may day in jinju

We headed out last Saturday morning for Jinju. A friend had told me about the "castle" there and it sounded like a nice excursion for the day. It only took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and the city was on a pretty river with people paddle boating. I say "castle" because it is called such but it is really a fortress that was heavily used in the 1500's during the Japanese Invasion.The grounds were exquisite with pavilions,
temples (I just love all the colors and detailed painting on the temples here),

and a museum. It was a beautiful day for strolling the grounds. Alot of Koreans were quite friendly. We are used to children saying hello to us but we also had various adults "talking" to us. Which is quite nice when you are definitely the minority.

After Ken asked a young girl at the museum where McDonald's was, we headed there for lunch. Remember the rule - whenever there is a McDonald's in a foreign town, you HAVE to eat there! Just kidding. Afterwards, we wandered up a street opposite the fortress that was lined with rock statuary, some of it huge. There were Buddhas of course, lanterns, urns, etc. We also happened upon a wonderful shop that had alot of wooden furniture and doors. Ken and I thought how great it would be to buy one of the doors and put it in our (future) house in the U.S. Something to think about. I eventually will buy a lantern or something. I also saw some large carvings of figures I was interested in but that shop was closed. We will return to visit more of Jinju.