Day trip to Gyeongju (aka Kyungju)

Last week, my friend Tina and I had planned on going on a trip to Gyeongju. Then we realized with lack of money, maybe we should just do a day trip. Now she is sick. But i decided I still wanted to go. I believe this is our longest national holiday all year, so I wanted to have something to show for it. When I told one of the Korean teachers at my school that I was going to go alone, she offered to go with me. So that made things a bit more exciting :)
Sonny and I headed for Gyeonju on Tuesday morning around 11. Took the 20 minute bus to Nopo-dong and then the 1 hour bus to Gyeongju. Thank God she is Korean cause Gyeongju wasn't THAT english friendly. There was some stuff but not a lot. We arrived at the bus terminal and it was a bit cooler than Seochang. Gyeongju is a very old city. Many of the buildings are set more in a traditional korean style (see picture on the left). As we set out on our journey, we passed a very popular amusement park and water park... and yes the water park was called California Beach. I just thought that was very funny.
Sonny and I both decided that the first thing we wanted to do was to see a temple. The Bulguksa Temple specifically. We took the bus ride up and around the city and hills, until we arrived. As we were taking the bus ride, we noticed that there was still a lot of snow left in Gyeongju. In Seochang, we had 2 days of snow, and it was all gone and melted now. Here there were still many patches, there were still semi-frozen lakes, and and it was still snowing just a little bit. Neither of us counted on this. We actually thought it may be a little bit warmer! I had bought a new pair of boots the day before and i was very excited to wear them... so I did. Needless to say, when we arrived at the temple, the ouside area was covered in mud and ice. My new boots barely survivied. They definitely had a big mess on the bottoms (that i had fun cleaning off later). Bulguksa Temple was beautiful (once we hiked up a big hill). The picture on the left was the entrance. Once we got into the main courtyard area, this statue (on the right) as well as another statue in the shape of a tower stood next to each other. The theory behind it is that the
Beophwagyeong preached side by side together to spread the word of their religion/doctorine. The Temple was painted so elaborately. The detail and color used is amazing. Reminds me a lot of the 'awe' i experienced with some of the European cathedrals. It is amazing when you see the whole thing decorated in tiny detail. The temple itself, you are not allowed to take pictures of inside. But there was a big Buddha statue, and other smaller gold statues beside him. They were all holding up a symbol with their hands that was a meditation type symbol where the ring finger and thumb come together. I think I need to do more research on Buddha and learn more about the symbolism. There were many paths to take that lead to different statues, drums, rooms, etc. Even though they all had a tiny blurb about what they were all about, I wish they had guided tours. Those always seem to be so informative. I'm going to have to look into that. The picture on the drum is just a nice view of the roof tops of some of the traditional Korea buildings (and my friend/co-worker Sonny). On the right, are tons and tons of tiny towers built from rocks, obviously by people like me. Sonny said that people build them as a sign of good luck on their families. I am pretty sure there is a structural theory behind that (hence the Christmas tree shape). Of course, I made one, but I wasn't as picky at my perfect shape and rock formation... it was cold! So yea, that's my little tinky tower on the right :)
As we walked out of the temple, we were approached by this little old lady.. Hazuma, that said she has food and to come into her restaurant. So we followed her over... we were starving. But we ordered a few dishes and they were really good! I ate crab and shrimp with the shell still on for the first time. I figured since it was just crab and shrimp, I'd eat that normally anyway. Koreans eat it with the shell... nutritional value. Then we had like a stir-fry type dish of some veggies, mushrooms, in a soy sauce type sauce. It was DELICIOUS! And then more soup that had rice cake and seafood in it, kimchi, seaweed stuff, and some kind of root (it was kinda sweet... good!). My tummy was happy. I just want to point out the 'hangover soup.' I dont know what's in it but I will let you know lol. I think it's funny.
After lunch, we took a bus to the Gyeongju National Museum. I thought it may be closed due to the holiday, but Sonny thought it would be open... I was correct. It was still very beautiful outside and we walked around a bit. After, we took a walk thru this park area where apparently they do theatre sometimes. On the other side of the park, I saw these big hills. I asked Sonny, what they were and she said that they were Kings tombs. The bigger the tomb, the bigger the King (not fat or tall but a big deal type thing). I have informed my family that when I die, I would like to be mummified... however this may change my mind. I like this tomb concept :)
Then lastly Sonny and I went to this... thing. It was used to look at the stars... astronomy thing. Very old. Kinda cool the way they explained it. After this, we walked over to get some bread (I guess Gyeongju is famous for a certain kind of bread). Sonny gave me some and it was ok... has some kind of red bean something in the middle. Not bad but not great. So that was my trip to Gyeongoju!