Diary of a Wanderer

The weekend finally came and we woke up bright and early on Saturday morning to catch the bus to Gyeongju, where my parents were waiting to meet us. They had been in the city since Wednesday and I couldn’t wait to hear what they had been up to. As soon as we got off the bus I felt a world away from the skyscrapers of Seoul, its busy, crowded streets and often polluted sky. After a delicious bento box lunch, we caught the bus and headed to Bulguksa, a beautiful temple just outside of the city, where we would be spending most of our time here on a templestay. Having visited many temples during our stay in Korea so far, I have become fascinated with Buddhism and temple life. It seemed a templestay would be the perfect introduction to this religion and a great cultural experience for my parents too on their trip. We were met at tourist information by Young Hee, who was going to guide us throughout our stay, and taken to the small house (pension) we would be staying in overnight....

Despite only deciding a month before, Mum and Dad were on a flight and coming to visit me. I couldn’t believe it! Whilst I had mentioned that it would be lovely to see them, I didn’t ever really think they would decide to spend their summer holiday in Korea; especially with all the news about North Korea and their nuclear tests at the moment. Nevertheless, I found myself waiting in arrivals at Incheon airport early on Friday morning waiting for them to arrive! I was feeling such a mixture of emotions; excited of course, but also nervous about how they would fare on their own, the massive language barrier they would face for the first time and whether Mum would fine anything she wanted to eat! Soon we were hugging and making our way to take the bus into the city, all of us still amazed they were actually here. Dad bought a SIM card in the airport that would provide him with unlimited data for the entire holiday; something that came in incredibly useful when navigating the buse...