We started the day with an extremely spicy breakfast. Not that it looked spicy (and we have specifically asked for mild option), but it was so hot that I could hardly finish it with my mouth burning inside and my lips going crazy red! Welcome to South Korea, I guess;)
Egg ramen - our spicy breakfast:
After calming down a little (and a few bottles of water later), we left to see the town of Gyeong'ju. We started our walk with so called Tumuli, or Royal Tomb from the Silla era. Gyeong'ju is full of these Tumuli, Tumuli here and Tumuli there! All of them look exactly the same (some are taller some smaller), but bottom line they are hill like constructions build as a form of a tomb for rulers and influential individuals in history of Gyeong'ju.
We then walked to Gyochon Hanok Village - replica of Gyoneg'ju in the Silla ear. Or otherwise, a really nice take on how people used to live thousands of years ago. A lot of these houses were rebuild and adjusted to modern standards of life (although the outside still resembles traditional housing) with people running their businesses like pottery, quilt knitting, glass artefacts etc. It was definitely an interesting experience and it was great to stroll through quiet streets of the village thinking of how people used to live then and now.
We started with the Seokguram Grotto and sitting Buddha carved in harsh granite. Sadly the Buddha was behind the glass wall and no photos were allowed. We had more luck with Bolguksa Temple. It was well preserved and we were allowed to walk freely around the Temple grounds. I'm sure that anyone who hasn't traveled much around East Asia would enjoy both sides a lot! Nevertheless, after visiting both Japan and China, these two sides haven't really inpressed me much. They are definitely lacking to Giant Sitting Buddha in Japan or some of the amazing Temples I've seen before. However, I had snapped few photos, especially of dragons guarding the Temple. I don't know what it is, but I definitely have a small asian obsession with dragons - possibly coming from the chinese astrology and my chinese astrological sign;)
We finished the day with delisious pork stew in the local restaurant. I definitely can take more spice in the evenings rather than mornings;)
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