Gyeongju trip with cherry blossoms and fog.

Cherry Blossoms in Duryu Park (I live very close to this park. It's one of my favorite spots in Korea!!)







the Seokgulam Grotto from below- it was really foggy and you can barely see the building/cave.


 

The building/cave where the Buddhist shrine is -it's really cool inside!!!! Ps, the fog made it really pretty!!

Watering trough at Bulguksa Temple


  Bulguksa Temple

 don't know if you can see the really cool face carved in the wood. The artwork is AMAZING!!! Also at Bulguksa Temple.

Also Bulguksa Temple.

 

More pictures in the BEAUTIFUL fog at Seokgulam Grotto!!!!

 

Cherry Blossoms!!!

 

The fallen blossoms- due to storm. These were puddles in Gyeongju.

The Cherry Blossom March... okay not really but if you look closely you can see the many different umbrellas and spring colors amid the distant cherry blossoms.

 

Taxi's strike again!!!

Why is it always taxis? WHY?!!! Tonight was going to be one of the most fun nights in Korea- instead it was a real dud! So I took this super fun cooking class from the YMCA yesterday. Yeah, it was free and totally worth my time! I will be making that dish again! Anyway, while there I met a girl who has an entire group of friends that are English teachers and they are very close to my apartment, WHAT?!!! How had I never met any of them before? Well they are with EPIK and I am with TaLK so it would be understandable that our paths might not cross. Plus Daegu is a fairly big city. Well we chatted momentarily and decided to become facebook friends and I was excited to be social. I didn't know how soon it would be before I got to be social so you can imagine my surprise and excitement when the very next day (today) she invited me to be in some tourist commercial and then hang out after. I was PUMPED!!! I ran my errands I needed to do and then left in just enough time. I decided to take a taxi because I wasn't sure exactly where it was and I figured taking a taxi would give me a little wiggle room to get there early and find the place.
I hopped in the taxi and told them the area in which I needed to go "Bangwaldong" Yes, it is hard for even me to pronounce and I live here. Plus they say it with a /P/ instead of a /B/ in the beginning and ... it's just a difficult word to say. SO I also pull up pictures and a map AND an address of where I need to go. (can you tell I've done this before?) The address was in English but it was all I could find. I should have just called the # and had them tell him where to take me. NEXT TIME! Anyway, he acts as though he knows where he is going. After what took longer than expected I start to recognize the area in which we are in. It is past that were we need to go and past the time I need to be there. I try to tell him where to take me again. He pulls over and pulls out his GPS. Why didn't he do this in the first place? Well I very quickly learned it was because he wasn't very good with it. The biggest part that I don't understand is that there is only 1 place the two subway lines cross and that is where I showed him on a map of where I wanted to be. 1 place, it wasn't hard! But apparently it was for him. He drove me to the nearest subway station and now I was late. I saw a line of taxis so I jumped out of his and into another one going through the same routine. Only this time the taxi driver repeated where I wanted to go and waved away my cell phone. Clearly he must have understood.
TAXI #2- He did not understand me. After what seemed to be MUCH longer than it should have taken to get me to that station I started saying my destination repeatedly and he would repeat it back to me and point ahead. I usually take the subway (okay always) so maybe I was wrong and we really were headed in the right direction. Until I saw Dong Daegu train station. Yeah, that was the opposite direction we needed to go. I finally got him to pull over and look at my phone. When he realized where I wanted to go he said "no" , pretty sure that meant no we weren't going in the right direction. So he turned around. I thought for sure this time we would be going in the right direction- until I saw the airport. I was not supposed to be anywhere near the airport. WHAT THE WHAT? Where did he think he was taking me? Then he started YELLING at me in Korean, to which I would respond with "Bowla yo" meaning I don't know and "Hangul bowla" meaning I don't know Korean. Finally I just said "Okay" because I knew he would understand and I hoped it would make him stop yelling at