfect afternoon snack..
I don't hate shopping per se. It was just that nothing caught my eye, I wanted to spend my money on other things and I wasn't in the mood. If I was, I'd check out the smaller stores and hunt for my style of clothes. At that time, I was not that keen on spending hours on cosmetic shops, especially if we already have them in Manila.
And so, J and I's journey began. We noticed that there are sneak peeks of historical landmarks left in this area.
The Busan Tower was also calling and it really seemed near from where we were haha.
We arranged to meet again with them for dinner.
With a Busan map in hand (you can get it at the airport or at Tourist Information Centers for free), we went to the Busan Modern History Museum (Busan Modern History Hall) first.
The entrance was free. It was the former Busan American Culture and embassy during the Korean War. It was designated as a cultural asset in 2001. Check out their samples of modern streets in the Daecheong-dong area during the Japanese occupation.
We saw a route going to the Busan Tower 부산타워 in Yongdusan Park. We didn't want to go back to the main street so we took that hilly and nature-y climb haha.
They had a stage there and we chanced upon an event for locals with musicians.
Like the Seoul Tower, there were areas for love locks surrounding the Busan Tower.
It's quite hard to get a full shot of the tower (129 m) when we were so up close near the entrance.
The sun was about to set so we decided to go in =D
The entrance for the observatory is 4000 won for adults.
The 360 view is good
and you can opt to sit at the restaurant with the same view.
The windows were tinted though (I think) so it's really hard to take a clear photo of you and the background.
I like the crowd that afternoon. Not too many people and you can see the sunset from your chosen corner.
We spent around 30 minutes up there just taking in the view, people watching and experimenting settings with our camera. It was already getting dark by 5:30 p.m. on that September day.
We took the stairs down that goes back to the main street (along Jung-gu Gwangbok-dong Fashion Street). This is also the site of the escalator going up if you don't want to walk from the side/back like what we did to get here. I believe this way is open 24 hours Mondays to Sundays.
You'll pass by a Buddhist temple halfway down.
You'll get to this street when you go down.
Nampodong is so beautiful at night in a modern kind of way, better if the road was closed to cars..
Once in a while, look up and you'll notice the Busan Tower =)
I love the art installations.
Pretty fun way to end the date! =D Good job, Mi Amour! Haha.
The subway exit 7 is on one end of this street.
We walked to the other direction towards the exit 1 and decided to eat dinner at this pizza place (not that good though..).
We later discovered that if you walk all the way to the end of the street (direction of the BIFF square - BIFF Gwangjang-ro Street or parallel, you'll see the cinema houses to your left and a big favorite shop of mine Artbox in the corner now as your indication),
there's a whole row of restaurants!! Gah..
There are sit-down options and the place is filled with people at night.
There are also lots of stalls selling Korean street food! You can do turo-turo (pointing) style if you don't speak Korean LOL.
This must be the food alley.. Huhu.
You'll see various stalls displaying their TV feature moments. Hehehe.
Pretty convincing if you ask me ;)
There's the usual tteokbokki, fish cakes, odeng soup, sundae, kimbap and many more..
You'll also pass by the fortuneteller area ;)
I didn't want to know what my future will hold. I am quite certain though that I had a great time with my forever love that day ;)
Here's a handy map for the places we went to in Nampodong on this day.
Restaurant Details:
21-8 Sinchangdong 2(i)-ga
Jung-gu, Busan
South Korea
Open 11:15 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Admission Hours 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Closed Mondays and January 1
Entrance: Free
Admission Hours 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. (October to March), 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (April to September)
Entrance: 4000 Won (adults)
