I found out…

What would happen if I didn’t have someone to follow off the bus: I got off at the wrong stop. Found this calm beach though, so, winning?

Eventually I got to Amnam park, which was lovely. Lots of cute little dogs running around.

After a late lunch, I went to the *biggest shopping mall in asia!* They’re proud of this, you see. The food court alone is a reason to come here. I spent most of my time looking at the ridiculousness of it all. The prices aren’t that bad and for a food court the quality was high.

It’s as delightful as a mall can be, for a while. There’s a driving range, ice rink, rooftop gardens, concert hall, etc.

So I would swear that I’ve been to bigger shopping malls before. It’s nice and everything, but….

After a bit, it was just a mall again. Time for a walk along the Suyoung river. Very well maintained area and lots of exercisers so super safe.

Lots of divers, probably looking for urchin? That water can’t be warm

Typical little resort area with lots of seafood restaurants

Little play area for parents who are afraid to let their kids play in the ocean

The way to Amnam park was this long gangplank type arrangement

If you don’t catch anything you dont have to go home empty-handed. The shops here sell very fresh stuff. Also here there’s toilets, tennis courts, croquet area, all kinds of cool stuff

Easy walking and so shady. I’d def come here on a sunny day

“Is a hunam being capable of disposal”…Lost a little bit in the translation but I liked it

Its a chicken cutlet, fried with onion gravy, green onions, soup, and pickled radishes. All for about 4.65 usd.

This is common in Japanese places. You pay at the beginning via this machine. That way when you’re done, you can just leave. It’s convenient.

So that other, clearly inferior knockoff Trevi fountain wishes to be this someday

The mall has a boutique grocery store. It had every foreign snack ive ever tried or wanted to try. The selection was RIDICULOUS. I could have spent 200 bucks on snacks

But I settled for 2.oo dollars on these coffee peanuts. My stomach hurts

I forgot to mention the art gallery. it was free

I couldn’t figure out how to get inside the driving range.

For some reason these dinosaur models exist on the rooftop of this mall

Even more inexplicable is the scale model of a pirate ship, complete with parrot and skeleton

This is at the OTHER rooftop garden…bc there’s two

Down at the waterfront things are back to normal….public art in a park. Whew

Another Stargate!!!! jk, its actually a bronze by an artist named Lee, called “rising sun”

I call this one “Thunder Chicken, destroyer of men’s souls”

Looooong bus ride…

This was going to be the breakfast of champions but…..mayonnaise

The Korean/Irish bar you’ve heard so much of

Until I get to Copenhagen, this little mermaid will do

The county has developed this area well, lots of traffic free areas and toilets lol

You know if I ever have to go somewhere and cant just follow everyone off the bus I’m in trouble

You can tell a lot of tourists come here by the number of food stalls

This is an unusual gate bc theres no gods guarding it

Its also an unusual place bc it’s by the ocean, instead of mountains

This completely fake and constructed shrine had a snack bar in it lol

Youre supposed to wash the statue, this achieves something

This isn’t forced perspective, this giant post box is awesome. Mailing postcards from temples is a thing

The sign says Vegas, the cheesy light fixture says the most sketchy neighborhood I’ve been in yet, also masquerading as a Chinatown

So much Russian….also saw 2 Russian hookers I didn’t have the nerve to take a photo of

I’ll admit, there are slightly more Chinese restaurants here than other places

You’ll see that nobody is here…on a busy Saturday…there’s a reason for this

Another Saturday, another demonstration. I watched for a long time, the police here are absolutely committed to public safety

I just realized…

The reason I’m sick again just may be the communal kitchens. Most of these kids don’t possess the ability to really wash dishes. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, some nice old guy dropped some knowledge on me today. I had commented that most of the fish market workers were women. He said that after so many Korean men didn’t come home from the war, the widows turned to the waterfront to support their families. Most of those women are gone, but passed their stalls on to their daughters. So any man working there, is actually working for their wife or mother or mother in law.

Today’s only activity was a trip to another temple, Beomeosa. It’s an older one, some of the elements are from 890. Such a pretty day.

A gal named Pan chatted me up for a while. I think she wanted to practice her English. She told me about a lot of stuff: all about her friend in Seattle (Alzheimers), her 40 years in Florida, why she was back in Korea (studying Buddhism), where she was renting an apartment, how much she paid for it, her apartment in Seoul and how much *it cost, that she was a US citizen, how she got her visa, when it expired…anyway, she was interesting. She liked talking as much as I do lol. After a while her friend came over and handed out candy. Nice.

The metro ride took me back to my bed and a nice nap. Dinner was pho (Vietnamese chicken noodle soup).

Here’s todays pictures…

This temple was very easy to reach by bus. I just followed all the other hikers off the bus and we were there!

These turtles have something to do with the creation of the universe in Buddhism

This is a hand washing station to use before worship. It’s always nice when it’s more than just some plastic bucket. Also the strawberry scrubby amused me

In some schools of prayer, a painting is preferable to a statue. I have no idea why.

This is the oldest building, from the 1600’s. Not too shabby considering the fire problem in dried up old wood

This is where the paper money is burned up. A lot of temples don’t use the paper money bc it’s not environmentally friendly

The temple is systematically rebuilding the halls, one at a time. It’s a very time consuming process and expensive process. To retain the historic significance is paramount, followed by quality of construction using old timey techniques

This is the oldest thing here, from the 800’s

There are so many people here visiting and studying they gave up on landscaping

These signs are actually really helpful. If you don’t see one, you’re basically free to poke around at will

You can see these cranes still in the rivers of Korea.

Froggy thought ice cream would make me feel better. He was right

My feet hurt..

But it was worth it! My step counter says I walked 15 miles today. Maybe not, but a lot, anyway.

New friend Li and I went to the state park called Taejongdae. It was early so not so crowded, thank goodness. There’s this cheesy tram but we took it bc we’re lazy lol. The park was nice. The bus ride wasn’t too long so that was good.

Before we got lunch, we found a quiet temple quite close by. They were saying prayers so we didn’t stay.

Lunch in the Nampo-dong neighborhood was okay. The neighborhood itself was cool. Lots of shops and cutesy stuff, and another temple.

I was surprised to find a cathedral. It was open so we went in.

Yongdusan park and the Busan Tower were there too. We didn’t go up but the park was nice and sunny.

The department store Lotte has a rooftop observation deck that doesn’t cost anything so we enjoyed that for a bit.

Li was busy after that, so I went on to the waterfront and the Jagalchi fish market. It was my first real fish market, so neat. So many people hard at work.

The sunset was too beautiful to waste, so I walked home, got lost and found myself again, and had kimbap for dinner.

Great day

Heres today’s pictures…