Gyeong-Ju: Gettin' a little Temply

Got up in a slightly more musty smelling Optimus Prime calf carcass and crept over the same Australian girl who could give Rip Van Winkle some serious competition.  Paris Baguette for breakfast again, this time with Jason from LA.  I don't really see a lot of people come into this particular Paris Baguette, and at the rate the manager eats the bread out of boredom, I don't see how they can turn much of a profit. 
After Breakfast Jason and I walked to this National Museum.  That was our intention, but on the way we found other sites that actually turned out to be much cooler.  There was this ancient Ice Storage thing and a fancy man made pond with a few temple like structures around it.  Apparently the pond is built in such a way that you can never see the entire body of water, thus making it seem bigger than it is.  I didn't find this out until I had left the pond, but I trust them. 

The museum was still cool, but mostly pots and daggers.  I was more interested in architecture or engineering to be honest.  Pots are pretty much pots regardless of what culture your from. 

After the Museum we took a bus to this temple, Bulgulksa, that was recommended by a lot of other people at the hostel.  So by this point in my trip I feel pretty comfortable reading stuff in the korean alphabet, so before we got on I checked all the stops listed at the bus stop.  There was only one Bulgulksa listed, so I could wait until I heard that.  But naturally things don't work so easy.  It turns out that bus stop only listed major stops, and that there were actually other stops with Bulgulksa in them, which means we got off the bus at the wrong stop.  In a way, though, I am glad we did, because I got to go into this Chinese restaurant and order a "Ketchup Fried Rice" dish, which came clothed in a thin egg toga.  After our meal we just kept walking in the direction the bus had gone.

There were awesome old buildings all over the place.  It was fabulous.   We kept walking, for a while.  We thought we were close when we past a bus station that appeared to tell us the temple was at the next bus stop, but three bus stops later, no temple, so we just waited for the bus--again, only listing of major stops. boo.  The temple was cool, but the adventure to it was probably the highlight. 

Dinner was supposed to be an adventure for Korean Fried Chicken (yea it took me about 10 days to make the KFC connection) with me, Jason, and the Australian Rip Van Winkle.   We walked and walked but never found any (we swore we had seen loads the night before), so we settled on this place that serves Ginseng Chicken soup.  It was great, and the guy who ran it was totally a sailor.  The rain kept us in for the night.

Gyeong-Ju: Flour Sackies

Woke up in the dead wreckage of Optimus Prime's left calf.  It smelled like someone was cooking pancakes with mothballs.  I got up and creeped over the Australian girl who seemed to have been sleeping for 12 hours.  I find Oliver from Australia in the lobby and we agree to search for some breakfast.    We settle on Paris Baguette--a fairly common bread and coffee chain;  if Starbucks is 70 percent coffee, 30 percent food, Paris Baguette would be the opposite.  I actually liked the curry bun I got and the coffee was good enough.  I most love how the girls at the counter wear beatnik apparel.
The hostel man recommended checking out some 'athletic competition' at the University.  We couldn't really get any more specific information about it except that there could be free food;  my expectations were not far from the reality.  It was fantastic and hilarious.   It was basically an amateur tack and field event and all the older people in town were spectators.  They sat in sections by color (red, green, blue, and white),  are directed by scantily clad cheerleaders (and possibly an older drunk man).  The best event was the flour sack relay race--it speaks for itself.

After the event we ventured for food: this is always an adventure in Korea.  Most restaurants are basically just an extension of a kitchen at someone's house, so there are lots of them, but they aren't very well marked, and they usually aren't that busy.  It seems like more often than not, we are the only table of customers.  We walked into some lady's 'kitchen', checked out the menu and got confused, so I showed her the chapter of food in my phrase book and nodded to the first thing she pointed out.  It was good--it was triumphant.

For the next few hours we hit up our usual watering hole, the plastic seats outside the 7-11.  A couple from Holland (also at the hostel) joined us, and together, we watched the Korean world go by for a few hours.  We spied the coffee girls, oilbanks, vehicular tetris, and silent bank thieves.  After we had had enough, we went for pizza at a pizza joint that apparently only women are supposed to go to.

On our way back from pizza I ran into 2 girls from Israel who were staying at my Hostel in Sokcho.  I decided to accompany them for more food (it was the lure of adventure, not that I was actually hungry again).

Gyeong-Ju: Napoleon was definitely here

I got up early again to catch the train to Gyeong-ju.  The train station was full of tiny cute korean toddlers wearing the same oversized backpack.  I remember when I was a kid your backpack was the one school going accoutrement I cared as to the design of--poor kids, having to wear the same one.  No Mogwais or Transformers for them.

I got to Gyeong-ju and walked 20 minutes to my hostel this time.  At least it was a hostel and not a motel--Hanjin House.  It was kinda gross looking.  It looked like Optimus Prime just died from Ebola and someone set up shop in his remains.  But whatever--I've had my tetanus shots.  I met Jason  from Los Angeles in the lobby of the hostel and we went off to visit one of the local parks together.  It was a tomb park and it played music from speakers hidden in the trees.

After the park we walked around the city.  And then suddenly, my wishes were granted, when just as I had announced my intention to devour dumplings and steamed goods, we came upon such a place.  This was amazing, because it was the first such place I had seen all day.

After we got back to the hostel we met some more people, Jeff a local English teacher from Canada, Ben from Kansas, and Victoria from China.  They were going to seek out some traditional Sambap.  Seeing as I hadn't had this food yet I went with them despite still being full from heaps of dumplings.  It was a galaxy of small plates of food.

After dinner we went to my favorite place--the tables outside a generic convenience store (this time it was a 7-11) to drink beers.  Korea has no problem with drinking in public.  It's actually pretty popular (and affordable) to buy beer at a convenience store and sit outside it with your friends and drink it.  While we were there a guy from my last hostel in Sokcho walked by--Oliver from Australia.  He was staying at the same hostel as me here.  Funny.

Andong: Boredom Masks

I got up early to catch the 7:45 Bus to Andong.  This time I didn't have a problem catching the bus--mostly because my ticket actually said thegate number.  The bus had about 5 people on it and the trip lasted about 4 hours.  It was comfy.  I got off in Andong and walked about 15 minutes to a motel that was listed in my guidebook--Aroma Motel.  Didn't have much of an aroma but the room was fine for the money.   I took a stroll around Andong in hopes of finding something good to eat.  Its actually kind of difficult to eat out by yourself in Korea--its sort of frowned upon (or looked at negatively) if Koreans eat out by themselves.  They don't care about foreigners eating out alone, but many dishes are intended to be eaten family style.  Then there is the problem of a lack of English and a lack of pictures.  I usually stick to street food in these situations.  Yay grease.
Andong was kinda boring though.  And apparentally there was a major mask festival going on (that was cancelled for swine flu last year).  Maybe the festival was inside and I just didn't realize it.  Later in the evening I did see some people doing traditional dancing in the streets.  There was a group of guys mock sword fighting in Star Wars episode 4 light saber duel style, except the clangs from the soundtrack were off.