Bongeunsa Temple and Cherry Blossoms in Yeouido

I meet up with friends and we visited Bongeunsa 봉근사, a Buddist temple in Gangnam 강남 and across from COEX Mall. A little back history: It was built in 794, reconstructed in 1498, mostly destroyed by fire in 1939 and then later in the Korean War in the early 1950s. Now it has been mostly restored and is a large tourist destination spot.

For someone who's not even Buddhist I took tons of pictures. Perhaps I was just overly eager to share and also it was a beautiful day. It finally felt like spring!

Spring flowers and cherry blossoms along the road, just outside of Gangnam Station 강남 역

Display of large Buddhist figures...I think these might be entrance door gods?? (By the way, you can see me in the reflection, keke.)

Entering the temple. You kind of get an idea of how spacious the temple grounds are since this is just the walkway to enter.

The temple actually consists of several buildings. Sorry I was quite clueless and can't tell you what each building was since I just wandered around.

There must have been some special event because there were tons of people there...but again, no clue and my friends who took me there were also clueless. XP

Now this is more like it...my more picturesque scene of spring in Seoul!

Inside of a smaller building with more figures and a golden Buddha figure.

You can see the painted murals on the walls.

Pretty ceiling.

Spring flowers, spring flowers! 봄 꽃

Huge, huuuuuuge Buddha stone statute. My camera didn't quite capture the grandness of its scale but you can kind of image from seeing how small people look in the pictures.

Ahahahaha I'm not ready for an obligatory tourist picture of me. XP

Statue to the side of the large Buddha statue complex. There was also a dragon statute nearby, but no idea why I didn't take a picture of it. I guess because once you see an Asian stone statute of a dragon, you've kind of seen them all. (I see them at the Asian malls here, keke.)

Temple Bell...why did I not know this was a temple bell at the time so that I could have gone closer for a picture? Oh yeah, because we were on our way out and friends were already walking way ahead of me. Tourist woes. (jk)

On our way out.

Stream with big fishie.

We headed  across the street from COEX Mall for a lunch. Someone came up with the idea of eating...fast food for lunch since they had plans for dinner at a Chinese American restaurant, which I passed on (Chinese American food in Seoul? thanks, but no thanks). I shared a chili cheese dog and poutine fries. This is probably the most un-Korean food I ate in Seoul, keke.

Afterwards I picked up some strawberry pastries at Paris Baguette. I really liked Paris Baguette in Seoul. I've been to a couple here in Cali since and so far, it's just not quite the same (still good but much less variety).

Strawberry and whipped cream pastries and custard cups, mmm yummy.

Drool-worthy cake selection! I must have one...or two...or three of those the next time I'm in Korea, kekeke.

After our brief stop at COEX Mall, we went to Yeouido 여의도 (Yeoui Island) at the Han River for the Cherry Blossom Festival. My friends wanted to sit and have a little picnic of snacks on the field in front of the National Assembly Building 국회의사당.

*cough* not enough cherry blossoms *cough, cough*

Truthfully, I was a little disappointed since I didn't see a whole lot of cherry blossoms. Spring arrived late in Seoul and a lot of the trees were barren. I'd read afterwards that there were street foods etc. but I didn't get to see or try any the festival because it was very, very crowded so my friends didn't want to walk around. It also got a bit chilly so we left to part ways for dinner.

On the bright side, I did get to see more cherry blossoms before I left Seoul! I still have more posts to share from Seoul, but I'm going to try to pace them out with my usual blog posts so that it won't be too monotonous. Unfortunately, my computer's been painfully slow so I need to add more memory. Hopefully that will happen this week, otherwise, Seoul posts might be the only ones that I can readily post until then. 마안! (Sorry!)