Busan International Film Festival Square … Origin of BIFF

IF….

Uncle Sam country has Sundance Film Festival

Great White North country has Toronto Film Festival

l’Hexagone Country has Cannes Film Festival

Then “The Land of the Morning Calm” also has same thing….i.e Busan International Film Festival.

Held every end of year i.e September or October, BIFF always introduces Asian newcomer directors with their first film. The festival which was first held 23 years ago has moved to Centum City in Haeundae-gu area.

This time, I wasn’t going to new BIFF homebase, but I would go along an area where became origin of BIFF, Nampo-dong. For remembering it then headed to BIFF Square.

My journey started from nearest station of Kimchee Busan Guesthouse i.e Beomnaegol MRT station using MRT Line 1 (Orange Line). After passed through 8 stations, I got off at Jagalchi MRT station. Other destination which can be visited near this station is Jagalchi Market (It selling a variety of seafood ) which is open from 5am to 10pm.

Out from exit gate, I’ve been greeted by street food stall. Because cold weather pierced bones, smoke which came out from furnace burning made MRT passengers stopped to eat hot food which sale by buyer.

I experienced a bit of disorientation. I confused in looking for BIFF Square Street, because all streets looked crowded. Finally I braved myself to approach a police officer who was on guard at police post. Patiently, He explained to me while pointing his finger left and right and spoke Korean….Even though I didn’t understand Korean, I though it was easy to understand his explanation.

BIFF street divides that place along 150 m. And when I visited it at night, it was easy to find street food stalls. These stalls form which liked mini house might aim to protect buyers from cold weather at night. It was arranged in a row in middle of road, making BIFF street became a culinary market at night.

I just tried a little bit of eating seafood in a stall, then I proceeded to find a portion of dinner food.

Because it was so hard to find food which suited with my tastes, finally I stopped by at a small food stall in a row of shops around BIFF Street. “Ahangeya” is name of that restaurant. I prefered to eat a beef rice bowl for USD 3,5.

Beside dining stalls, I also found many sellers of souvenirs, t-shirts and some electronic equipments. But my attention wasn’t fixed on that, I prefered to look for a winter jacket at UNIQLO shop.

Cold weather made me freeze.…I couldn’t stay there long and I decided to go back to guesthouse because tomorrow I would walk long and uphill to visit Gamcheon Culture Village.

So.…let’s sleep!