Alright, let’s finish talking about our stay at Golgusa Temple (Sunday, May 10).

Temple Day 2

We were told it was optional to wake up at 5am to do some meditation with the monks. We were also told there would be a loud bell at 5am to wake us up. I don’t know if I was just super exhausted, but I did not hear said bell. In my room, V was the only one that was fully intending to go to the meditation. I figured I would go if I woke up early enough, either from hearing V wake up or the bells, but I heard neither. I woke up sometime after V had left, and sometime before 6am, but I stayed in bed until 6 because that’s when the rest of the girls in my room woke up. Breakfast started at 6:30, and that was also good. Something I think I forgot to mention in my last post was that for meals, we had to sit on the floor at very low tables. We also had to wash our own dishes after we finished eating.

After breakfast, Dr. Yun, Chris, and a fairly large group of students went up the hill to see the Buddha carved in the stone. The hill was steep, and then we had a bunch of stairs to climb. There were also multiple pathways, so I don’t know if we went up the quickest way or not. When we got to the top, the view was very nice.

After our hike up the mountain, some of us stopped at a souvenir shop that is at the temple. I was able to get some gifts for my friends, and at least one of the gifts I am 100% my friend will love because it is super cute. After that, we had more training (more stretching and yoga type stuff). Then, we had tea with the monks. The head monk basically talked about the temple and Buddhism and answered some questions as we all sat on the floor drinking tea.

Leaving the Temple

After the tea, we packed up all of our things and headed out. We stopped at a restaurant where I got a tofu soup. We had ordered ahead since we’re such a big group, and the menu that was sent to us wasn’t very descriptive (maybe the Korean version was, but I was going based off of the simple English translation that Chris provided). Thankfully, none of the three people that got the tofu soup are allergic to shellfish, because there was crab in the soup. Mine also had a clam, but Aakash and Dom (the other two people who got the soup) did not get any clams. The crab and clam barely had any meat on them (I tried so hard to get all the meat I could from the crab, but it wasn’t a lot). We figured it was just put in the soup to add some extra flavor. The soup was in fact very good (after I picked out the mushrooms, before anyone who knows I hate mushrooms points out that there are visible mushrooms in the soup).

After lunch, we were back on the road. We stopped at a town (I don’t remember the name) where there were tombs from the Silla dynasty. We went in the one that is open to the public, and it was neat, but there was less to see than I expected. All of the tombs look like hills from the outside, which I thought was cool (but of course I forgot to get a picture).

After quickly exploring the tomb, we were free to walk up and down the street nearby that had a bunch of restaurants, cafes, and shops. Sophie and I ran into Dr. Yun at this one bakery place where he bought us each a “10 won bread”. It tasted like a pancake with cheese inside, and it’s shaped like a 10 won coin. It was really good. Then, Dr. Yun spotted a restaurant called Sulbing, which had really good bingsu. Bingsu is a fancy Korean shaved ice. It was so good. Sophie and I split a strawberry bingsu, and Dr. Yun got a red bean bingsu, which is a more traditional flavor.

Arriving in Pohang

After our bingsu and shopping excursion (even though we didn’t buy anything other than food), we headed to Pohang, where our next hotel is. V and I were very excited to see that this hotel room is much more spacious than the room in Seoul, which had very little floor space for our luggage.

Once we were settled in our rooms, we basically had some free time to explore Pohang. I went to get some dinner near the beach (because there’s a beach!) with Ben, Manav, Kali, and Rohit. We saw a bunch of chicken and seafood restaurants, and eventually ended up at a chicken place. We started off with an order of fries, fried chicken, and nogari (a type of white fish that sounded good when we looked it up). The fries and chicken were amazing, the nogari not so much. There was barely any meat and it was kind of dry. So, we decided to order more chicken, but this time we got spicy chicken. It was really good, but very hot (temperature and spicy). After that, we walked back to a gelato place that we had passed earlier to get some dessert. Lo and behold, the gelato place also had bingsu. I decided to order more bingsu because it was so good, and the one I got was called chocolate devil. The picture showed it with devil horns, so Kali told me I had to get it. However, it did not come with devil horns, but it was still delicious.

After enjoying our dessert, we headed to the beach to get some pictures. I was wearing sneakers, so I ended up with a fair amount of sand in my shoes. I did get some decent pictures, and one that ended up super blurry (at least it’s funny).

Then we headed back to the hotel, where I was too tired to do anything but get ready for bed.