Holiday Adventures (Part II)

Hello gang,

Here's the next installment of photos and such from my trip down into Andong. Our first stop was the ancient village of Hahoe, and we spent a good chunk of the there, but we also visited several other ancient places. The first of these was a traditional Confucian study place or academy. Of all the places we stopped, this was the one I enjoyed the most. It was just such a neat part of the natural beauty there. It was a wooden building that overlooked the river, so there was an incredible feeling of relaxation. It was just kinda moving to be in a place that you knew hundreds of people had studied at for centuries. Check it out...

The next significant historical place we visited was a Buddhist temple at Mt. ChunDeung in Andong. This was quite a trek up to the actual temple. I asked why they built the temples in such hard to reach places. I was soon told that this was done intentionally so that the religion could be practiced without the influence of the city or society. So I guess, it's kinda like how monasteries are built away from any real civilization in order to prevent a wordly influence. Anyway, the temple itself was quite beautiful. Apparently, one of the buildings on the site was the oldest remaining wooden structure in all of Korea. There were even some practicing Buddhists at one of the buildings, which made it much more real. Cool place for sure...again...such a sense of history.

Alright, I've having a little trouble adding more photos here. So, enjoy what you can!

Keep it real out there, kay?

-Paul