Last weekend we had a wonderful time in Gyeongju, a mountainous coastal city in the SE of the peninsula. This is a smaller city, more like a town, surrounded by beautiful mountains, many of which are home of UNESCO World Heritage sites. The oldest and largest Buddhist temple in Korea is on Bulguska mountain, and we decided not to miss it. Along with some friends we rented motorbikes for the afternoon and cruised around, it was a blast! Driving in the downtown was a little scary at first, cause it's madness on these streets, but we managed to get out of the city, to the open road, winding up the mountains and lined with blooming cherry blossom trees. The slightest breeze would cause the petals to fall around making it a truly remarkable scene. The sun was out, our only hope for warmth on the crisp spring day, as we climbed higher up the cool mountain.
We hiked in to the highest mountain temple. To celebrate Buddhas birthday, which is coming up in about a week, there are lanterns decorating the streets and buildings, with lots of festivals planned. The lantern display at Bulguksa was remarkable, the whole place was remarkable and exotic, the view from up there was stellar (the sea!), the fresh air, the blooming flowers, the buildings themselves, the monks singing, the breeze blowing, the newness of it all! This is why I travel... for the adventure, to collect all the new memories, and to see the ways of life that I can not see at home.
We cruised back down the winding mountain roads, feeling much more comfortable on our bikes, and enjoying the warming air with each steep S curve we traversed. One more stop at a famous temple, marked on Koreas currency, and crowded with tourists, then back to sea level!
After returning the bikes we did what we usually do when traveling anywhere: eat exotic food! And lots of it! Jeanie, a native Korean who we were traveling with, is from this region, so she was able to help us find the best, most obscure and dirty gogi restaurant in town. It was incredible! Whole octopus and thick cut pork, grilled bananas and garlic, tons of greens and a whole lot of soju were how we celebrated the winding down a a great trip.
We stayed in town in a traditional Korean home, with a detached guesthouse in their garden. They provided sleeping mats and we all slept on the heated floor. The older couple who lived there were both artists and the large open room was lined with their art. The place was really beautiful in the early morning sunlight.
And the grey afternoon as well!
I am not sure how to explain this one, but I had to share it and mention that I am glad that these are the only chickens I have to be dealing with these days....
random statues
I hope you enjoyed these stories... more to come soon.
In the meantime be good and try to enjoy each moment!
Love.