me. It worked. And then I ended up in the middle of who knows where on the opposite side of the city. Away from civilization (which is actually really hard to accomplish because it is a rather large city) and I couldn't even find a taxi. NO SUBWAY station nearby NONE funny that I only had asked for the subway station REPEATEDLY and it was on the map AND it is THE ONLY PLACE where Line 1 and Line 2 cross. What is SO DIFFICULT to understand about this? I don't understand!!! My frustration was rising. And on top of it all I was now over a half an hour late. Great first impression that made. What a flake I am. Sorry- hope you didn't actually need me to help. And I didn't have her number and I didn't have wifi so there was no way to let her know I was lost. Anyway, I got out of his taxi and walked ... and walked... and almost cried. Today was definitely a missing English and America day. I called Colten VERY UPSET. I have such good friends. He listened to the first taxi story then interrupted to ask if I knew where I was. That was the worst part. NO CLUE! I didn't know how to get home either. Some days it just kind of mentally slaps you really hard across the face that you are in a strange land with no common language- sure there is some communication due to body language, but let's be honest, that is VERY INCOMPLETE communication. Why do you think the Deaf use ASL? Because it's more than communication, it's a complete language. You really need language to be able to communicate. Anyway, I finally found a taxi at a red light and threw myself into the car before the light turned green and shouted "Lotte Cinema" because that was near the station I wanted.
TAXI #3- Apparently there is another Lotte Mall with a Lotte Cinema in Daegu. Who knew, right?! So as we pulled up in my head I was like, "no, I don't recognize this place... at all." Out loud I said, "Mmmmm, Bangwaldong?" and showed my map and yada yada yada.... you get the point. The taxi driver insisted I was at Bangwaldong. Well it is a pretty big area and maybe I just hadn't seen this part before. NO, it wasn't Bangwaldong. So I found a security guard and showed him my map and he knew where I wanted and he said "Oh, that is very far from here." Yes, I knew that. I finally got smart and said with miming because he was not understanding otherwise, "You tell taxi Bangwaldong?" Okay okay okay, I think we got it!
TAXI #4- that's right, I said 4 (meanwhile my wallet started to empty. Good thing taxis are cheap and I got extra cash this morning.) So I sat in the taxi assuring Colten that I was pretty sure I was going in the right direction. I just couldn't handle dealing with another driver so I didn't speak the entire time. After a while he asked me some questions in Korean. Once again "Bowla yo. BANGWALDONG." Hmm, I think he sensed my frustration because he didn't really say much again until we pulled up to a subway stop and he asked "Ego?" meaning "This?" I could've either kissed him or cried. Instead I threw open the door and dumped my purse- I think I was just so excited I didn't even care it's contents were now all over the ground. I paid him, thanked him, and he drove away.
The girl who invited me to hang out seems nice and understanding, I hope they will give me another chance for a first impression. They must think I'm stupid. ...Oh well. Anyway, that was my really expensive scenic route for the month. Can I be done with expensive taxi rides? I can't wait for my Korean course to start!! I'll finally be able to communicate. It has been FAR too long, I am getting frustrated with such big barriers. LESSON: Don't get into a taxi without a Korean address or a Korean speaker present (or on the phone). Good luck if you intend on coming to Korea. :)

The most expensive Taxi EVER!! (in Korea)

Colten said I wouldn't remember this taxi ride 3 years from now- well when I read this 3 years from now I'm going to remember. At least we had a super nice and friendly driver.  Taxi’s here- AMAZING!! Don’t get in the black taxi. BEWARE of the BLACK TAXI!!!!  This is your final warning- don’t say you didn’t know, BLACK TAXI’s are considered the luxury taxi and they are more expensive. Price rises fast in those buggers. But any other taxi starts from anywhere between $2.30 -$2.80 as a starting rate and then they rise 10 cents every … what I am getting at is taxi’s here are VERY CHEAP!!!! But don't be fooled, just because the taxi isn't black doesn't mean the taxi driver won't try to outsmart you and make you spend more money- fyi.

