Saturday, February 9th,
2013 – Sunday, February 10th, 2013
I left my apartment
at 8:30am to start my journey to a city outside of Busan called Gyeongju. Aimee and I took the train from Busan
at 9:40am and around 11:00am we arrived at our destination!
At the train station!
Gyeongju is a small
city about an hour outside of Busan and it is known to have a lot of culture
and historical sites that are worth making the journey to visit.
We had a list of
things we were curious to see but things didn’t exactly go according to
plan. We had a great weekend
regardless!
We had a bike trip in
mind for our first day in Gyeongju, but then we could not find our hostel
anywhere, we were lost, wandering the small city for an hour and half! The hostel did not answer their phone
at first, in our search, we got directed to a hotel and a guesthouse but could
not find our hostel. The Koreans
in this city were very friendly and we tried to communicate with them but it that
led us to just walk around in circles.
It wasn’t until we finally got in touch with the hostel that we found
our accommodation! The hostel was
in a little alley off a main road so although both Aimee and I both don't have the best sense of direction, I am not sure how it would have been possible for us find
this place on your own. But, we
made it, and the owner of the hostel was extremely cool!
Our hostel, it was really cosy and warm inside and the bathroom was outside.
One of Aimee’s
co-workers has a friend who lives in Gyeongju. Her co-worker was going to come with us originally but had
to cancel. She said we should
still meet her friend. That friend
called us while we were lost and said he would like to join us for our bike
tour. Again, because of another
miscommunication, we were not able to meet the friend because we had a wrong number.
Eventually, we
started walking and exploring ourselves because the bike shop was closed.
We went to a small temple, which we almost got lost finding again! We also went to visit four royal tombs
before calling it a day. It
was also freezing cold outside all day so we were ready to warm up a bit! We figured we should come back one day to do the bike trip in the Spring when all of the flowers are in bloom.
Bunhwangsa Temple
That stone is from year 634
The tombs (we saw these all around the city when we first arrived and were wondering what they were and why perfect hills were all over the city). Kings and Queens are buried inside the tombs.
We got information on
the correct number for our friend of a friend named Eguelson from Haiti and
contacted him and apologized and asked if we could make it up to him and take
him out for dinner with us!
Our plans worked out
this time! We went out for Korean
BBQ and then we went to our first Nori Bong after!! Nori – Bong can be translated to Singing Room. You rent a room and sing karaoke with
your friends for a couple of hours and have the full control of the songs! We had so much fun; we stayed for the
maximum time you can stay. Eguelson
is an experienced Nori Bonger and was so enthusiastic and loves singing and
dancing, Aimee and I were singing our hearts out too, so our day turned out
pretty good in the end!
The next day we
played it safe and booked an actual Gyeongju bus tour!
We went to:
Poseokjeongsite Site: kings played drinking games here! The circular tunnel is filled with water and they had to say the next verse of a poem before the next drink floated to them through the tunnel. If they didn't finish on time they had to chug the drink and if they did finish the next time they took a sip.
Daereungwon Tomb Park: One of the tombs was open for viewing. On the inside is a giant wood casket, covered with rocks and then covered with a think layer of dirt.
The royalty are buried with their crown and valuables
If the hills has two bumps, that means a king and queen are probably both buried there, also, the bigger the hill the more important that king was!
Cheomseongdae
Obervatory: Oldest observatory in
Asia.
East Palace and Moon
Pond: Huge palace, which had many
buildings and a beautiful man-made pond surrounding it.
What is used to look like
Seokguram
Grotto: Incredible Buddha that
survived Japanese invasion and is hidden up the in the mountains halfway
underground!
I paid 1000 Won to ring the giant bell; it is meant to be for mercy.
Bulguksa Temple: Large Temple also up in the mountains
with many rooms, most rooms have a Buddha statue in the middle for visitors to worship.
I bought some art from
Bulguksa Temple to bring home with me and to support the Buddhist monks who are
still practicing at the Temple and live up in the mountains. I bought it partly because of the
message attached to it.
We had a Korean man
who wanted to translate for us throughout the tour, and he bought us a coffee
after we left to the tour to say goodbye!
We also tried traditional bread, which has red bean paste in the middle
and was delicious!
Green Tea Latte and Traditional Red Bean Bread
Making the traditional bread
Eguelson met us for
dinner again after the tour. Since
it was a holiday Sunday, we had a lot of trouble finding a decent restaurant
that was still open. We eventually
ate and caught our train back to Busan!
