January 7th through the 10th I spent a nice weekend with my friends in the ancient capital of Gyeongju!
My two friends Deniz and Verena whom I met through the Korea University buddy hunt have proven to be some of my closest friends. I was worried that I would not be able to budget this trip in but it worked out favorably!
First, we rented a very nice traditional Korean home (한옥,hanok is what the clay-tiled traditional homes are called). The place had many rooms rented out, but we have a private bathroom and bedroom. Also, we slept on the floor with floor mattresses because of the traditional floor heating. The warmth was amazing, but the walls were thin enough to hear others snoring around us or talking. It was a nice place to stay for 3 nights for roughly $70 per person. Also, there was a shared kitchen with coffee and toast, and by toast I mean they provided bread but no butter, so we were a little sad.
Deniz was the one who planned the trip because she knew the most about Gyeongju, on our three-hour train ride to get there we picked the few things we wanted to achieve while were there. This trip was all about history and relaxation. So after our first night's sleep, we got up at 9 and started the day with some plain toast and went to the royal tombs. There are many tall mounds in Korea but I have never seen any this big here. I am not sure what religion the specific burial type stems from but the park was very serene. You walk between 15-meter tall mounds that have many treasures and secrets within. You are also able to tour the inside of one of them, we could see the artifacts that they were buried with and the structure of the tomb.
After the tombs, we went to the ancient astronomy tower that may be the oldest one of its kind in the world! It is cool because it is famous but there was not much else to see. At this time we were hungry so we found an amazing Italian place I had spicy beef pasta and somehow survived.
At the conclusion of the day, we went into a traditional part of town where there is only hanok. There was an old school ground and a famous bridge. As posted above the bridge is one of the best things I have ever seen. We were there for evening and night and took pictures until our camera and phones died. It was the prettiest thing I have ever seen in Korea. WOW I still think of it now.... This was the highlight of the trip.
The next day we went to the famous temple of the Silla dynasty in Korea, Bulguksa temple was huge and had many buddha statues and was magnificently built. We then went to a famous palace with a pond but it was under construction and was not all that I had hoped it would be. Still, it was fun to see these places that I had seen so many photos of.
To wrap up the trip we went to a culture park early on Monday morning and saw a nine-story pagoda that was rebuilt after it was destroyed. Everything we saw was a memento from Silla times almost 2000 years ago. History lives on through Gyeongju and I am so happy that my friends and I got to enjoy it together.
I had my Korean class in a Starbucks that day and it went surprisingly well!