The Last Adventure

I came back to Korea early and still had a whole week before my winter class.

I'd spent a lot of money in America, so I decided against going to another country.

Instead, Korean Boy and I decided to visit a new province - Gyeongsangbuk-do! 

(It's on the east of Korea)

It was snowing when we left Bucheon, but the snow wasn't very deep in the mountains.

We were visiting a hot spring, but on the first day decided to visit things in the mountains.

First we saw a giant turtle.

Then a Buddha (with people praying)

Then some lions holding up a pagoda over a Buddha:

A pair of frozen waterfalls:

Some interesting characters:

We also visited a Museum of Roads, which was hilariously lame.

It had a bunch of random Inca artifacts in it too, but mostly talked about the history of roads in Korea.

This was the first day.

The second day we were going to visit many more interesting things.

Unfortunately when we were driving, the car suddenly died, as if we had run out of gas.

Korean boy started it again (we were rolling down a hill) and the engine sounded TERRIBLE.

I made him pull over and call a tow truck.

Unfortunately, the engine had no oil in it, so he had basically ruined the engine.

I would have teased him, but he was pretty sad.

\

Unfortunately it would cost more than the worth of the car to repair, so we decided to ditch it.

We had to empty all of our stuff and carry it through the snow to the tiny shed of a bus station in the

small mountain town we were towed to.

After walking for 20 mins, we had to wait in a freezing shed for a bus for about 30 mins.

It then took us to a slightly bigger city, where we could get a bus back to Seoul.

Korean boy also met with a guy at this station who would take his car.

We were a little disappointed...I saw almost allof Korea in that car.

We were pretty silent on the ride back to Seoul.

Korean Boy just kept saying "I have no car..." over and over again.

I'm not sure when we'll be able to go on another adventure. 

When we do, it will probably be tour-bus style.

It's the end of the era.

We are very sad.

Oh, and we almost got eaten by baby polar bears, too.

Terrifying creatures.

RIP, Korean Boy's car. 

You served this blog well.

More America Pictures!!

Here are some more fun-filled pictures of America!!

Playing cards!!! 

I do not play with them. I never win. 

Twerps!

They were less annoying than I remembered. I guess they're growing up. 

:'(

Snow in the mountains!!

Logs and Korean man who is responsible for my meeting Korean Boy!

(Also, my father. x.x )

That's all. I didn't really take pictures.

I wish I could have seen you all more, but everyone was so busy and I got very bored in Battle Ground.

I came back early in order to have another adventure.

That adventure will be covered in the next blog post.

Be excited.

America!!

I went to America, as most of you know, to surprise my family for Christmas!

It was great to see everyone, but I felt kind of like a guest in my own country. I think I actually got more culture shock coming back than when I first went to Korea!

Some things that surprised me about America:

Random people smiling/talking to me. 

(This just doesn't normally happen in Korea. It's strange to ask random people questions).

So much space.

(Everything is more spread out, you must drive everywhere).

1-story buildings.

(Pretty much unheard of in Korea).

Everyone drives really slow.

(Yeah, you do).

WHY IS THERE SO MUCH SPACE UNDER THE PUBLIC BATHROOM DOORS?! Creepy!!

(In Korea there's only about an inch gap).

Knives and Forks

(I missed my chopsticks...they really are easier to use with certain foods).

CHEAP PRODUCE!

(I want allll the avacados, which are about 6 dollars each in Korea).

Spanish everywhere!

(In America it's English/Spanish, in Korea it's Korean/Chinese/Japanese/English).

Animals! Nature!

(Where are the skyscrapers?!)

 So much alcohol!

(Koreans drink a lot, so it's probably good they don't have this many choices of beer).

Really bad food that gave me stomach problems!!
(It was worth it).

 TACO BELLS

 REAL PIZZA

TERRIBLE AMERICAN CHINESE FOOD!
(I gained about 4 pounds being back).

Dogs are very large and smell bad.

(Sorry mom, they do. I grew up used to it, but I think I'm a cat person now).

I still love Goleta though. <3

Gyeongju, Part Last

Day 2 of Gyeongju was less eventful, as we were just going to see the typical touristy stuff, and not attempt to find some random obscure tomb.

We started off by going to a marketplace and having traditional Korean food.

Yum...so delicious...5000 won (about $4.50) for rice, soup, 

and ALL the side dishes you can eat!

ALL THE SIDE DISHES.

Next we went to Bulguksa Temple...and sorry...this is not going to be exciting for you.

See, it's the oldest temple (apparently) ever, so it's quite popular...meaning there's many people...meaning they won't let you take pictures...

This is the closest I felt comfortable taking pictures. Seriously. Can you see the Buddha?

Bulguksa temple is basically full of small shrines like that, and quite a few big ones, too.

And there were a LOT of people worshiping that day!!

The monks were all out, singing and ringing their monk-bells (I know nothing about Buddhism, sorry)

Anyway, the point is, it was really uncomfortable to be holding a camera. 

So I didn't. 

:D

I did take a picture of this pig, however.

Next, we went to the second most popular touristy-place, which was this grotto with a HUGE AMAZING BUDDHA INSIDE!!!

Of course, pictures weren't allowed.

Here's the outside of the grotto, though!!

Really, there's an amazing Buddha right inside that door...

