This year, Korean New Year was on 1st February. It’s called Seollal, and people mostly use it to spend time with family. We had time off from school as there were three ‘Red Days’ (basically bank holidays – they’re called Red Days here because that’s how they are marked in diaries, calendars and planners). The days off were Monday – Wednesday so I had five days off in total, and so I decided to make the most of them and try to see more of Korea. My first stop was to Gyeongju.
Gyeongju is a historic city in the south of Korea. It’s full of temples, ruins, tombs and palace ruins, and has the nickname ‘the museum without walls’ because there’s so many historical things to see there. I flew down from Seoul airport on the saturday morning, and judging from the airport queues, everyone in Korea was travelling somewhere! Luckily I had gotten to the airport very early. I flew down to Busan (Korea’s second city) and then headed to the bus station to hop over to Gyeongju. As you many know, I’m a big planner, but with the stress of work and just feeling a bit overwhelmed generally I’d decided to wing it and just get a bus when I got there. This was a bit of a mistake as the next bus with available seats wasn’t for another 4.5 hours! But I cafe hopped for a little while and took a much-needed rest before taking my seat on the bus, and imagined I was in an SK version of ‘Race Across the World’.
When I got to Gyeongju it was already getting dark and I was feeling frustrated with myself. However, onwards and upwards. I rushed across the city to the museum which I’d read was open til 9pm. I wasn’t so sure about the place as it was dark and empty and I couldn’t see much going on. And once I got to the museum, it turned out I’d even read that wrong! Feeling dejected, I decided to walk the other way around the park so I could at least get more fresh air (I didn’t want to keep walking along the big main road). And completely by accident, I stumbled across this bridge beautifully lit up and covered in people taking photos.
Next to this was the little collection of historic houses, loads of shops and restaurants, and then behind these were the huge burial mounds that the city is famous for. These are all tombs of royal tombs from the 4th and 5th centuries, and they were very atmospherically lit up at night-time. In the morning, they also seem to be the meeting point for exercising people!
More on the tombs later. On Sunday morning I got up and took the tourist bus over to Bulguksa temple. It’s about a 30 minute bus ride from the city, but it’s one of the most popular and touristy things to do here. It’s also a Unesco World Cultural Heritage site. There were lots and lots of visitors here.
I walked past the four guardians at the entrance then explored the temple further.
There are two national treasure bridges/staircases which represent the journey to enlightenment. You aren’t allowed to walk on them but you can take pictures!
Temples have several halls for prayer and ceremonies, often housing beautiful and big statues of Buddha. Photography is prohibited inside but you can take photos of the buildings etc. As you can see, the buildings are usually painted in bright and striking colours.
And again, there were thousands of colourful lanterns to celebrate the new year.
The next site to visit is Seokguram, which is at the top of the mountains behind the temple. I did the hike up (it took around an hour) to visit. On the way up is this bell which you could queue to have a go at ringing. It was quite atmospheric hearing the sounds as I trekked up.
From the bell I took the winding path around the outside of the mountain to Seokguram, which is another Unesco-listed site. Here, there’s a Buddha sitting in a grotto/cave, at the top of the mountain. Again, no photography of the Buddha, but it’s inside this little building that sits looking over the beautiful valley views.
Then back down the mountain and I got some lunch – a delicious hot stone bibimbap with lots of side dishes (side dishes are called ‘banchan’). The bibimbap is a rice dish with lots of vegetables, meat, chilli sauce and egg. It is served inside a hot stone dish with a raw egg on top – when you stir it all together the dish cooks the egg and it tastes delicious. The meal looked beautiful and healthy on the tray, and it was one of my favourite things I’ve eaten in Korea so far.
Then the bus back to Gyeongju. I accidentally left my hat on the bus but managed to get it back (honestly I don’t know what’s wrong with me. So far I have lost my hat, bank card and glasses. Twice!). I explored the city and found that the empty space I had worried about the day before was actually palace ruins! I visited the park again and saw dozens of families flying kites.
My guidebook mentioned that the park was a beautiful place to visit at sunset, and the book was not wrong.
I also tried some ‘Gyeongju bread’, little red-bean-filled buns with a distinctive stamped top. Kind of tasty, but I probably didn’t need 10! (It was the smallest amount you could buy).
The next morning I visited the burial mounds and it was very peaceful.
There are over 100 of them in the city but only a handful have been excavated, and there’s only one you can go inside. It’s called Cheonmachong, which means heavenly horse tomb, because there was a painting of a flying white horse found inside it. The tomb was for an unknown king and thousands of objects have been excavated from it, including an incredible gold crown. And look at the shoes!
It was really fun being a tourist and feeling like I was having a bit of a holiday. The week at school had been really stressful because we did a class where the parents came to watch the teaching. It was very intense and a bit much for only my fourth week of being a teacher! So the break was much needed. And I was only half way through. Next stop, Busan!
To see more pictures, you can look at my albums for Bulguksa and Seokguram, and for Gyeongju.
Songs of Travel 