This one starts and ends with turtles.
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| Told you.
The day started with two bus rides. One bus ride was mine, from Seosan to Daejeon. The other was my girlfriend's, who was travelling from Seoul to Daejeon with her mother and brother, who had just arrived from the States. What should have been two bus adventures of equal length turned out to be two completely different experiences. Because this day was Buddha's Birthday, also known as a holiday in Korea. And holidays in Korea mean traffic. From Seosan to Daejeon? Not too bad. About an hour and half. Maybe two. But the trip from Seoul to Daejeon, normally around 2 hours, took a whopping 4 in stop and go traffic. Which meant Neal got to explore Daejeon for a bit.
When they finally arrived, bladderful and tired, we hopped in a taxi for Gyeryongsan National Park, which runs in between Daejeon and Gongju. We got to our pension, set our bags down, and went on a short hike, passing several temples along the way.
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| Walking riverside in Daejeon (left). A pagoda at Sangweon-am Temple (right). |
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| The view from Sangweon-am Temple's front door. |
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| Some blooms breaking out at Sangweon-am (right). Buddhas waiting for a drink at the bottom of the mountain, Mita-am Temple (right). |
It wasn't a long hike, but the sun began to set on our way down the mountain, and when we arrived at a cluster of temples towards the bottom, lamps were being lit and rice cakes were waiting. It was a really nice way to end what was otherwise a long day, for some more than others.
Some final photos:
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| Probably the highest concentration of tiny Buddhas I've seen. |
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| These turtle seat things were next to the pagoda seen above. Have no idea what their significance is, but they were cool! |
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