Gyeongju (경주) - Remnants of the Silla Kingdom's Capital Part 1

Ever since I heard that Gyeongju was South Korea's 'museum without walls' and a city with vast historical assets from the time of the Silla Kingdom, I have wanted to travel there. Finally, on my last full weekend living in Southern region of the country, I made the trip there with a friend of mine. Gyeongju does not disappoint. With 52 designated cultural assets recognized by UNESCO, consisting of palaces, temples, artifacts, tombs, artwork, sculptures, and pagodas, as well as many additional artifacts and sights, there is an endless amount of historical sites and artifacts to appreciate. 

Bulguksa Temple - 불국사

The main area of downtown is easy to navigate and many locations are within walking distance of one another. As we were only there for one full day, areas within walking distance were a huge plus for our trip. As such, I will walk you through our very full Saturday. 

For starters, we stayed at the Momojein Guest House. I am sure that most of the accommodations in Gyeongju are wonderful, but I thought that this was one of the nicer guesthouses I've personally stayed in. The rooms were neat and clean, breakfast was included (eggs, toast, and juice), and its the only traditional style guesthouse I've stayed in. When I say traditional I mean that the house is built around a central courtyard, which all the rooms open up to. So, you should go outside the room to go to the living room, bathroom, or kitchen for instance. It was a new experience. I will say, during the summer the spiders in Korea can get intense with their web building, and they are huge. When we went in the courtyard or alley leading to the place, we had to keep our eyes out for webs. One last plus of this place was that they had a dog, so if you're dog deprived, their Labrador is cute.

Leaving bright and early, we headed to Bulguksa Temple (불국사) first, as it was the furthest away (buses 10/11 will get you there from downtown). It is a short walk to the temple, and a small price to enter. Despite it being early morning it was still pushing 90 degrees F out already. Being one of the hottest areas of the country, water and ice cream were our first stops. 

The temple truly was gorgeous, fairly large and active. There were groups of people worshiping inside the many different rooms as well as many tours shuffling about. Wandering the many corridors and steep steps was an adventure. We congregated around the temple fountain with many others, drinking the cool spring water, while questioning how sanitary it was (we didn't care). Oh how much I wanted to just 'accidentally' fall into the fountain and cool off, but...that would be super disrespectful in a temple. On our way out we gave in to the heat and purchased broader hats that could cover our head/face/shoulders and protect it front the sun. The hat felt giant on me, and looked a bit silly considering it isn't generally my style, but it worked and I was thankful for that. 

The valley of stacked stones (with the occasional beaded bracelet and coin)

After finishing at the temple, we headed to Seokguram Grotto (석굴암), which was nearby. We had some trouble finding the entrance to it, and had to ask an ahjumma who was setting up a food stand. She was our savior. Online I had read the entrance to the hiking trail there was at the temple. That isn't technically accurate. You should leave the temple and go back to the main street, and walk approximately 5 minutes up the road to the hiking trail entrance. It is supposed to take about a hour to hike up the mountain to the grotto (much longer with my condition/weather). Now, where the old lady saved us is, she told us to go to the bus stop and take bus 12. THERE WAS A BUS. I hadn't known that. The ahjumma saved us over an hour walk up a mountain in nearly 100 degree weather. She probably saved our lives. I could've hugged her. The bus takes you all the way up the mountain in 20 minutes, and then its about a modest 15 minute walk to the grotto from there. Much more manageable. 

The grotto is located inside this building/earthen hill behind it. Pictures are not allowed inside in order to preserve it (but if you search it on google, you'll see many photos of what it looks like). I found it amusing that despite it being such an old area, that the trail is still conveniently arranged to end at the gift shop. Haha!

This is my dragonfly buddy that was outside the grotto.

I will never get enough of the lanterns. 

After finishing up at the mountain we headed back to town for much needed food. We stopped at Pyeongyang Naengmyeon. Cold noodles are a perfect lunch on a sweltering day and Pyeongyang style is probably the most delicious cold noodles dish that I've ever eaten. It had a pile of buckwheat noodles with an iced broth, slices of beef, vegetables, and pears all mixed together. Not to mention it was a well balanced meal for only 9,000 won. I want to eat it again.

This concludes part 1 of my time in Gyeongju. Part 2 will soon follow. It was too much to include in one post!