Photos from trip to Gwangju - Ryan and I on the streets
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| Street Food |
Driving in Korea is pretty harrowing - there is a lot of traffic in the cities, and folks just sort of merge whenever - Mike did a great job - though he almost ran over a couple of pedestrians in Gwangju - he snapped this picture of the cars jockeying for space.
We went to the May 18th Cemetery which honors those who have given their lives during the Gwangju Democratic Uprising in 1980 - as well as others killed fighting for democracy. A gallery has individual photographs of each person on display - while the grounds are dotted with sculptures and statutes and relief carvings depicting various uprisings. A moving place.The sculpture behind Ryan and Mike balances an "egg" - and it is said that Koreans will have democracy when the egg falls and cracks - until then they have to continue to fight for it. Behind the egg are the individual graves on the hillside.
There is a museum here which we toured that has some dramatic footage taken during the May 18th demonstration. The museum honors democracy fights all over the world - and its very inspiring.
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| One of many sculptures depicting fights for freedom |
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| Buddha statues |
Outside of the city is a place called Unjusa - a temple site known for its 1000 buddhas and 1000 pagodas. It dates from 827. Supposedly the many buddhas were built to "balance" the mountains on the eastern side of Korea
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| Buddha Lying Down |
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| More Buddhas |
We took a hike up the mountain to view the various buddhas on the grounds....
and over to see inside some of the temple, where we had tea inside a little gift shop.
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| Buddhist Chipmunk |
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| Mike getting ready to ring Temple bell |
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| Inside the Temple |
