Beomeosa, Busan

This weekend was a long weekend, so I used it to finally hike a mountain in Busan I'd been meaning to get to. At the base of the mountain is a temple, Beomeosa, and then the route we took lead us to the "North Gate." I'm not 100% sure what the gate was for, I think maybe there used to be a fort somewhere. Anyways, it was an absolutely gorgeous day for a hike. I hope you enjoy the photos!

There were cool turtles.

All temples have guardians at the entrance.

Can you spot me?

This inversed swastika is an ancient symbol for
Buddhism. I know this, and yet it still
feels very strange to see it in such a beautiful setting.

Up we go! 1.6km to the North Gate

This is a fairly common tree here. I like it.
It seems to have no bark.

The North Gate was much more impressive than I expected!
Apparently it's the least impressive of the gates,
according to a sign nearby.

There was a distinctly medieval feel to the gate
which I thoroughly enjoyed!

My hiking buddies!

Because Korea is amazing, there was some water
for thirsty hikers! 

Onwards and upwards, 1.1 km from
North Gate to the Peak!

Pretty beetle. (And pretty manicure if I do say so)

Up, up, up

Off-road up

And the final ascent!

Here's the North Gate pictured from the peak! It
looked very far away!

Sadly we didn't have clear air. I don't know
if this haze was pollution, or ocean mist, but
we couldn't see Busan at all.

Some ladies had their picnics at the peak, but
it was too cold and windy for us.

Kimbap as always!

Deeeelicious

It's possible to stay at the temple too. While I initially
thought this seemed like a cool Korean experience,
I quickly lost interest when I realized
it also involves living like a monk.

Cool turtles again.

I liked this tree.

Gamcheon Cultural Village

This weekend was a long weekend because of Buddha's Birthday and Children's Day. I didn't travel anywhere too far as I needed some relaxation time and had a nasty cold. I did travel to my beloved Busan though. Unlike my usual forrays to the beach, however, I checked out a completely different part of Busan called the Gamcheon Cultural Village. Apparently it's a village that came to be when very poor Koreans displaced by the war came to live there. While initially a shantytown, the town somehow became a cultural art village, full of neat art projects and 'traditional Korean life.' So now it's a tourist attraction with a little path you can take to see the sights without disturbing the residents. It was a beautiful day and we had a very lovely time! We used this blog to find directions. 

Sadly this photo is blurry. But it was
just so odd seeing a sink in the middle
of a photo gallery I had to post it.
There was no toilet.

The village had many windey
alleyways to walk up.

This is apparently supposed to be a room
reminiscent of a constellation. Very odd.

Sadly all the views were obstructed by terrifyingly
exposed black wires.

After Gamecheon village, we headed back to Busan Station. Since we all usually spend our time in Haeundae, we'd never explored this area. We headed to "China Town" and were very surprised to find it was actually a China and Russia Town. We saw a ton of Russian stores and families!

We finished our day with some window shopping, where I discovered this store called WIlliamsburg Outdoor life. The store was full of Canadian themed decorations, including bears and red and white patterns. Very amusing. We're so trendy.