augh, I came here specifically to catch up on posting, and then spent a bunch of time gimbaping around on the internet ('gimbaping around' is a verb phrase that I invented a few days ago. this it's first venture outside of my head. 'gimbap' is korean sushi, and the phrase amuses me. do with it what you will.) so that now I have very little time to post. anyway, after the trip to busan, t, m and I had galbi (korean barbecue, where you cook strips of meat on tabletop grill) with an interesting character who may at some point be written up in this blog. for now, I'll move on to sunday.


michelle and I took the train to gyeongju (not to be confused with gwangju, where we originally thought we were planning to go-luckily we made the distinction before buying the train tickets). the train ride was gorgeous and mountainous, and reminded us both of the english countryside. we were planning to rent bikes when we got to gyeongju, having read that this was the best way to see the town since the attractions were too close together for buses to be worthwhile but too far apart to walk. I was having anxiety about the bike thing, because I haven't actually ridden one in at least fifteen years. so I was initially relieved when we got to the gyeongju train station and the the woman at the tourist info booth, who spoke very clear english, told us that it would be too difficult to bike to bulguksa temple (our first destination). "it's a long way, and all uphill," she said. she advised us to take the bus. we waited about a half hour for the bus, and when it arrived, it was already packed at least as tight as the m60 from laguardia at rush hour. we were among the last three people to be allowed onto the bus, and spent about an hour with this man smashed in between us. I was balancing with one foot on a step and one foot off, holding onto two poles and shifting my weight intermittently, twisting my torso so that it wouldn't go numb. the bus was barely moving, due to some of the worst traffic I've ever seen. meanwhile, I was looking out the window at the sidewalks, lined with blossoming cherry trees, where people were strolling happily, and bikes were zooming past us. my anxiety about biking gave way to intense jealousy of the speed and freedom afforded the cyclers while I was being breathed upon by a strange old man who may or may not have been peeking down my shirt. "let's get off at the next stop," I said to michelle. she was skeptical, since we weren't actually sure where the temple was. I didn't care, all I wanted was to be off the bus and moving. so we got off and began walking. I was confident that the droves of people must all be heading towards the temple, but I was also just happy that we were using our legs and going somewhere. the cherry blossoms were gorgeous, the road sloped gently and subtly uphill, and people were constantly pointing at us and saying "hi." We kept going for about two hours, stopping once to confirm with a young policeman that we were heading in the right direction. we came to a huge lake, where a slightly ridiculous boat shaped like a swan passed us by. the landscape was gorgeous- we were at the foot of a mountain- but we still hadn't seen any signs or obvious trails for the temple. at this point it was 4:45, and the temple closed at 5, so we were no longer counting on getting there. we sat down by the lake to rest and take in the scenery. the side of the lake where we were sitting was completely natural, all trees and mountains and rock, aside from the paved road and sidewalk. across the lake, however, was a very ugly, industrial looking amusement park, sticking out among the mountains like a mutated cockroach among butterflies. it was actually kind of fascinating. we sat for about thirty minutes before continuing along the road. we passed a father with a tiny little boy on his shoulders, and he coaxed his son to greet us, whereupon the son said "how are you?" in perfect english, and we replied. it never ceases to impress me that so many young children here, and people in general, are bilingual, often tri-lingual, although I'm learning that in many countries that's the norm.

at this point I was beginning to feel bad because I thought we must have missed the turnoff for the temple. traffic had dissipated, and I wondered if maybe I'd made a bad judgment call, if staying on the bus would have been the wiser decision after all. it wasn't until we walked for another 30 minutes or so, through another traffic jam, and came to a sign telling us that bulguksa temple was another 4 km ahead, that I realized we would never have made it in time on the bus either, what with the traffic. I was glad we'd gotten off the bus, because at least we had a nice long walk through some gorgeous terrain. we gave up on reaching the temple at all, and climbed on a bus back towards downtown gyeongju. we were again stuck on the bus for over an hour, but at least this time we had seats. we reached the train station and discovered that the next train back to daegu was full, so we would have to wait until 10pm to go home. it was only about 7, so we decided to explore gyeongju's downtown shopping district, which we found to be exactly like daegu's, only smaller. we found a little gimbap place to eat dinner. these places are cheap and quick, like fast food only healthier. in addition to gimbap they serve lots of differents soups, noodles, bibimbap, and other things. the whole time that michelle was here I enjoyed using my ability to read korean. of course it's only helpful when I know what word I'm looking for, and my korean vocabulary is extremely limited, but it definitely comes in handy when reading menus. we ordered and ate, and then it was about time to go back to the train station. the ride home was nice and relaxing. the train smelled a bit, but it was much quieter than the faster and more expensive KTX which we had ridden to and from seoul and busan.



that was sunday. during the next week, while I was working, michelle had some adventures of her own in jinhae, and went back to seoul and busan for day trips. on thursday she flew to jeju island, where I joined her on saturday. I'll write about that in my next entry.