Long time comin' . . .Temple on the beach.

I was supposed to blog every week.  A lot of things are changing around here, which is really cool, and Spring is in the air so it's time to get into a lot more stuff. 

A couple of weeks ago my wonderful group of friends split up in several different directions to explore as much of Korea as we could in one weekend.

So, Jean, who shall now be called Cha Mahn, and I went to Busan.  We were going to go to a bull fight in a city near Daegu, which would have been really cool except I wasn't sure at all I was going to be able to handle seeing bulls die.  The bull fights here are a little different, the bulls fight each other instead of a person, so apparently bull deaths aren't so very common, but still.  You never know.  And anyway we both overslept so we didn't catch our train and we had to come up with a new plan.

And it was a lovely plan.

We went to the train station (hands down the absolute best way to travel around here, I think I prefer it to driving, actually) and our stop was right at a lovely beach near Busan that I hadn't seen before.

And here it is.

Beautiful day!!

No one was really swimming, but I dragged Cha Mahn into the water with me, at least to get our feet wet.  I can't resist the ocean! :-)

The water was pretty freezing, even though the day was warm, but I had to stand in it for a little while.

There was a temple nearby that Cha Mahn knew about.  It was on the rocks right on the ocean.  Sounded perfect to me.  So, we headed out to find the bus that would take us there.  Or a taxi.  Or something.  Traffic was absolutely crazy, but as we walked along the sidewalks looking for some mode of transportation a lot of kids in back seats stuck in traffic worked up the courage to shout "Hello!!" at us from out of their windows.

Awesome.

We didn't find anything, and it was a beautiful day anyway, so we just started walking, it didn't take very long and we got to see more of this growing part of the city, and we made it to the temple.  I think we made it there in about the same amount of time as a bus because the traffic was absolutely insane.  It was a lot more peaceful just walking there. :-)

They were starting to decorate for Buddha's birthday, so they were covering the entire grounds with lanterns. I think I will have to go there again before the tenth to see what it looks like now, I'll bet it's even more beautiful.

Inside the temple grounds, they had statues of all 12 Chinese Zodiac signs.  Mine is, apparently, an Ox, which is ironic since my other zodiac sign is also an Ox (or at least it was before they changed everything.  What's that all about?) so, out of curiosity I checked out what it's like to be a Chinese Zodiac Ox, at least according to Google. . .

Great fun these Wood Oxen, with their marvelous sense of humor that patches up just about everything in their path, winning chuckling friends along the way. Like typical oxen, they are open-minded, with a "laissez-faire" philosophy towards others. They conduct their own lives with a strong moral code and receive and deserve admiration and trust for their integrity. Practical all the way, Wood Oxen never make rash decisions and are always considerate of the needs of others. Another story is money! Finances are not too stable because of that old devil Credit! Why, they would buy a dinosaur if they were just offered one with a dollar down and a dollar a week. Not only that, they lend money to friends, not a good idea! Despite a volatile financial life, their careers are pretty successful. Since they are generally such quick learners, all they have to do is control their impulsive spending and try saving for a change. When it comes to moonlight and roses, Wood Oxen have it made. Because they are such good communicators, they know that nothing chills a romance like a cold shoulder. They talk over differences right away, never letting trifles build up into resentments. Wood Oxen are very devoted to their family and family life is rich with treasure.

So, here I am with my Zodiac statue.

The courtyard before you actually got to the temple was really beautiful and filled with lanterns.  :-)

I'm sure there are a million more hanging now.  :-)

Cha Mahn pointed out to me that on three of the statues there were little red signs.  Well, signs with red writing.  That meant bad luck for the year.  Every year three signs have "bad luck" and the people who believe it, he said, are extra careful with every decision for the whole year.  Neither of our statues had the signs, and neither of us would have cared if they had, but here's what they look like.

Bad luck.  Dun, dun, duuuuuuun.

Bad luck zoooooooooooooom.

Then we headed down to the actual temple, passing well rubbed statues that promise you will have a son, or better grades on tests, etc etc.

Beautiful scenery!

They are going to hang lanterns on all of those lines.

This was a good luck fountain.  If you can get a coin in the little pot that the statue is holding, I think you instantly won six million dollars.  Neither of us did.  But, I had pretty good luck with the last coin/water wish I made in Korea so no worries.

The bridge to the temple.  Beautiful!!

A little scene on one of the many rock outcroppings inside the grounds.  Lots of little bald kids.  :-)

I love the details on all of the temple ceilings here!!  I get lost in those designs!

This is the view from the top, there was a huge statue up here watching out over the sea.  A lot of people were praying or meditating to it, and we were there, cavalierly taking pictures and not paying any attention to it.  It was breathtaking up here!

The way back down. . .the stairs were a little crazy.  But I didn't fall!  Woot!

The view from a little lower down.  I want this view out of my window.  Is that so much to ask?  :-)

There was a little cave in the middle of the grounds and inside there was a spring, and if you drink from the spring it was supposed to be good luck. So, we went down there, just to look.  And in the corner they had all these candles, and I thought they were just lovely.

Melting candle pool.  Awesome.

Lots of people were waiting to drink the water.  We didn't.  And we left to go explore more of the area around the temple.
I love big, craggy, rocky coasts.  Love.  Love, love, love.  So, this was a little bit of heaven for me walking around here.

On a lot of the rocks at the foot of the temple people had built these little towers.

Lots of little towers.

Water spray on rocks.  Like, my favorite thing.

Someone built a little city in one of the rocks.  :)

This is the temple from the rocks.  Gorgeous.

You could climb out on some of these rocks. ..we were the only ones out there because I was the only girl not in heels :-)  Beautiful.

After we watched the ocean for a while we kept walking up to see what was up there.  Well, I was walking to see what was up there, I'm pretty sure he already knew.  :-)  There was a maritime museum there, and a little aquarium, and we just went exploring a bit.

I made him pose in the shell. . .he's an awesome sport.

So then I had to do it. . .

They had a little touch tank aquarium there in front of the museum and they had the craziest star fish in there!

Blue and orange?!?

Purple and white??

A cute little turtle saying hello.

After we hung out there for a little while we walked back.  He bought some really, really delicious strawberry juice and some roasted chestnut (awesome) and we sat down and chatted for a while.

We waited forever for the bus while I counted fifteen thousand Detroit Tigers caps, and headed back to the train station, got tickets, then went back to the beach.  There were several shops along the beach, so we went up to Angel in Us Coffee (strange name, but really nice coffee) to get something warm to drink, the evenings here are still pretty chilly and I was an idiot and didn't bring my hoodie with me.  We sat out on the balcony and watched the ocean.  It was lovely.  :-)

That's the moon.  The moon over an island above the water.  Plus coffee.  Awesome.

The view from the balcony.  Ocean and mountains at the same time.  I'll never get over it!

So, we went back to the train station and headed back home.  The train station stops near Samsan where I work, and we decided to go get some dinner.  Raw beef.  I was a little bit nervous about it, but I figured I would give it a shot.  I mean, I did eat wiggling octopus, right?

The place he took me too is famous for raw beef.  So, we went in, sat down, they gave us some warm water (since it was cold outside) and several side dishes (including a really yummy macaroni-ish dish) and in no time we had our plate of seasoned raw beef.

Looks delicious, right?

So, I tried it.  It was yummy!  It doesn't really taste very beefy, because it's pretty heavily seasoned, but it was really nice! I really liked it!  :-)

It was a beautiful day!  Lots of beautiful things to see, good conversation, good food, just a lovely day!  So, that was a couple of weeks ago.  Welcome Spring!!  :-)