Namwon - Busan and Ulsan Temple stay

Photos:
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I arrived in the evening in Namwon and met up with Calvin. Turned out he was a Japan expert, so he helped me out a lot planning my trip there. Next morning I got up early and started heading for the mountains of Jirisan national park. After some walking I arrived at the tourist information stall. The guy there spoke a hundred English words, but after some gesticulating and map pointing, we agreed on where I should go and how I would get there. He kept on saying "sorry" because of his English, but I was super happy because he helped me out a lot since I didn't have any plans at all. I gave him some oreos as thanks and he then ran into his little door and came out with a pen of the love city (Namwon) and gave me a proper map over Jirisan Park, which would make my day later! I got on the right bus and went to a small town that had an Azelea festival. I managed to order fish soup for breakfast, but I developed a new skill(!) and I can now eat stuff without tasting it. I breath only with the mouth at any given point and I finished the whole bowl.The pink flowers were blooming everywhere in the mountain and it was quite nice. I started hiking and was fairly fast up the first mountain. The mountains in Korea are packed with old Koreans, equipped for climbing mount Everest. The only thing they lack is the oxygen tanks. People seemed to be amused by a Norwegian running in their hills and there was a lot of food vs biscuits exchanges. After a long hike I ended up at the other side of the park and was in need of getting home. I hitch hiked with three different cars and then had a bus ride the last part. This day was packed with lovely Koreans and I was so exhausted when I got back home. My biscuits had gotten me one pen, one map, 1,25 cucumbers, one whole kimbap and three rides. They turned out to be a good investment. In the evening I had dinner and beer with Calvin and his nice friends and went to bed early. Perfect day!

I got to Busan Saturday and bought my ferry ticket over to Fukuoka, Japan for Wednesday. Matt, Amanda and I went out in the evening for a last soju night in Busan. Matt wasn't drinking because he was going to study, Amanda wasn't drinking because she had a rough Friday, but I was since it was my last Saturday. They both got hammered haha. We went out and met up with underpants Nav and some other friends. I also met some cool Koreans outside while eating my nightly instant noodles. It was a good, last night. Sunday I went to have a quiet evening in Ulsan. I was going for a temple stay on Monday and I relaxed at Sunny's place with movie and food to gather my strength. At the temple I was kind of bored, but I met some great people, including Germans, which made it worth while. I constantly had the feeling of being in church at 24 December. Somebody is chanting about something I don't understand, the time goes painstakingly slow, and all I want to do is go home and eat pork. Difference: the temple stay lasted 20 hours and we had to get up at four in the morning. The others that signed up for two days envied me as I left after just one day. That felt good. Archery at the end was great though, I wouldn't mind doing that again. In the evening I arrived in Ulsan again and stayed there one night before going to Busan in the morning. I had a good steak, which I haven't had in a long time, and it will be nice to see how well Kobe beef is compared to it. My host even made gave me a bag with cookies and what not for the trip. Gotta love Koreans!

Korea was great! Men looked like women and women looked like girls, old people were running in the mountains and they were all very friendly and helpful. A very homogeneous country with good food and nice mountains. I wanna come back when North Korea opens up!
Thanks everybody for a great stay in Korea! Now it's time to go to Japan!
nananaHASEO!!!!