Thousands of Words

Lo these many months ago, I said rash things. Vast overstatements of the intimacy of my relationship with phones and cameras and the internet. Promises were made, only to be dashed on the rocks of my photographic ineptitude.
Today, however, is a day of great rejoicing, for I have slain the Blue-toothed dragon and retrieved photographic evidence that I am not actually making this all up from a basement apartment I secretly live in. I couldn't really figure out where these shots should go into previous entries, so I'm just going to dump a bunch of them with little explanations of what they are. From now on, I will try to be more orderly.

This particular photo dump will be from vacation with Mom in Busan:

This is a night view of the beach we stayed on, Haeundae (해운대). We had great timing which landed us in the midst of our vacation just during monsoon season, so we did not compete with anyone for this space, which is the most popular beach in a popular beach town. Admittedly, for beaching in high beach fashion, we might have chosen a different time, but it was lovely and uncrowded.

This is the stream/waterfall you cross to get to Beomeosa (버머사), a temple in Busan to which we went. It's pretty high up on a mountain, which you climb in a rickety bus on a very narrow road, so you are glad to get to the top and have a place specially designed for the finding of peace! One thing I'm particularly sorry I couldn't seem to get a shot of is the population of magpies. They have an ignominious reputation and name, but they are very pretty birds, and they were flitting all through here, far too fast for my phone camera to capture or do justice to them.

This is the view from the top of Beomeosa, looking at surrounding mountains of about the same height. The roofs (of which I got more pictures, but with which I shall not bore you) were straight out of the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I kept looking across them, hoping to spot a gravity-defying ninja type monk. I didn't see any (but that just means they're doing it right).

This is a frog doorstop at the temple. It is hard to see, but it looks very happy and expectant, just as you'd want someone to look who's holding a door for you. Sadly, the door in question has a painting of a ferocious, sword-wielding demon on it, so it's a bit of a mixed message, but I don't consider that the frog's fault.