So once upon a time Colten and I decided we were going to see the cherry blossoms in Gyeongju. We took a bus from Dong Daegu to Gyeongju- it was cheap (about $5) and took about an hour and half maybe, pretty decent. When we got to the bus station a taxi driver showed us where the information booth was. Well after that we felt obligated to take his taxi (it wasn't a black taxi **whew*)- mind you, the tour busses were directly across from the information booth and they were pretty cheap. This driver knew what he was doing!!!!  He showed us the number one spot to tour- The Seokgulam Grotto. It actually was a place we wanted to go so we asked him to take us. Well it ended up being COMPLETELY on the opposite side of the city and once you get up there you have no transportation options except for the ones you arrived in. It’s up this huge windy road and once you get to the parking lot you hike to cave temple (yes, it’s considered a cave temple but it isn’t much of a cave, don’t get too excited.) And the hike really isn’t much of a hike either- just a trail and at the end some steep Korean stairs= VERY STEEP and SKINNY stairs. We pulled up and the driver turned the car off – at the same time the meter went off. I was a bit confused. Colten and I discussed and we decided we are in Korea and sometimes they do things differently over here so maybe if we weren’t in the car the meter would get turned off until we got back. I found it odd. Later we also discovered it was not only odd but wishful thinking and we were indeed sad to find out the whole time we were touring the Seokgulam Grotto the meter had been running. However, we were grateful at the Korean rate compared to what we would have paid in the US. We figured eventually we would have come there anyway so it really was worth our money. I do HIGHLY RECOMMEND this place if you are coming to Korea. It is FASCINATING and is certified as one of the world’s best Buddhist shrines with Bulguksa Temple by UNESCO. The Seokgulam Grotto is this MASSIVE Buddha. I mean it’s BIG!! And so cool. You aren’t allowed to take pictures because it is a place of worship so sadly I only have my memories and my ticket stub, but it is a place I won’t soon forget. We also went to the temple, it is right next to the shrine. I would recommend doing both – however, not from a taxi as we were rushed at the temple due to the slow pace we had used at the Seokgulam Grotto. But the temple was also a treasure; very cool and a lot of reconstruction. They have this beautiful pond out front. The whole place was just beautiful!! Also I learned something new- you will see rocks piled one on top of another (I’ll post pictures) and I heard it is like a prayer. But upon talking to a Korean friend of mine I learned it is pretty much the equivalent to an American throwing a coin into a fountain and making a wish. VERY INTERESTING!!! Both places cost about $4 each. Cheap! The taxi on the other hand wasn’t as cheap as we had intended it to be. But what can you do? You live and you learn. 4 hours later we payed our very kind yet very devious little taxi man $80. Not bad for 4 hours but still- I’m sure every member of his family each ate a fatty steak that night!!!

                 After that we went to Gyeongju National Museum but we were starving and that museum is HUGE!!! So we only went through two buildings before heading off to lunch. Sadly it was SO STORMY that day that we were exhausted and soaked. So weren’t much fun after lunch and we headed back. The saddest part is that due to the intense rain the cherry blossoms had lost many of their blossoms and those that still had great blossoms required some walking to get to and we were pretty pooped so we didn’t take too many pictures of the cherry blossoms. Once again, I guess I’ll have to live off my memory of that. But a picture probably wouldn’t have done it justice anyway!

                Oh and before I forget I wanted to talk about the watering hole. You know how horses all drink from the same trough? Well, when visiting a temple in Korea they are usually located at the top of a “mountain” or hill so you pretty much prepare to do a little bit of hiking. Once you get to the top you usually come across the water hole. It is basically a trough of water for lack of better words, with what looks to be measuring cups strung nearby somehow- I’ve seen it different ways. You take the measuring cup and dip it in the trough and drink from it. These cups are not washed to my knowledge. A part of me wants to do it for the experience but a bigger part of me wants to consider what is lingering on those cups. I still find it very interesting even if I am grossed out a little.

And yeah, I know this happened a while back but I want to put the date down. We went on 4/6/13.