Milan Kundera
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Korea: Pusan and Seoul
Finally I was able to visit Korea and my dear friend Gato the Irish.... Really liked Korea, the food, the people, the girls, the food, the historical sites and the food...

Pusan

Arrived at Pusa in the Beetle ferry (3 hours from Fukuoka) and me Irish friend picked me in the Intl ferry terminal... He lives in the hillside, so damn far from everywhere... Pusan is a huge city, but subway system is quite easy to understand, since there are only a few lies identified by a number...

1st view of Pusan...The Irishperson...Gato's neighborhood...Niall in bad condition...First Korean meal, a Japanese katsudon :P... Greg the British, cool guy...Guinness time, including Cathal, Gato's younger bruder...Decent dinner, featuring Hilary the Kenyan sugarboy....Gwangan bridge...Bar at Gwangali beach... Jina, the beautiful, interesting, Spanish speaker and superkind biour of me Irish friend...Irish bar behaviour...Environmentally friendly Irishman... In Korea, garbage separation is very efficient... They seggregate organic waste and even "yogurt pots" is a category!!Brunch at Jina's...Big Buddha at Haedong Yonggungsa...The temple...Dragon... apparently protects the Buddha or something like that...Born in 1978...Is this Korea or Ecuador?Korean soup...How weird is this?Farewell, Niall and Cathal...
I met my classmate Cho, and abused of his time he should be writing his Weicht's paper... Went to Gyeongju...Plenty of places to visit, but we only went to Cheonmachong, a tomb complex from the Silla period; and later to Gulguksa, one of Korea's most representative temples...
Tomb of the Heavenly Horse king...Was a really cold day... At Bulguksa water was frozen...Oe of the 6 national treasures in Bulguksa... This pagoda is even in the 10 won coins...Vairocana, one of the many Buddhas there... This kind lady explained to us the many meanings of surrounding structures... For instance, the 36 steps of this stairway/bridge join the World with the Buddha, who lives i the 36th Heaven... At the station... They burn coal even nowdays, for heating and cooking some things...At Cho's welcoming family's house...Korean bbq...Otoosan to okaasan...Yansan station at 10 pm...Some pool before bedtime...Freezing cold to death...Last pitcher...
View from Gato's window...Breakfast: allmighty kimpab...Near Tongdosa, frozen river...In Tongdosa, the ashes of the Buddha are enshrined...Beautiful Tibetan mandala at the museum (no pix allowed)
...Another magnificent dinner at Cho's...I thought God was dead, or a DJ, but He lives in Cho's fridge...
Valentine day, and the Irishman gets pimpy for his biour...Guess where he lives?I devoted the day to miss my Valentine... Next morning, to Seoul!Korean landscape...
Seoul

Sophie-chan, from IUJ, picked me up at Seoul Station...At the national museum of Korea... Me pointing at my tiny country...Impressive pagoda...Kimpab time....Beauty and Ecuadorian boy...Beauty...The "Japanese" guy who won gold in 1936, in Nazi Germany, was actually Korean!The Buddha...During a smoking break, watched a North Korean helicopter menacing the South...Ancient pictures, from the epoch of the Japanese invasion...Amaterasu in Korea...Dinner with Sophie...In Korea, a Christian church can be in the same floor as a strip bar or a lawyer's office... There are red neon crosses everywhere...Eki...Monk before ancient pagoda...Kimchi making...Mochi making...Pop sculpture...Me as a supermodel...Thought of my Waloso...Majinga Z!
How weird ish it?Chuckie...Frozen waters...Folk village...More frozen waters....Lunchtime!Really like Korean food...N Seoul Tower...Far from home...More Seoul Tower...Vintage music devices...Namdaemun market...Burnt Namdaemun south gate, national treasure #1...Filthy market alley...Very decent dinner...Vintage postcard...Another Namdaemun gate...Magic electric ball...Jenny, from APU... Good luck in USA...Massive dinner with Sophie, Allison, Shin and other friends...Last good-bye to Sophie... Thank you so much dear!My new tourist guide: Jonathan...King's palace...Even more frozen water... Other spots...The Blue House, where El Presidente lives...El Presidente and North Korean's counterpart...Lunch...To become toight like a toiguer...Renaturalized river in Seoul... They covered to make a road in the 60s and later on opened again to refresh the city... The weirdest thing ever!!!!! How crazy this guy is???Another crazy stamp...For dinner, pork, of course...We spent the night in a public sauna, which is like a Japanese onsen but with a lot more people, and everybody sleeps in the holy floor...

In the next post: T'aean (where the oil spill happened), Suwon (Jonathan's village) and back to Pusan...

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