Eating eel soup |
Main hall at Bulguksa |
Geoffrey at Bulguksa |
Ringing the bell at Seokguram Grotto |
UNESCO picture of Seokguram Grotto Buddha |
Going back I kept telling myself "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" (not strictly true I suppose). One time when I was sitting, resting, we saw a father playing with his son on the path; I asked Geoffrey "Don't you want one of those?" meaning the child. I quickly added "but I don't want to encourage you to do anything ill considered." Going up it seemed much longer than coming back, strange in that coming back was more up hill.
It was too late to go into GyeongJu, and we saw what was important to me. Geoffrey agreed and seemed anxious to get back, so we headed back. We did stop at a coffee shop for Geoffrey to get some GyeongJu Bang, a small cake with sweet bean mash inside, as gifts for the Parks and others. North of Busan we pulled off in a town for dinner and to give Geoffrey a rest. We found a traditional working class type restaurant, kind of dingy (the kind I remember) on a side street and went in. There was an older man sitting at a table by himself, quite drunk and singing, probably the owner's father or grandfather. I referred to him as the entertainment. He tried to engage me in conversation but after a couple questions (How old are you? I'm 80.) I started to ignore him. Geoffrey and I both had a stone hot rice pot (dolsotpap = 돌솥밥) with lots of side dishes to mix in, most spicy which I couldn't eat so I had less variety, but Geoffrey let me have the whole eight inch fish and acorn paste jelly (not sweet), to compensate.
Geoffrey did all the driving. I offered to do some on the expressway (I wouldn't drive in traffic) but he declined. In Changwon he allowed as it would be nice if I could drop him off at the hotel to meet Wayne since he would be taking a cab home (they'd be drinking) but I just said I'd get lost getting home; I had already said I didn't want to drive in traffic. We got home at about 9:15 and Geoffrey went right back out to meet Wayne.
My knees in particular are wobbly and my calves ache. I had trouble getting out of the car and up the steps, but it was a very good day, we had a good time together and saw the temple and the grotto. There were so many people it wasn't a spiritual experience, but it was full of cultural and historical meaning. Geoffrey promises tomorrow will be less strenuous.
See more pictures at Picasa.
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