Gyeongju, South Korea

Alright, so on Tuesday it was a holiday here in S.K. I believe it was memorial day. It was nice to have a mid-week holiday, I could handle having a few more of those! Anyways, instead of just hanging around Daegu doing the things I usually do, I decided to head to Gyeongju with Carey. I'm very very glad I did.

Alright so Gyeongju was the original capital of Korea and the Silla Dynasty for 1000 years. It is really easy for us to access from Daegu, eq. of 3 dollar, 1 hour bus ride. We went around noon with full intentions of just staying for a few hours.. 10 later, we dragged our asses home. I loved Gyeongju because I felt like I was either in another country or back in time.

The first pic is of Tumuli Park, which is a collection of Silla Tombs. Here there are 23 of 200 tombs in Gyeongju.

Pic number two is of Cheomseongdae Observatory which is apparantly the earliest known observatory in existance. (7th century)
This is a little bridge we found just outside Tumuli Park. I love bridges, can't explain it..
This pic is taken at Anapji pond. This is the place where the Silla royal family hung out. I think Anapji means place for the ducks and geese.. something to do with ducks and geese.. Apparantly they drained the pond in 1974 and found a crapload of treasures.
This is outside the pong as well. These pics are actually moving backwards, so at this time we are hot, dusty and tired, as you can see.

Again, the pond.
Carey, with her child sized umbrella outside the entrance of the pond.

Here are some kids who loved us at Seokguram Grotto. Since it was a holiday there were some kids tour groups here. Gyeongju is a smaller city with less foreigners so we got much more attention here than in Daegu. "Hello, how are you? I am fine, and you? Nice to meet you!"

Still the Grotto. It is a shrine to Buddha which overlooks the East Sea. No pics of Buddha though, not allowed.

Still the Grotto. She was cute.

Entrance to the Grotto, checking out the city.


So this was right after we visited Bulguksa Temple. Carey made me wear this hat that she bought. We had 50 minutes to kill before we had to catch our bus to the Grotto so we decided to get some food.


So as we are heading towards this Korean restaurant, this Korean lady comes up to us asking us if we are hungry. We say yes, and thinking that she's going to take us into the restaurant, we follow her. She then takes us down the street to her restaurant I guess, which isn't much more than a hole in the wall. She hands us the menu, where we place our order but she rejects it. Tells us that we have to get the above food and that it was delicious. We put up a bit of a fight but then just gave up. There is not point in fighting with an Ajumma, you will always lose.

Here I am walking around Bulguksa Temple. It is one of the best known temples in Korea. Most of it has been rebuilt over time due to fires and destruction by the Japanese, but all the pagodas and stairways are original.

Behind a little temple at Bulguksa.
Bulguksa as well. The weather was perfect for this trip. Hot, but not too hot.. and not too sunny.


This is the 'female' pagoda.

Here is the 'male' counterpart.




There's Carey.






Here is some bondegi! This is right outside the entrance to Bulguksa. Bondegi means silk worm, in Korean. I will never eat this.. the smell is not so good and I have a thing against eating bugs. Come on, you all know I'm not adventurous when it comes to food.. I won't eat a steak, I definitely won't eat bugs.

So, a very good day. I always feel productive when I see new things, and a sense of accomplishment when I manage to navigate myself through a new city. If you knew my sense of direction you would understand.

2 more work days until the weekend.. AND around 7 more weeks till I'm home!