It has been a while since I wrote anything, mainly because I have been working and sleeping and that is the same whatever country you do it in. Yesterday, some of the other teachers and I, decided we needed to get out of the city. Out of the noise, the pollution and away from the 3000 people staring at you because you are a western woman in Korea. So where do you go when you want to get away from it all? Well apparently the answer is up a mountain and to a temple.
Donghwasa Temple is about a 30 minute bus ride out of Daegu. Once we left all the traffic behind us the bus began to climb the mountain and we were very definately not in the city any more. Having spent the last 4 years living in Snowdonia I have become attached to having mountains around me so it was really nice to be able to see the mountains properly as apposed to vague glimpses over the apartment blocks. We couldnt have had a nicer day for it, weatherwise. It wasnt too cold despite it being 2 weeks before Christmas and it was sunny which made the views even more spectacular. After alighting the bus we stood by the giant mushroom statues and decided what we were going to do first. My inner child came to the fore here because I really, REALLY wanted to go on the cable cars. Well, I also did not want to walk UP the mountain but wanted to see the view from the top so my options were limited.
The £3.50 I paid to get up the mountain was definately the best money I have spent in a while, the views from the top were amazing. You can see literally for miles and there isn't a car or a mobile phone shop in sight. Perfect. After a suitable amount of time oooing and aahhing at the mountains, the view, the very cute baby who kept giggling at me we got the cable car back down.
After the mountain, finding the temple was next on our agenda. We found a tourist information booth with a nice little Korean man who beckoned us in and forced his english speaking employee to help us. Sometimes it is nice to be so different, because we very obviously couldnt read Korean so we were given English maps and extra help. The temple was beautiful. Theres no way I can really describe it in words so Im not going to try (Doesnt that kind of defeat the object of a blog? oh well...) But I am going to work out how to put some pictures up on here so you can see. I have also now seen my first giant stone Buddah. Hopefully it will be the first of many.
Yesterday really wetted my appetite for Korean cultures and sight seeing in general. Once it warms up there is talk of some of the teachers doing a temple stay. I am definately using the theory "When in Korea..." from now on.
