My Life. My Time. My SoKo.: Buddha's Birthday Adventure 일분: Cheongju

After recovering from the insane sleep-deprivation of the work camp the day before, I met up with Elizabeth, Amy, and Lee Ann to take a bus to Cheongju (about an hour away) and hang out with Lily for the day in her city.

After meeting Lily at the bus terminal in Cheongju, the first thing we did was eat lunch as it was around 2pm and none of us had eaten yet that day. Why is it important to mention lunch? Well, first, it's interesting. And second, because we had lunch at Subway. SUBWAY!!! The sub sandwich restaurant! That is in the states! Apparently there are T H R E E in Cheongju. How did I not know this before? I didn't go to Subway when I was home in April, because those Publix subs are just so much more appealing when you have a choice, but Subway is good, too! I ordered a southwest turkey sub on honey oat with honey mustard sauce, lettuce, green and hot peppers, onion, tomatoes and American cheese, with a raspberry cookie and a macadamia nut cookie with a Dr. Pepper. It was amazingness. Very delicious. Muy delicioso. 친차 마시사이요. (Chincha mashisaiyo) Tres delicieux. πολύ νόστιμα. There. That's English, Spanish, Hangeul, French, and Greek. I feel so worldly. Which brings me to an aside of another favorite quote:

"Travel is glamorous only in retrospect." ~Paul Theroux

I love the word glamorous. Glamorous. It's even beautiful when it's written in script.

Back to the story.

After enjoying a delicious lunch, we wandered around the shopping area that the Subway restaurant was located in, a shopping mall of discount-ish stores selling everything from camping equipment (don't remind me) to clothes to hair accessories. After leaving there, we headed over to pet street to see all the cute puppies and kittens and so Lily could get some food for her kitty.

While perusing one of the pet shops, I came across this little guy, the epitome of a cute ball of gray fluff, and what I've always wanted in a kitten:

He couldn't have been more than a month or so old. He was so tiny and his fur was so wispy. He sat in that same spot the entire 30 minutes or so we were in the store, and he just looked so sad, except when he was intrigued by my dancing fingers on and around his plexiglass confinement space. He was begging for a new home without actually begging. I wanted nothing more than to scoop him up and take him home with me in my purse, but animals in pet stores here cost in the hundreds (USD) and I can't can't care for an animal companion at this point in my life, so I left him. But not before I snapped the above adorable photo of him. Isn't he cute?

After strolling along pet street, we came across a Buddhist temple that Lily said was usually closed, but happened to be open on this day before Buddha's Birthday, so we went in. We were greeted by a very sweet aujuma (old lady) who took us to the temple, opened it, and gave us a private tour. The temple was situated next to s 'normal looking' korean temple that I believe was the dormitory for the caretakers of the temple. And this temple was like no other that I have seen thus far in Korea. There were no red, green and blue dragon paintings on the outside, no un-even steps to the top, no locked doors to leave us wondering what's behind them. Instead, this temple was painted gold. The entire thing. Outside. Inside. Stairs. Gold. We removed our shoes before going in, and we were greeted with a massive gold statue of turtle carrying many smaller turtles on its shell. We bowed upon entry to the temple (following what our guide was doing), and then she led us to the second floor. On this floor, we saw five statues of kings in a line. The outer two were the shortest, the two closer to the center were taller, representing the importance of each of them by height. The center statue was so tall that it stretched from the second floor where its feet were to the rooftop of the temple, just above the third floor. We concluded that it must be Buddah, and when we got to the third floor landing we saw that his hands were positioned so that one was forming the 'stop' gesture in sign-language, and the other palm was face-up with a ball in the center.

Buddhist Temple

Turtle statue

Kings

Buddha

The temple was absolutely beautiful. After taking it all in, we left with our guide and she gave one of us a book, printed entirely in English, on the history and meaning of that particular temple. I was not the lucky one, but I was able to look at it briefly on the bus ride back in Daejeon later that evening.

After leaving the temple, we walked more, hopped on a bus with the intention of going further than one stop, but we came across the river that looked like it was be a peaceful resting spot, and disembarked from the bus. We stopped so a few of us could partake in some ice cream before our river outing, and then headed over to the unique animal-spine bridge above the river before resting to chat for a while on the boardwalk that seemed more like something you'd see in the northeast United States than something you'd find in Korea, complete with stylized benches and actual wood boards on the floor of the bridge.

After relaxing a bit, we headed for a dinner of 'hangover soup', which is essentially beef-bone soup with vegetables and sides of kimchi and radish. It got its nickname because it is a popular soup for people to eat when they are hungover, which really just puts water back into our body, extinguishing the effects of the consumed alcohol. It is delicious and inexpensive any time of day, drinking or not, so we chose it for our dinner before heading back to Daejeon.

Everyone I spent Sunday with traveled to Daegu on Monday to visit Herb Hills, the famous zip lining park. I wanted to go, but stayed in Daejeon for some R and R. I slept in, and then took a book and my yoga mat to the park where I sprawled out and read more than 200 pages of my book in the hazy, smoggy afternoon sunshine of Korea, enjoying the butterflies, nice breezes, and a roll of kimbap. It made for the perfect Sunday afternoon.