It’s time to leave Gyeongju and head to Busan, where we will stay for two nights. So, we pack our bags and jump on the trampoline for a final time.
On our way there we pass the Tongda temple with a large museum with Buddhist paintings. The weather is beautiful, with clear blue skies and not too hot. First, we buy some snacks at the supermarket: seaweed chips, which tastes really good.
Then, we start with the museum to see some of the treasures from this and other temples. We tour the various buildings which are busy with worshippers. It seems like a wedding is prepared as we see a lot of people arriving with flowers wearing formal attire. We stop at the restaurant for lunch, they serve a nice vegan bimbimbap and a vegetable pancake.
We have to be at our new apartment at 16.00 as Cleo has a call with her class. 16.00 here, is 9.00 in Dilbeek. We can enter the Airbnb at 15.00 so we have some time to spare and visit another temple the Beomeosa temple at the edge of Busan.
We take another toll road to the temple. Paying for the toll is a challenge, by the way, as our cards are not accepted at the machines. So we have to push a special button, park the car and pay inside of the office every time we leave a toll road. We tried to buy a high way pass, that you can charge and via which we could pay automatically, but we could not find out where to buy it. The children don’t mind, they often go together with Olga to pay for the toll, and get all kinds of sweets, chocolates, lemonade and today even an ice cream.
It’s much more quiet at Beomeosa than at Tongda. This temple complex dates back to 678 and king Munmu, whose sea tomb we saw yesterday. As with most buildings we have seen here, they all were destroyed during the 16th century Japanese invasion.
We used our off-line map to see if we had enough time for an extra temple. When we put in the coordinates of our Airbnb in the on-line nav app the driving time doubles, one hour for 15 km, it seems a miscalculation but as we have to go through the centre of Busan it turns out correct. Traffic is heavy and we slowly progress to our destination. With half an hour to spare we arrive at the final small almost vertical streets going to our apartment. Luckily there is an empty space in the cul-de-sac.
The apartment is very nice with two bedrooms and a large balcony overlooking the city. Cleo and Olga call with teacher Mieke and her class to tell all about our adventures. Afterwards we fill the washer with a suitcase full of laundry (we literally have no socks or underwear left) and head out to explore Busan.
We head for the Seomyeon area as it is famous for its street food. We like the vibe of the city and enjoy walking around, we decide to go for a restaurant instead of a street vendor as the children will eat better while seated. Cleo almost finishes her plate while Zeno remains a very picky eater.
We explore the streets some more, walk into an arcade, look for hair pins as a souvenir for Cleo’s best friend Maeva, and wonder at all the little gizmos and toys for sale. The area is lively, full of restaurants, bars and shops. As darkness falls we head back to the metro and our apartment to finish another day in Korea.
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