Of course I went to bed late, as normal; but this time I was trying to finish up my work so I didn’t have to worry about it anymore – until 4 am. Because of this, I didn’t get up early to go on my adventure day like I had wanted to. I got up at 11 am and wasn’t ready to leave until 12. I went back and forth about whether I wanted to take a bus or take a taxi to Geong-ju – the ancient capital of South Korea. Because of the little time I had left, and also due to the hotel pushing me to do so, I took a taxi there. This took about 45 minutes and cost me 60,000 won, which is equivalent to about $50. Not the #1 thing I would like to spend my $ on, but maybe was necessary since it was so late in the day. Once I Had arrived and told the taxi that no, I didn’t want him to wait for me (sorry you can’t convince me to pay you $70 just to hang around!) my first thought was OK, so how will I get home? So I bought my ticket and then tried asking someone if they could help out with that. Obviously there was no English, but another guy standing by overheard me trying to ask a question so he called his English-speaking friend who helped me out. In the big parking lot you can take a bus to the inter-city bus station, she said. Ok. I was relieved, I would worry about it after that’s all I needed to know.
I went in and walked about the temple, it was chilly out but not uncomfortably cold; like October in New England. Though unfortunately, I decided to use my gloves and of COURSE I lost one of them. It was beautiful, but was very similar to the other temples I had visited and I was annoyed that they requested no picture-taking inside the temples. The foliage was electric. I didn’t think anywhere in the world had foliage like we did back home. A fashionable looking mother called me over with “excuse me! Excuse me!” She wanted to know what I was given as a guide. At first I thought maybe she was from another Asian country and couldn’t speak Korean so she wanted to know if I had something that could actually help her too. But no, she was just looking out for me and wanted to know if I had any questions. Her daughter had learned about Bulguksa (the name of the temple) in school and they had talked about coming here many times before it actually happened, today.
After taking photo after photo of temple and nature, I went out where I came from and pondered what I would do next. A guard saw me standing around and came over and handed me a piece of fruit which looked like an apple. (When I got home I decided to try it and was so confused. It was very, very sour/bitter and had an uncomfortable texture. So I asked someone about it and they told me it was a quince. Quinces are meant to be cooked and eaten, not eaten raw.) I decided to walk up a trail that was nearby, I didn’t really know exactly where I was going but I wanted to get to the Grotto which Joe had also recommended. During the start of my hike, (and it was a hike!) I took out my map and an old lady yelled to me where I was going. Then, apparently her son who was up the hill about stopped me and asked me further if I needed help. He spoke English decently and apparently lived in Newport, RI way back in the 1990’s while attending navy school. He gave me his cell phone # and told me to call him if I needed anything.
I started walking up, up, up and it was beautiful. It was 2 kilometers and I thought it would only take a half hour to get there but it was already past 4, would be dark soon, and I wanted to make sure that I would be able to get a bus to the bus station so I decided to turn around. On my way down I met an small older man with a walking stick taking a hike. He tried to say my name and I tried to say his and we both cracked up as we realized how different our languages were, and how we couldn’t even closely pronounce them. He couldn’t get Basler, but at least he got Lauren right. He spoke very little English so we communicated as much as we possibly could and he offered to drive me to the bus station. I said sure. I didn’t really know exactly how I was going to get there yet anyways.
We got in the car and he asked if it would be alright to make a stop at his house first, so of course I didn’t really have much else to say besides sure. We walked in and I took my shoes off. He called to his wife and kids to come meet this American girl. The kids didn’t come but his wife did. We sat Korean-style (on the floor) around a wooden table and drank some “Korean-style” coffee which was very good! I asked him if his wife had a kimchi fridge which is a necessity in all Korean homes, and he pointed it out; it was a huge freezer-like container that was larger than the refrigerator. And this is rice wine! He said and handed me a small bottle to take. And this is fruit! And he handed me a fruit which looked like a tomato, but wasn’t. It smelled ungodly horrible so I didn’t even go near it, but I took the rice wine in my baggage home to the US.
Then, we left. He must have told his wife he was driving me to Ulsan, because he told me he wanted to in the car. Then, his wife started calling non-stop and was clearly very upset about it. We tried going to Ulsan but the traffic was terrible, so he wanted to turn around, go back to Geong-ju and try again in a little bit. So he pointed out some of the sights, and his wife was still calling, some of which he answered and hung up on her and some of which he completely ignored, until he eventually shut his phone off. Geez, I felt horrible. He said sorry Lauren, but I can’t drive you to Ulsan I will take you to the bus station. Which was all I wanted in the first place! He helped me buy my ticket and then we got a bite to eat; gim-bap which is rice rolled in seaweed stuffed with different vegetables – it’s almost like vegetarian sushi. It would have been great with some soy sauce. We said our goodbyes and his hug lingered a little too long and it creeped me out a little bit, but I was getting on a bus. Good luck answering to your wife mister! Maybe you should think twice about picking up an American next time, haha. It was a good, peaceful day and now it was time to pack for home.
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