Streets of Gyeongju

There are lots of murals in Gyeongju's little streets.

quaint streets, the way I like them ;)

bustling little streets

there are hanbok rentals, and some tourists wear them around

I spotted more than just a few (mostly young) couples wearing hanboks on their date. I guess they are trying to recreate the feel of having their relationship in the olden times (like in those dramas...probably a lot of them are filmed here).

After visiting Gyeongju, I actually recognized one of the murals in a drama I was watching. That drama had the schoolchildren taking a school trip, and the Cheomseongdae (one of the main attractions of Gyeongju; we'll get to it later) also made it into the scenes.

this is a restaurant

the mounds are tombs, that is the tomb complex (which we will visit later!)

a bagel shop! You wouldn't know it without seeing the shop's sign

A shop selling Gyeongju's 10-won bread. I read that it was just a bread shaped like a 10-won coin, and with red bean (or other) filling. So I didn't try it. There was also cheese filling being advertised...the stringy kind like mozzarella.

I first spotted this temple from across the road (not sure whether it's really a temple or there is another purpose to it). Very long with banners for the Buddha's birthday.

taking a peek inside

I stepped into the compound, but didn't dare to go in further because it looked deserted

The Silla big bell was nearby. This was actually quite near my hotel; I had walked one round back. (the other destinations will be in separate posts)

After this I actually returned to the hotel and rested...in preparation for a full day the next day. The next night I walked around to take in the night views, and here are some of them:

another shop (I believe I snapped a photo because it was a Starbucks, but the light on the name is too bright)

There were lots of murals of course...but I only snapped photos of the prettier ones.

the lights on the building make this look extra-nice

I think these two are the prettiest, and the ones I saw in the drama mentioned above (the bell is for sure). But I was walking simply in a direction that would get me back to the hotel...I wouldn't be able to find them again!

How I ended up in Gyeongju

To continue our South Korea trip, let’s move on to Gyeongju!

I initially planned to only visit Busan and Seoul, but while researching places to visit in Seoul, I felt that I might not need to spend four nights there. So I started researching day trips from Seoul, so that I could just go somewhere a little further away if I finished visiting the sightseeing spots a little too early.

My favourite place to visit for a day trip was Gyeongju, which turned out to be on the train route between Busan and Seoul. It was also closer to Busan than to Seoul (half an hour from Busan, but two hours from Seoul). So it didn’t seem worth it to make a day trip from Seoul. Instead, it would be better to make a day trip from Busan!

I was considering that, but there seemed to be gorgeous night views in Gyeongju, so in the end I decided to actually stay in Gyeongju on the way to Seoul. That way, I could actually spend the night in Gyeongju without rushing off to the train station to make it back to an accommodation in Busan/Seoul.

So my stay in Seoul got shortened to two nights, with two nights moved to Gyeongju. (I left Gyeongju in the early morning, giving me more time in Seoul than in Gyeongju)

And was Gyeongju worth it? Yesss!!! In the end I prefer both Busan and Gyeongju to Seoul. I still feel that I would want to spend more time properly discovering Seoul, but metropolises are not my top preference. :) 

view when stepping out from the train station

looking back at the train station (walking towards the bus stop)

The train station is some distance away from Gyeongju; the bus takes more than half an hour to get to Gyeongju if not mistaken.

When leaving Gyeongju, I had more time to look around. Those pillars that you see in the first photo actually have representations of zodiac animals.

see the animal faces on the darker section of the pillars?

some other pillars (I think I didn't take a photo of the rest because they were against the sun and it was too hard to see them)

There was also this art structure:

This was interesting; they have a whole lot of dried persimmons being sold in the station.

I guess it was too early; it wasn't open yet. Not that it makes a difference to me, because I couldn't buy this. Even if they didn't need to be refrigerated, I didn't have the luggage quota!

And while we're at the subject of train stations and trains, the train has this screen announcing the next station it is stopping at.

The announcement above is then translated into English. (and a few other languages)

If I remember correctly, besides Korean and English, they also make the announcements (both verbally and on the screen) in Chinese and Japanese.

Once I reached the town, I saw the cutest scooter rental.

The scooters are made out to look like Snoopy! And there's even a Snoopy plush toy sitting outside the shop.

