Tori McNally: Another Saturday.

So I decide to explore the Dongnimmun area where there are temples, murals and a fortress wall. The directions I have though failed me as soon as I got off the subway. They told me to go left, but left would be into oncoming traffic. I went right and then wandered up and down very large hills, allies and markets. I never found everything I was suppose to see, but I saw more then I expected.

I don't even know what Buddhist temple this is. It was not the one I was looking for, but It was amazing. I never seen paintings like these at any other temples so far. The Buddha was carved into a large rock and then a structure built out of it to house it.

You can see the larger rock behind the structure on which the Buddha is carved.

Real live Koreans.

Dirty watering holes with brushes and bowls.

This is the first time that I saw the wood of the temples form into a dragon's head.

Roof tiles.

Shrine door.

The Buddha carved onto the rock. It took forever to get a picture of it. Koreans don't really move and this one particular lady stood in front of it forever taking photos. For the most part they don't have the whole tactful sightseeing thing down. Stand in line, view, snap a few photos and the MOVE. The worst part about Korea is how often you get cut in front of in line. It's unreal and infuriating.

Obscenely big crosses at every turn.

Every neighborhood seems to have their own main street market set behind the busy populated streets. The markets seem to be within the Korean houses and set back from where the street traffic and foreigners. When I walk through them sometimes I feel like people are staring at me. Like wow their is a white person here. It is weird to be a minority.

View as I walk farther up the hill. I don't know what all the yellow things on the roof are. I just noticed them this day.

The houses are built into the hill.

The top of a Buddhist temple built against the hill I was walking up.

A view of the fortress wall I am walking alongside up the hill.

Random, communal work out equipment. They only had ten pound weights. I don't think Koreans could lift anything heavier.

You can see Seoul Tower way in the back on the left.

View out from a window on the fortress wall.

The hundreds of apartment buildings in the background were the majority of Seoul's population lives.

More work out equipment. This is one of those things you hang up side down from. My dad has one at home. I think it is kind of a weird piece of equipment to have in the middle of the park.

On the other side of the fortress wall there is a whole old style town set in the hill. It is full of color and murals.

House number.

One of the first murals I stumbled upon in Ithwa-dong Byeokha (wall painting) Town, was these wings. There were many narrow allies and the murals are hidden with in them and you have to walk through the maze of streets to find them.

The umbrella curtain?

Seoul in itself has basically no graffiti or street art, so this town was extremely different from anything I have seen before. Beyond the street art, it had an actual old city feel different from any other part I visited, as well. This was one of my favorite mini explorations.

Kids in their Tae-kwon-do uniforms.

Ledge-side garden. There is a woman on the far right corner gardening.

This little statue scared the crap out of me.

Random little rock shrine. This the best part about Seoul, you never really know what you are going to stumble upon.

This mural was my favorite. It didn't look like much to me at first, I only noticed the fisherman at first. Then I saw the whole cityscape second. The angles of the red pipe sort of played with the angles of the buildings in the mural. Then the peeling of the paint sort of looked like a continuation of the painted clouds.

This was some crazy decorated barber shop called HAIR CENTA.

A random view I stumbled upon, while walking through the city.

The amazing ceiling in the cut out of where that view was.

The folk museum, which is another free, modern museum with free literature and amazing exhibits.

Random Korean girls that came up to me and Kelly and wanted to get a photo with us. I declined, but Kelly jumped right in. Later, in Insadong, we were approached by younger Korean girls in high school. They asked us random questions from a survey they created that barely made any sense then took our picture. It happens a lot. They do it for homework assignments to get high school kids to speak English.

A Korean Beatles album.

Always with the colorful changing lights in a museum, on the streets, everywhere.

This statement is false. It was a stupid phone charm.

These are paintings from various galleries in the Insadong area.

This was my favorite painting of the day.

I never realized how far I was from home until I saw this sign. I always thought for some reason I was 8,000 miles away, but turns out I am just about exactly halfway around the world at a little over 11,000 miles away. I was just talking about going home the other day and how much of a process it is going to be. A full day, three planes and jet lag. It is going to totally suck.