Back to Seoul

      Left Busan this morning under a beautiful blue sky only to arrive in Seoul 2.5 hours later with rain.  Not only did it rain but it thunder and lightened!  Some how though the rain does not seem that bad in the city.  It took us about an hour to get from the main train station to our hotel/hostel.  It took a while to find as it is nestled on a small street in the west of Seoul.  But the people here could not be nicer.  They have an excellent command of the English language, offer free breakfast and will book all your tours and help you with all our needs.  the room is small but has its own bathroom, kitchen and washing machine.  We have bunk beds, Rik has the top bunk of course.  But the local is not far from a metro stop, making this a great place to stay. The only criticism is you do not put toilet paper in the toilet, just a trash can by the toilet. Uck!! But Rik says this is pretty standard in Korea, still uck!!  Looking forward to a day of flea markets and shopping tomorrow and hopefully some pictures! 

Gyeongju

      Rain, rain go away come back another day!! It rained all day making viewing the temples in Gyeongju a very soggy experience. We took the bus from Busan to Gyeongju hoping the weather would clear.  It did not.  We ended up going to the largest Buddhist temple Bulguksa Temple.  It was a temple that was built the 15th century and restored in 1972.  It was beautiful with its large painted guards that stood tallas one had to pass through them before going to see the Buddhas. The structures were brightly painted with statues through out the grounds. Even though it was raining there still were large groups of elementary school students  You can see a sea of umbrellas in the pictures.  These kids were wild, poking each other with umbrellas, jumping in puddles, yelling "hello" to us each time we passed and generally acting like a bunch of wild animals. Kelsey, I do not know how you stay sane!! After visiting the Temple Rik and I were grabbed by a lady who took us to her little restaurant across the street.  She gave us a menu but told us what we were having.  Luckily it was a great meal served with spicy anchovies,sweet pickled baby crabs,kimchee and various other items I am not sure of, but it was good. Plus it felt good to sit on the heated floor to eat and dry out.  After extracting us from her grip we high tailed it to the bus back to Busan.  Wet but tired and happy.

Busan

Got in too late last to post, so here goes.  The best way to see a country is by bus or train.  We took the bus to Busan yesterday, a 3.5 hour drive through beautiful mountains, with the leaves starting to change and rivers cutting through the valleys.  When we could see Busan it seemed to rise out of the mountains, white and shining,  quite a view.  Busan is a large and sprawling city with the bus terminal almost 25 minutes outside the city.  But after a taxi ride we arrived at our tourist hotel.  Free to explore Busan, we walked through the winding streets of their shopping markets. If you want knock off Burburry this is your place. Everything had the distinctive pattern added to it.  We ate the local dish here, a dish of cold noodles in a consume, topped with a hard boiled egg, delicious!  Rik and I then climbed the hill to view the city.  To top off our day in Busa we took a night tour.  The tour took us the beaches of Busan where the annual Movie Fest is going on.  You can see the posters in my pictures.  We also saw and drove over the longest suspension bridge in Asia. It was a great way to see the who;e city.  Today we take a day trip to Gyeongjuy, a city of ancient ruins.