Summer Vacation

Oldest astronomical observatory in Asia

Lotus Flowers

My room at the guesthouse

Hangover Soup

Bulguska Temple

Outside the Grotto

Roof tiles with messages from around the world

My instructor with my final product

Ok, I'm just going to force myself to write an entire post with the highlights of my summer vacation. After taking in the fireworks festival in Pohang, my friends and I departed. They returned to Seoul and I continued on the rest of my journey by myself. I have to say that there is something amazingly exhilarating about travelling by yourself. It also makes for some hilarious experiences.

The next leg of my journey led me to Gyeongju. The city's motto is, "An Open Air Museum." It turned out this is pretty true. There were royal tombs that dated back to 600 BC. These tombs are the final resting place of the royalty of the Silla dynasty-the first ruler of Korea many, many years ago. The tombs were rather beautiful. They looked like giant hills but they were so simple and green.

Royal Tombs in Tumuli Park Anjapi Pond

I saw the oldest observatory in Asia. The Anapji Ponds were also a stop on the journey. I read my book and watched the sunset fall over this beautiful garden that used to be the vacation get away for the royalty of the Silla dynasty. After walking through many of the beautiful gardens, I decided to call it a night and head to my accommodation.

I stayed at an amazing traditional Korean guesthouse. By traditional Korean, they mean sleeping on the floor in a small room. The doors were made of thin pieces of wood covered in oiled paper. It had been updated to the extent that there was a bathroom and electricity. The hosts of the guest house were an older couple that loved hosting travelers. They provided breakfast each morning, sat around the campfire with us at night and made traditional crafts. It was a great experience! I've come to almost enjoy sleeping on the floor! I paid 60,000 won for 3 nights (around $45-$50).

My second day I sat out to explore some of the religious sights. I left the guesthouse in search of some breakfast. Gyeongju is a fairly small town and hasn't been tainted too much with the desire to become "Western." I was wandering down the street and this little, old halmoney (Korean grandmother) took my hand and led me into her restaurant. I figured what the heck I'll give it a go. There were 3 items on the menu so I asked her in my very, very broken Korean which one was delicious and of course she pointed to the most expensive one. By expensive I mean 5,000 won ($3.00). I told her okay and she got my meal started. I started reading the Korean characters and recognized the word soup. I thought, "Okay, fair enough. Soup isn't my choice for breakfast but Koreans love it so it must be good." Then it occurred to me that the travel brochure said that Gyeongju is famous for their "Hangover Soup" street. I began to get an uneasy feeling so I broke out my guide book and sounded out the Korean for the meal that had just been presented to me. Sure enough, my breakfast of champions was you guessed it, Hangover Soup. It might not sound so bad but here's the ingredients, pork spine, coagulated blood and some vegetables. I ate the broth and vegetables which were pretty decent but then the halmoney came over and showed me how to pick the meat of the spine. I tried it but the texture of this stuff was just not right. I ate my rice and while she was outside sweeping the sidewalk, I stuffed all of the pork spine under one of the side dishes, so it looked like I had eaten more than I actually did and walked outside and presented her with the money. She was really adorable and I didn't want to hurt her feelings.

(Side note-the formatting for this blog is really irritating me so I'm going to upload all of the photos to the top of the blog and put captions on them. My patience is running thin).

I then took a bus up to Bulguska Temple which is a Buddhist temple that was built in 751 BC and was destroyed during the Japanese invasions of the 1500's. It has restored been restored to its original glory. There are many Buddhist relics and many, many giant Buddha statues. Unfortunately, you are only allowed to take pictures of the buildings. The temple sits way up in the mountains and the drive/hike up is very beautiful and scenic. It almost made me feel like I was back home in the Colorado mountains. This temple is the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.

I took a bus to the Seokguram Grotto which is a giant Buddha statue that was carved out of marble. It was very beautiful but once again no pictures were allowed. Here's the Wikipedia article about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seokguram As you leave the temple, you can purchase traditional roof, shingles and leave a message for Korea or for other visitors. It was very cool to see all of the visitors' messages from around the world.

I had read that you could take hot air balloon rides so I set out on a quest to find the air balloon. I could see it floating off in the distance so I decided to just walk towards it. Well the short story is, I walked for 3 1/2 hours and never got to ride the air balloon. Sad day. Those things sure look closer than they really are in real life.

On my 3 1/2 hour walk, I found a "Place for Traditional Korean Paper Making." I thought, "Awesome. I get to make some paper"...wrong. I got to make something out of traditional paper. It was a good experience though. The little, old lady that helped me didn't speak any English so there were lots of hand motions and the use of my horrible Korean. She laughed at me quite a bit so I don't think she was too impressed with my artistic ability. Oh well, I've always known it is non-existent.

I took the bus back down the mountain and I must have caught the last bus of the evening because there really wasn't room for me on it but they still let me get on. I had to stand in the front window next to the bus driver. I can't say that it's a moment I felt very safe but it was an adventure nonetheless.

I'll try to get the rest of the trip up very soon. I know I've been slacking lately. I promise there are many more hilarious stories to be told. Oh, and as always you can check out my pictures on my Picasa album. http://picasaweb.google.com/christinestroup Peace!