aiKina -

This is pictures from our last trip in Korea. We went to the Issac's mother's parent's tomb, sadly they have passed away already but I was at least able to visit their grave. So I have now met the whole Won family! The pictures this time is in different sizes because I had a lot of difficulities uploading them due to bad internet. Why I all of sudden got bad internet, I will explain in the next update ;)

The surrounding area. The tombs here are often not at church yards, but instead in nice scenaries like this one.

This is a resting place we passed by when driving. It is very pretty, especially when the leave changes colours, so many photographers come here during Autumn. I'm also very sure I have seen this place in one of the commercials on the TV.

Indeed a very pretty place, and made even brigther with our dear parents.

Beside the road

This river is at another place we went to

Our mother has the soul of an explorer!

A historic site of the one who succeded and completed the Koreanized "Neo-Confucianism". This is a temple area where Confucian rites are being upheld and we could try the life of Confucian scholars too.

Father and son competing with trowing sticks into a pot. The father won!

Tea ceremony

After enjoying tea, it was time for get to the core of scholars' life - Styudying the Confucian texts. Here we are dressed up as scholars infront of the teacher. We were taught the meaning behind of some Confucian qoutes, and to really memorize them, we were taught how to sing them like a hymn. Fortunately, I have studied both classical Chinese and a bit of the Koreanized Neo-Confucianism so I could keep up fairly well.

When it was time to close up the place for the day and we were about to leave, the woman from the tea ceremony gave me the flowers used for decorations. I must have been not too bad as a student!

The next update will bring some great news! We have left Korea and travelled to new countries, which I will tell you about and show you pictures from. My blogging here have also influenced an interest to my fiancé, so, we are currently working on creating a blog together which we can both can write and update in! I hope you all look forward to it!

Continuing the trip, here is the same beach in Busan in day light

Today was a special day in Busan for three reasons. One I have already told you, the international film festival was currently hold right here. The second reason is it was Hangeul day - a national holiday to honor the invention of the Korean alphabet. Because it really was invented, by King Sejeon and his scientists, as an alternative for the people in the lower class, as the far more complex Chinese alphabet took such a long time to learn only scholars could read. So as celebration, there was some events going on on the beach.

Not sure was liquid nitrogen ice cream is, and although the making process was interesting with all that fog, a salt tasting ice cream was really not something I would recommend. Not at all.

Yep, we went to check out the world's largest department store. But other than food, the stores was too expensive to be of interest.

Rice cakes in all kinds of flavors and shapes. Especially shapes.

Ice brink inside the shopping mall

And a collection of Swedish brands!! Fjällräven, H&M och Haglöfts!

Moving on...

This picture.... just happen to be funny. The staty is taking a picture of the military man's butt! Hehe!

And here was our last destination in Busan. The BIFF street, or, Busan International Film Festival street.

Zhang Yimou's hand! (A Chinese director who have made many great movies such as Hero, Flying Daggers etc.)

Oh! A Swedish director's hand! Jan Troell?

And, lastly, the third reason why this day was special. In Busan, there was also a festival in the fish market area, and here is a parade celebrating that, walking from BIFF to the fish market.

So, not only was there unusually many tourists (since many came for the film festival), and not only was is a holiday so all school kids was off from school (because of hangeul day), it was also a market festival. As you might understand, the streets was crowded with people. After spending about half the day in Busan, we retired and went back to our small Chungju city. The sudden increase of people was just too much for us!

We went on yet another trip here in Korea, this time to the historical city Gyeongju and then to the modern city Busan. It was only a two day trip but I took many pictures so I will let the pictures mostly speak for themselves. So, first off, pictures from Gyeongju, a city "for both the dead and the alive", filled with historical buildings and tombs from Goryeo dynasty.

They are not sure what this is, but one suggestion is that it was used for studying the stars.

Some of the tombs

The sign shows that a drama was filmed there

A garden from Goryeo dynasty. There used to be a lot more buildings, but they were burnt down during the Mongolian invasion (Djingis Khan, you have all heard of him), and not all buldings have been restored yet.

