Off to Gyeongju & Daegu

Another early morning train ride was scheduled to take us to the nearby city of Gyeongju. 

I found another brand of the Inkigayo sandwich, and paired with a barley tea, I felt prepared to tackle the long day ahead.

I must say the version I had last year was better by far, as this version comparatively skimped on the fillings. I also picked up the KORAIL magazine, flipped it open randomly; you can't avoid fate.

The KORAIL station in Gyeongju is far from the city centre, so we had to take a bus. This driver was one of the more aggressive bus drivers, speeding through windy, bumpy roads, and making the other couple on the bus looking at each other in concern.

After arriving in the city, we passed by many stores renting out scooters. We would find out later as to why this was a popular form of transportation...

Our first stop was to the Daereungwon Royal Tombs.

It was interesting to see the very orderly lines to take pictures in front of the tombs. Something I hadn't noticed before was rather than ask strangers to take your photo, use a selfie stick, or long-arm your own selfie, it had become popular, especially for couples, to bring a phone tri-pod and use a remote to take your own photos. It was a little odd at first seeing this set-up at so many places, but to be frank, quite ingenious the more I thought about it. Getting a wide angle and taking as many pictures to your hearts content without bothering a stranger and hoping they didn't have shaky hands. 

Another bamboo forest. 

We walked through to the main sightseeing area, and were torn between buying the barley bread (찰보리빵) or Gyeongju bread (황남빵). Unfortunately, both were only offered in sets of twelve, and we knew we could not finish both. 

Ran pointed out this pomegranate tree; I had never given much thought to how pomegranates grew, and was very intrigued by the alien-like creatures. 

We browsed a few shops, and I managed to get a magnet for my collection. The collection of magnets for the rest of our time in Korea was rather sporadic...

We wanted to feast at least a few times now that we were here with slightly fatter wallets... or at least the mindset of eating well while we're in a new place. What better way to feast than jeongsik? We ordered 시리산 정식 for two, and because we're greedy, we also ordered a basket of 모듬전.

I really liked this restaurant layout. A few tables were set in each segregated room, all facing a courtyard. The washrooms were off to the side in a separate building, and it seemed like walking in to a friend's house and garden for a bite.

With our energy reserves fully restored, we continued across the the Historic Areas.

It was a miserably hot and sunny day. With the sun beating down, I was dehydrated and exhausted. I was feeling pretty spent by the time we hit the park, and tried to fight down the misery as we made our way through the relentless heat. 

Gyoengju was the capital of Silla, and therefore home to many UNESCO World Heritage sites. As Ranee as I were both fans of visiting these heritage sites, we were pretty excited to be in Gyeongju, but we soon realized that much of what remained were archaeological grounds or foundations. 

The gardens were indeed beautiful, and walking through what used to be a thriving kingdom was humbling.









The last site we decided to pay a fare to enter was Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond.

We decided to walk towards the site for Hwangnyongsa, and slowly realized it was also only a remaining foundation. It was here, through the long stretch of road without much relief from the sun, that I understood why renting scooters was a choice activity.

Once we realized the nine-storey wooden structure was no longer of this world, we decided to move on to our next destination, and caught the bus back to the KTX station.

We made our way over to Daegu for the evening. The KORAIL station is east of the city centre, and our original plans of hiking up a nearby mountain were scrapped as we didn't want to get stuck in the middle of nowhere after sunset.



Browsing the main street, we found many cute shops including this one that had the best way of displaying jewellery. Unfortunately, clip-on earrings were less plentiful here than in Japan.




As the sun began to set, we hunted down the restaurant that sold Daegu mandoo, and... there was a great amount of embarrassment and confusion associated with ordering and receiving our food, due to the lack of communication. While there are definitely positives with not initially appearing like a tourist, the downside is that they will expect you to be fluent in the local language, which I am far from. 

We hurriedly took our order to a nearby park, and I recovered enough to enjoy my extra thick ddukbokki and long-coveted Daegu mandoo. In conclusion: food good, service... 

After a little more window shopping, we made our way back to the KORAIL station to await our train. We were exhausted after being in the sun all day, and this being one of our longer days, we were ready to get back to our hotel.

Back in Busan for the night, we were thoroughly tired and hit the hay.