When the sun rises the light apparently hits the jewel on his forehead!!

...Or rather, it did that before they built a shrine around him to protect him. o.O

Here's a view from the grotto on the mountain:

NATURE........

Then we walked down the mountain, I bought postcards, Korean Boy's own people mistook him for a Japanese, and we went home.

~~~~END OF TAREN'S VACATION~~~~~

If any of you want actual GOOD pictures from these places, I can send you a postcard...

...sorry.

^^

Gyeongju, part III

So, after being pleasantly distracted by the cave temple, we continued on our way to:

KING MUNMU'S MARINE TOMB!!!

It was starting to get dark, so we had to drive quickly...the road just kept going and going.

Obviously, it was going all the way to the ocean.

We still consistently saw the inconsistent signs ever few km.

Munmu's Undersea Tomb!

King Munmu's Marine Tomb

Underwater Grave of Great King!

We still didn't really know what it was, but we were getting excited.

The final sign pointed us toward a 'beach.' 

....where is it?

We walked along for a while and finally noticed a tiny sign explaining how King Munmu was cremated and his ashes sprinkled at sea.

....

So...no tomb?

Nope!

Just some AMAZING rocks that you can barely see, where they apparently sprinkled his ashes.

Woot!

As disappointed as we were, it was still kinda funny.

The sun was setting, so it was time to go back.

On the way we saw another field where something interesting USED to be but now all that remained were some pagodas.

By the time we got back to Gyeongju it was dark.

The only thing to do at night was visit Anapji Pond, which is an old garden/pond of the royal family.

It is all electrically lit up now, and it was very nice (although crowded) to walk around at night.

Um...obviously it was dark, so you can't really see anything in the pictures.

 Trust me, it was nice...

Trust in me...

Just in me....

Gyeongju, part II

Hello again! 

This is part II of my vacation to Gyeongju. If you missed Part I, click HERE!!


After looking at dead people, we figured we didn't have enough time to see the main attractions. Instead, we decided to follow these fascinating signs that said "King Munmu's Underwater Tomb."

It sounded completely fascinating, and Korean Boy had a car, so we figured we'd just go see whatever that was and see the bigger things tomorrow.


So we started driving. We followed the signs, not sure where it would take us.

"Munmu's Undersea Tomb"

"King Munmu's Amazing Marine Tomb"

"Underwater Tomb of the Great King Munmu."

Looking back, the fact that they couldn't come up with one name to call it should have told us something.


But anyway, we drove and drove and then I saw a sign for another temple, so we took a little detour and went to check it out.


This ended up being my favorite place in all of Gyeongju, and it wasn't even advertised well. We saw maybe two signs for it, compared to the 30 signs for King Munmu.

Anyway, here it is!


We parked at the bottom and walked up the hill.

As you can see, some martial arts training apparently happens here.

Temples are often guarded by statues like this:

Here is a dorm where the teenage boys training in martial arts stay. The sign says "No women permitted."  x.x

Another building. Office or something? We don't think we were allowed to go look, we were still walking uphill to the temple.

And the temple...it was unlike any temple I'd ever seen!

 Wha...what the heck is this?!

Well, it's a temple. On a rock.

Finally, something in Korea that's actually original and creative!! Instead of a building, it was a rock covered in tiny little cave shrines!!


I was excited to explore! Korean Boy was afraid of heights, so I went up alone.

It's higher than it looks, I promise.

At this point I went back down and got my camera so I could take some pics of some of the little caves:

I forget the number, but there were well over a dozen places to pray on this rock.

So many Buddhas!

Nice little shrine inside a cave...there's even electricity?!

And the whole rock was covered in little tiny shrines like this.

Now, the pictures really don't do it justice, but this was extremely scary. The rocks are uneven, slippery, and loose, the path is narrow (if there's a path at all) and the rails are way too low to stop you from tumbling over if you slip.

Right after I took this picture, this old couple appeared, put down a blanket, and started bowing right there on that slanted platform. I guess your life being in danger can make you feel  more spiritual? o.O

At this point I had enough. There was another place to go up, but I was on the wrong side and didn't want to go back around...so I found something that vaguely resembled stairs and headed down.

Then I found a random spring.

So cool!!

Part III soon.

Gyeongju, part I

Hello again! I promised a while ago for pictures from my vacation, and here is the first set!

I'd like to apologize for my photography. I'm 24 and still can't seem to get my finger out of the picture.

Also, all photos are taken with my Galaxy S2, so...yeah. x.x

Anyways, for my vacation I went to GYEONGJU!!! It's a very old city near the east coast of Korea, and is basically the #1 tourist destination in all of Korea. True, that's not saying much, but it's such a beautiful and peaceful place...

The first day we didn't see much. We went to a very, very old temple and saw an old Buddhist bell with a scary...fish?:

Oldest (I think) Pagoda in Korea:

Some old paintings on the walls:

The first of many Buddhas that we saw: 

(I couldn't take pictures of all the Buddhas because sometimes there were people praying and that would be awkward...)

Then the signs told us to walk into this field....apparently something important USED to be here. o.O

 Nice field, I guess.

Ahhh, it's so nice to be out of the noisy city. I want to live here.

All over Gyeongju there are these huge grass mounds...and yes, they are tombs.

Yay, dead people!

More to come soon.