How it originally looked like

Can you see the crane?? It's in the middle of the picture, sitting on a tree branch

The crane is flying!

Where we had out lunch

Asian fusion sandwhiches with veggies, meat and rice.

Gyeongju Bulguksa - a temple area that was completed in 774 and served as a center for "Silla Buddhism". (Silla is one of the early dynasties in Korea)

We were not allowed to take pictures of the buddha inside...

A building where a monk is said to be buried. It was believed back then that if a very good monk died, pearls will come out of his body. So they are currently looking for the pearls.

Flowers with prayers

A big bell used for prayers

This was the historical site I was most curious about - an artificial cave with very complicated architectural design. And inside the cave there is a staty of a buddha. However, not only were we not allowed to take pictures inside, we were not even allowed to go in the cave. Only to see it through a glass from outside, so, although I understand the destruction massive tourism can cause, I couldn't help feeling disappointed. I would have at least want to see the roof where the complexity is most apparant.

Lamps with prayers

This cave was quite remote, and the last kilometer we had to walk. But the walk was pretty indeed.

Refilling the energy with some fresh fishcake sold at the gate

Old ladies selling edible goods on the street

While waiting for the bus, there was public cameras where people could take their photos. By mistake, we our picture ended up saved in their gallery for everyone to see

This night there was a lunar eclipse!

After a long day in Gyeongju, we went with the bullet train KTX to the nearby city Busan where we stayed the night at this hostel.

Busan is right next to the sea

A night market with fish food

Just to hop in and point at which fish in any of the fish tanks you would like to eat

While we were in Busan, there was an international film festival going on.

There is a Studio Ghibli exhibition going on right now in a shopping mall in Seoul. Studio Ghibli, lead by Hayao Miyazaki, is a Japanese animation firm, producing amazing movies enjoyable for both children but also for adults like me! The movies often have a deeper message and moral in it. Typical characteristiscs of Hayao Miyazaki's works are the strong will of the young, peace-loving main characters, human destruction of nature and in almost every movie there is a woman with a strong personality.

Outside the shopping mall, a scene from "Ponyo on the cliff by the sea".

Inside the exhibition, they have recreated scenes from a selection of movies. Each room have a description of the movie in the beginning. Here is "Howl's Moving Castle"

The "castle", which really did move, compare the two pictures!

Calicifier!

Inside the castle

Howl himself

Saliman's dog Heen

The main character in the movie - a young lady in her 20ties who was transformed to an old granny by a witch. Throughout the movie, she slowly starts to accept herself and stops comparing herself to others as well as finding confidence in herself which eventually breaks the spell.

The picture above is illustrating the scene below from the movie. The picture below is a TV-screen showing the movie

This is one of my top favorities among the movies! Sadly this part of the exhibition was not as big as the others. This movie, however, is the one that shows most clearly (and dramatically) about the human destruction of nature

The wolf princess who have joined the forest gods in the fight to protect their forest

Pom Poko! A movie about racoons, and just like in the movie right above, they are trying to protect their forest against humans too.

Protect the forest against humans like this one...

A scene from the movie

This is probably the most famous movie, or at least the one that sells the most souviners. The story is about two young girls who just moved to the country side and found a big and old tree nearby where a forest spirit called Totoro lives in. The trick is, Totoro can not be seen bby adults, and even among children, only lucky ones who are friendly to the forest can find him!

The tunnel to the tree

Hah! I'm still within the lengths of a child!(?)

But not you. Are you not a friend of the forest??

Totoro sleeping!

Scenes from the movie, when one of the girls first found Totoro

A scene where the girls are waiting at the bus stop for their dad to come back from work, when all of sudden Totoro joins them too.

(It's raining in the scene, so Issac joined the scene while protecting himself from "the rain")

The end scene

Porco Rosso, not one of his famous movies, but still enjoyable.

If Totoro is not the most famous movie, then this one certainly is. It's widely considered to be one of the best animated movies in history. The story is a bit complicated, and yet the deeper messages are eve more complicated and there is still discussions about how to interprent the movie. It is truly great!

