james new brain

SOUTH KOREA – 2007.09.22 – DAY26

Gyungju/Busan Vacation Post 2 of 9

First was to get some culture. We took a bus out to Bulguksa Temple. It’s a huge AND ancient Buddhist temple with tons of ‘national treasures’, as designated by the South Korean government.

BUT first, lemme show you our breakfast.

Oh, here’s a good group photo, sans me. Clockwise from left bottom: Stephanie, Maricarmen, Katharina, Silvia, Hannah, Ryo, Jennipuh, the French-man, Amy, and Jelly.

(PHOTO BY SILVIA RIEGLER-HEISSENBERGER)

We got Pajun for panchan! Trust me, this is a HUGE deal.

A garden by the entrance to the temples.

The Swastika is common ornamentation on Buddhist buildings and artifacts in Korea.

Posed Chingus 1.

The temples aren’t huge, Amy is just really really small. (PHOTO BY AMY DELAHANTY)

what’s that girl pointing at?

I really like this one that Amy took. As you walk around, you go up and down steep staircases and keep going through gates like these that reveal more and more buildings with folks praying in them. (PHOTO BY AMY DELAHANTY)

Whatever freaking scary resurrected warrior demi-god is behind this gate frightens the bejezus out of me, and I cry myself to sleep thinking about it every night.

IMPULSE BUYS: a ceramic bird that whistles a bird call, and dirty shot glasses.

So Silvia somehow managed to take these awesome panoramic shots. Once this page has finished loading, click on them to actually get the zoomed in and awesome view of them.

Both of these panoramas by SILVIA RIEGLER-HEISSENBERGER.

More posts in a little bit.