Friday was a special day because it was my last trip to
Busan (possibly forever). Jessie and I
woke up early, ate breakfast and then began to haul out tons of luggage.
Our plan was to mail some of our excess goods and clothing
home with the hopes that our luggage won’t be too overweight at the airport
returning home. Unfortunately, with two
girls shopping here and there over a period of 3 months, a lot of stuff can be
accumulated.
We left our room with 2 backpacks, 2 duffle bags, and one
large shopping bag full of stuff. One of
the room stewards noticed all of our baggage and came out very concerned asking
what was wrong and where we were going.
When we explained our situation to him, he just laughed.
We boarded the complimentary shuttle with all of our baggage
and got many strange looks from fellow passengers, but soon we were dropped off
in the city centre and made our way to the post office. I was so pleasantly surprised by the service
we received in the post office. The
woman helping us spoke just a few words of English but went out of her way to
help Jessie and I pack quickly and efficiently.
We sent over 20kg of stuff home and it came to about $50… not bad I
think!
After successfully getting rid of our excess stuff, our bags
were much lighter and Jessie and I made our way to a PC Bang (Internet Café)
where we called home and chatted with our dad for a while. It was a nice conversation, but we had to cut
it short because I had plans to meet my friend Amanda.
Amanda was one of my best friends while living in
Busan. She’s renewed her contract, so
she’s there for another year, but I’ll miss her dearly. We met up in the city centre and then walked
around for a bit. She had to work in the
afternoon, but we had time for lunch. We
went to a small Korean restaurant and ordered a delicious stew with chicken,
potatoes, rice noodles and onions. It
was a great last meal.
We also surprised Amanda with a box full of goodies we took
from the ship; lamb kabobs, steak salad,
assorted cheeses, tomato and mozzarella salad, cookies, cake. I know how difficult it is living somewhere
without food that tastes like home… I thought that this might brighten up her
day. I’m sure it did.
After a delicious day, Amanda headed to work and Jessie and
I walked back to the city centre. We
walked aorudn the cultural steps area and listend to a live band play for a
while. They were very good.
Later on, we had another phone call home. It was nice to talk to the family because we
don’t communicate much on the ship (the internet is ridiculously
expensive). I told them about my
fantastic plan to have our annual cousin camp on a cruise ship… I think it’s
going to catch on.
Jessie and I spent the afternoon wandering around NampoDong
area. We checked out the fish market,
went on a wine hunt at local convenience stores, and found Jessie her last
Kimbap. She was thrilled with it and we
took photos to document the monumental last Kimbap (they’ve become her
favorite). If you don’t know, it’s like a sushi roll except there’s no fish,
only egg, carrot, mushroom, spam and radish.
After a while of wandering, we got on the shuttle and went
back to the ship. I felt a bit of
sadness at leaving this place, but I’m happy to be moving forward in life and
slowly making my way back home.
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