For this trip, we went to Gyeongju - the capital of the Silla Dynasty (which lasted about 900 years from 57BC - 935AD). My friend Veronica had done all the planning so I didn't really know much about it until I finally googled "Gyeongju" the night before. The first thing that peaked my interest were the tombs. Korean tombs are distinguished by the large earthy mounds that are formed over top of them. They look like small rolling hills but actually house deceased Silla royalty. Along with the tombs, Gyeongju is full of historic sites such as the palace, temples, and an ancient observatory that also acted as a sundial.
The observatory
Yes, those little hills are tombs.
The Palace.
The beginning of our five day weekend, I spent deep-cleaning my apartment, bike-riding, and relaxing with friends around Chuncheon. Sundays are always really busy here since I have church, Korean class, and the occasional Writer's group or book club meeting all back-to-back. So I ended up packing Sunday morning because I'm a shameless procrastinator - a half-hour before leaving for church. After church and Korean class, Veronica, Brittney, and I booked it for the train station to get to Seoul and, from there, on to Gyeongju.
We had a bit of a scare when we arrived at our train and found our tickets missing from Veronica's folder. I looked at my watch and we had two minutes to spare so I ran like a maniac toward the escalator. Just as I was about to reach it, the train signaled it was going to leave so I sprinted back and we all decided in that split-second to get on anyway. It turned out okay, since we still had our receipt with us and someone had called ahead to tell the conductor they'd found our lost tickets. Koreans are such good people.
When we got to Gyeongju, it was really late so we walked around the city to get our bearings and then went to bed. Our hostel was awesome. The owner's a ponytail guy who likes to ride his motorcycle all over the world. His English was so-so but he told us he's trying to learn a little Spanish for his next trip across South America. We taught him a little survival Spanish during our stay. He was pretty hilarious. Way into Avengers and told us he is Korean Thor.
The next day, we did our big excursion to the palace and the temple:
Our walk to the bus.
The gardens.
I just really like roofs.
A Buddhist relic that was taken and eventually returned by the Japanese.
Wishing stones. This is a tradition we see everywhere on hiking trails or near temples. The idea is to place a stone or pebble on top of another and if it doesn't fall, your wish will come true. I've seen some crazy physic-defying towers like these.
The Grotto
'
Ringing the bell at the grotto. I have another picture of me jumping away like a little scaredy-cat because it made a big noise. -___-
The trail leading to the temple
Inside the temple was a giant granite Buddha. Cameras weren't allowed but, I promise, it was cool.
That night, we raced back to our hostel to join a night tour. We'd been told by our Korean teacher that seeing some of the historical sites at night was major highlight of Gyeongju. We were surprised to be the only foreigners in the little tour group but a few of the girls with us spoke English and did their best to fill us in on what the guide was saying.
This was built in honor of an old legend. It took us a while to figure out the story because the English version on the sign was a little vague. But apparently this pond was the setting where a King was warned by an old man to follow a crow. When he did, he discovered the Queen and a monk hatching a plot to kill them and, after being instructed to shoot arrows at an instrument case, found them both dead inside it. Kind of a strange story.
We enjoyed (maybe not the right word) a wild ride up to the top of a mountain to catch this view of the city at night. Our guide seemed to know the road REALLY well because he drove like a madman. I most definitely thought I was gonna die.
To end the night, our guide set up this nice little bonfire which we used to heat up water for some Ramen. We snacked, had a nice chat with our new Korean friends, I peed in the woods, it was all good fun. We got to practice some Korean when we went around the group introducing ourselves. The group seemed impressed but I'm pretty sure they were just humoring us.
The next day, we decided to take it easy since we'd had a full day Monday. So we rented some bikes from our hostel and cruised around the city.
This was my favorite tomb right near our hostel on a random street corner.
Bike bike bike.
Nothing goes together like rape and canola.
The most artsy-insta-hipster-can'teven-greenteafrappe photo ever taken
I spy some hoodlums.
The tombs are EVERYWHERE.
One of the tombs had been excavated so you could go inside. Here's us about to go in.
I can't tell you how many little kids I had to dodge in these.
Confucian village.
Everything in this city has been built in the traditional style. Including the gas station and, of course, Starbucks.
Yes, I'm a dork who ties my jacket around my waist. But all the cool Koreans were doing it.
We spent the day wandering through the tomb park and enjoying some Korean street food and little cafes. Gyeongju is famous for a specific kind of bread, which we each bought a box of to share with our schools. Of course, I lost my credit card and my foreign ID so I'll have some fun field trips with Mr. Hwang next week trying to replace them. But, the trip was definitely worth it.
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