Traveling south to Gyeoungju

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Last weekend my friends decided that they would take me out of Seoul. We were going to Gyeong Ju, which is close to Busan. Because 3 of the 4 friends work during the week, we only went for one night, but I feel we made the most of our time there.

Saturday morning the 26th of November we took a bus to Seoul Station to board the train bound for Gyeong Ju. It took a little over two hours to get there because we went on the "bullet train" which travels at 180 mph.

After arriving, we took a taxi to the rent a car place and picked up the car we would use for the time we were there. Then we drove and had lunch.

After lunch we went to Seokguram Grotto and saw the large statue which had been carved inside a cave. You aren't allowed to take pictures unfortunately, but it was pretty cool to see the view because you are on top of the mountain. After seeing this, we realized that the temple we planned to see would close soon, so we instead drove to Anapji Pond. By this time it was dark, so we got to see the area lit up and the buildings reflected their lights onto the pond, which was really pretty. Within a short distance of the pond we were able to see Cheomseongdae Observatory. It is said to have been built sometime in the 600's (yes thats right...600's), so it is very old. It was really cool to see also lit up like the pond was. A little in the distance was the tombs of the kings which basically looked like huge hills of grass in the middle of a flat area. Unfortunately we didn't get to go during the day, but it was still pretty cool to see.

After eating an amazing dinner of galbi and samgapsal (sp?), we headed to our accomodations for the night. This consisted of three rooms...two "bedrooms" and a middle room. The bathroom and kitchen were separate from the house. This was a traditional style house. The floors were heated and so we of course slept on the floor and kept warm because of the floor heat. I likened the evening to camping in the US but in a sort of house style tent except little bits of air can get through because you can't zip up the house. haha. We had a good time though eating snacks and hanging out and talking. The next morning we had breakfast in the "main house" where the owner cooked us breakfast before we left.

We returned the car and went to the train station and headed back to Seoul. Even though it was so short, it was really nice to spend some time with my friends and see a different city than Seoul.

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Comments

[Goa Travel]

Gyeoungju
Relaxing and cool hearting pics ========= thanks for this amazing pics