(I'm posing as the girl in movie)

(Another pose)

TV-screen showing the train scene, recreated here below

I'm trying to mimick the girl in the movie.

Issac and his new buddy the No Face

The last picture, from outside the exhibition togehter with Totoro again at the rainy scene at the bus stop

Well, the title says it all

Since it was quite a car ride going to the mountain from the city in where we live, we stayed the night at a hotel nearby. The morning view from our room was quite fantastic!

This is the Ulsanbawi Rock we had climbed the day before.

Our lovely parents

On our way back we stopped by another beach, that is famous for a reason I will tell you soon.

"Gratis är gott!" (Free is delicous) as we say in Sweden. Here the mum is on the hunt for seaweed flowing around in the water.

I also went into the water, but not as far. Still amazed the water temperature still was warm even in September!

I wrote yesterday that Koreans are very concerned with fashion, and here is another example of that. You ust can't walk around with shoes covered in sand! So here is a very, very, very very very strong airblower to blow all the sand away. So strong my skin looks scary!

And this is why this area is famous, North Korea's diktator himself once stayed here for vacation when the border between the two Koreas was a bit more diwn south than now.

His house

The view he once enjoyed

And nearby was another vacation house that South Korea's first president Syngman Ree and his Austrailian wife stayed at once the border was moved more north to where it is today.

Last, and least actually, a vacation house for one of the influencal South Korean politicians during that era.

After visiting the beach and the vacation houses, we continued our trip back home and passed by an interesting looking waterfall. It's so thin yet long, and it was hard to imagine how the water actually made it all the way to the end of the cliff. Isn't the end slightly going upwards?

Drinking the water!

This was our last stop before we came home. A pretty valley with a river where Marilyn Monroe actually performed for the soldiers during the Korean war! There was a picture with the audience and her far, far away on a stage.

Pretty flowers

Hello! I haven't updated this blog for a while. I took a rest from the computer just because I can. Once I go back to Sweden and start studying and working again I won't be able to have this freedom since everything, especially at the university nowadays, one must check the computer at least once a day, or simply just all the time with the advancement of smartphones. Power points from classes, annoncements from the teachers, home work instructions, submission of homeworks and applying to exams etc is all done online today. I might sound old-fashioned now, but it is truly a relief and a sense of freedom to not be bound to anything.

However, I have now gathered pictures and will update the blog again!

Issac's parents took us for a weekend trip to a famous mountain called Ulsanbawi Rock Mountain, but first, a visit to the beach

The water was still warm!

At the beach shore there was motorboats offering a short trip on the ocean, driving around in circles aiming for the waves.

The driver

After jumping around with the boat, we got back to the car and drove the last part to the mountain. And here it is! Or parts of it. The Ulsanbawi Rock mountain is a part of a long mountain chain.

This energy drink sounds like anything but delicious....

If you look closely, at the middle of this mountain there is two lines. It's for the cable car for those people who are not so interested in hiking, and just want a quick look at the view (Almost all Chinese tourists went for the cable car). Our goal however, was to really hike a mountain!

The hike started with about 3 km long walk on flat ground

Chipmunk!

Now the real hiking begins! The cement road has ended, and stairs made out of stones have replaced it. Now it's only 4 km of hiking until we reach the top

Getting higher up!

This is the mountain we are trying to get closer to!

Passing by a buddhist temple half way up

Almost there. But my legs are already very, very tired.

The stone stairs was now replaced by steep(!!) metal stairs

Almost there... and my legs are shaking from tiredness and from the hight.

And up! At the top! Finally! 876 meters high!

On our way down again (which was equally hard I had aldready passed my limit and my legs was now shaking and hurting...). I took this pictures to show how the latest trend in Korea. No, not pushing a rock, but hiking. And it's visible through the clothes. Koreans are very concerned with fashion, so if they are going to do hiking, their clothes from top to toe has to be real hiking clothes from a famous brand such as North Face.