gyeongju

**i'm remembering now that korea has super speedy internet (something i'll miss so much when i get back to the states); so, i hope you have a good internet connection. this is a lot of pictures! if it takes forever to load, you can view my album on facebook witht his link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112852&id=795438834&l=388b8b46a5

this is day one and two of a recent four day weekend i had. my co-worker laura and i went to the other side of the country - gyeongju and busan. these are pictures from gyeongju, which is the historical heart of korea. a long time ago, long, long, long, like 7th century, the silla kingdom united korea and ruled for a couple of centuries. many things have been destroyed over the years, but a lot of things in this area survived and/or were re-constructed.

this first set of pictures is from the seokgoram grotto. it's a mound on a mountain that houses an incredible statue of buddha along with other statues. we couldn't go into the grotto, but we were able to view it from the entrance. so, this is the park:

because this area is so important, students from all over the country come here for field trips. we would pass groups of children and very often they would say, "hi!" "how are you?" and would be in awe when we would answer, especially if we said something in korean to them. so fun!

this is the building outside of the grotto, the inside of the grotto is under the mound.

this is the buddha in the grotto, i found this and the previous pic online, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

laura and i - she loves the middle aged women, called ajummas, who wear these massive visors. she calls them darth vador visors. they're actually quite effective! they swivel up and down, and are see through.

outside the grotto. these guys were some of the many that talked to us and they wanted their picture taken. cute.

at the bottom we bought some traditional bread. delicious!

the inside is filled with a red bean paste that is a little sweet.

these ladies were also selling a number of things, most of which i'm not familiar with.

as i walked by though, this little one pointed at these nuts with her lips, indicating i should buy them. so, i decided she was so cute that i bought some.

then we went to the national museum, and while i was looking at the big bell, some girls started to say hello. when i responded, many others came to talk too.

i love these guys gathering around to see how hot they are in the picture they just took of themselves.

then we went to anapji pond. beautiful area.

laura and i decided to buy theses cool hats. of course we looked quite foolish as we were the only ones wearing them. i was ok buying and wearing it, because farmers do wear hats like these still. ours were the basic equivalent of $5 and had stickers on them that sad, "made in vietnam". we got lots of looks. one guy was waking towards me, not looking at me, and then when he looked up at me he did a double take and stared for a second. i don't know if it was just that i'm foreign, or wearing a crazy hat, or because i'm so strikingly beautiful that he was stunned for a second. but, because he was just looking at me i said hello in korean and that too caught him off guard and he started laughing, quoted me saying hello in korean, and then kept laughing and walked away. ? funny.

these little-bitty kids are so cute and so tiny! i don't think they'll remember anything from this trip because they're so young, but man are they darling! i love the matching outfits. you gotta keep track of them somehow!

a really old observatory. wikipedia says this: Cheomseongdae, one of the oldest surviving astronomical observatories in East Asia.

this is an ancient ice storage facility. even the kings had ice back in the day.

then we headed back down the mountain to bulgugksa, a famous buddhist temple. these guys greeted us at the entrance.

you walk over this gorgeous bridge to get to the temple. actually, we entered through the rear and almost missed all this gorgeousness. i'm glad we didn't, i love this picture.

buddha's birthday was the next day, so these ladies are working hard to get all the lanterns set up. i will miss the lanterns, as you know, i absolutely love them! say "kimchi!"

this is one lucky hog, apparently. he was getting all kinds of rubs and pics taken of him. i love the girl in the back not caring at all about the temple. she's just happy to have a lovely new orange umbrella.

behind one of the buildings i found this big rock pagoda garden. hundreds of little rock pagodas have been built here.

preparing more lanterns, these gals are inside the temple grounds.

something of a birds eye view. this stone pagoda is very old and is a national treasure, along with the temple and the seokoram grotto. i'm standing on a platform that allows us to view another national treasure that's being worked on right now.

special water of some sort, i guess. maybe it's coming from the mountain? i don't know. there were no english signs that i noticed.

all right, back into the town of gyeongju. laura and i rented bikes for an hour and went to see these old burial mounds. amazing. my hometown is such an infant compared to these places, just amazing. there are burial mounds all over this area of south korea. there's one person under each mound, and when you see a double mound like this, then it's a king and queen buried together. they are buried with thousands of relics to keep them comfortable.

they've opened one to allow the public to see inside. inside the kings were buried in wooden caskets.

this is a replica of the king's crown.

then we went and got some grub. while walking i had to snap a picture of these two. it's something to be proud of when you have a special someone, and so we see couple shirts fairly often. couples also wear matching rings that they call couplings. and, if a couple meets and starts dating when they're in college, then they're called "cc", which stands for campus couple. in shops matching couple underwear are also proudly displayed in storefront windows. i wonder if my future husband would like to wear matching pink boxer briefs??

this is a typical meal. sit on the ground, meat and stuff cooked on a flame in the middle of the table with lots of side dishes and stuff to eat with the meat.

on our way back to the hostel we walked through a park and sat for a minute. these darling 3 middle schoolers, 15 years old in korean age, started talking to us. they were great! they couldn't say much, but really tried and even sang and danced for us with music from their phones. only in a country as safe as korea would girls stop and talk to strangers in a dark park at night, and laura had a beer in her hand. in america, even as an adult, i would never stop to talk to strangers in a park.

and finally we reach the end of our 2-day journey. this was my first time staying in a hostel. i was going to take a pic of the bathroom and shower area, but forgot to. it was a beauty. the place was dirty, but not filthy, and the best part is that it was cheap. for 2 nights i forked out 30,000won which i guess you could say is about $30.

this is the "dorm room" we stayed in. it had 4 beds, 2 off the ground and 2 on. the first night we were alone and the second night 2 silent men joined us. seriously. they didn't say even hello. all right, better than being raped in my sleep. :)

this rosebush in the courtyard was visible from our "dorm room" window. the owners said that it is 32 years old. my age! it was more like a rose tree than a rose bush.

that's all folks! well, until the next post of our final 2 days...