I remember the owner (I think) came out of the shop as I was snapping photos. They didn't look displeased...and I just smiled at them. Nothing like free publicity because your shop looks interesting. :P

This row of shops look like this (this photo was taken the next day):

a photo of the shop from across the street

and because I can't get enough of it (I think I snapped a photo again because I was unsure whether I caught the Snoopy scooters properly in the first photo)

Opposite the road was a petrol station that looks like a heritage building.

My hotel was also opposite...just a few roads away from the bus stop. I went and checked in before setting out to explore the town.

I don't even know what this place is, but it looks like a main building of the town (the town hall? :P ) .

Notice the decorations on top of the letters? Leftmost is the Cheomseongdae, one of the most iconic landmarks on Gyeongju. (or maybe THE most iconic)

And each letter is painted a different colour on its side. At the bottom, each colour is identified.

I didn't mention it earlier in the post, but Gyeongju is a world heritage site. Because of this, the admission fee to some of the attractions is waived. Anyway, in the next post let's visit the town proper!

Busan food (Part 3) - Bad choice of fish

Busan is by the sea, so seafood is something that tourists are recommended to try. I wanted to try at least one seafood restaurant there.

I walked around Jagalchi market where there are lots of seafood restaurants. Most seem to be selling the same thing, at similar prices too. Outside the shops, they displayed different kinds of grilled fish.

There was one shop where the owner spoke English...she told me they would give me two different kinds of fish if I went back. After looking around, I decided I would go back (since the grilled fish there looked nice too).

menu on the restaurant wall

The set I ordered was for one person, at 15k won.

so many side dishes...and they even threw in a kimchi pancake

What I did not expect was that the fish would be over-grilled. It seemed like the fish outside (that looked good, grilled just nicely) was re-grilled and served to me.

The side dishes were good too... but the problem was, I wasn't even hungry... It was my last night in Busan so it was my last chance to try seafood there, which was why I still went into the restaurant for a full meal.

leftovers (this is the worst wastage in my whole trip)

I finished the fish, but the kimchi pancake was not good, and the seaweed soup was too salty. In the interest of finishing the fish (I'm not sure why it was served with wasabi, but I kinda liked that pairing), I had to leave the side dishes unfinished.

The next day when going to the train station, I dropped into Samjin Amook to try some of their fishcakes. (Note: the name is Amook in English, but the word is actually eomuk in Korean, the word for fish cakes.)

they actually let you leave your luggage there if you spend above a certain amount (I didn't)

They have a huge selection of fish cakes, which actually look more special than what we see in Goraesa.

Then they had this special snack:

I tried some; it felt like keropok, the non-crispy kind.

In the end, I bought just two kinds of fishcake:

that leaf is a perilla leaf

see inside

I prefer Goraesa; the fishcake there is more springy. Surprisingly, in this shop they don't provide soup.

Best food in Busan? Either Goraesa fish cakes, or the spicy squid in Seomyeon. Both of those, I would love to eat again. Oh yes, and the seed pancake.

Busan food (Part 2) - Haeundae

There was a LOT of street food at Haeundae. There was a small side road that was filled with food stalls.

Then there is this interesting shop using a flamethrower:

I cut off the video a little too early...after that she sort of fanned the marshmallow a bit.

Later on in Gamcheon Culture Village, I saw this marshmallow ice-cream...I wouldn't have paid much attention if I hadn't seen it at Haeundae. So I finally found out that there was filling inside. :P

More stalls in Haeundae:

sashimi 😍

sushi 🤩

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't get to try sashimi in Korea. Well, this is one of the times that did not fit... I was tired from a whole day of walking and wanted to find a place to sit down and have dinner (while waiting for night to fall). These stalls did not provide seating... I even considered buying a pack back to the hotel to eat later (there's a fridge, after all), but what if there was no time to eat it? I didn't know how long I would spend outside the hotel, and I didn't want to have to rush back for dinner for example. So nope, no raw fish for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 

I didn't even manage to try any of the other snacks since I was still full from the Goraesa fishcakes. (but that was fine...I liked those fishcakes!)

In the end I went into another restaurant that sold rice soup. I ordered the chitterlings soup instead of the pork soup that I had already tried (it turned out to be pretty much the same though, so I kinda regretted not trying another beef soup place that I had been considering).

They had an English menu on the ordering tablet:

Note: The sausage soup is the sundae soup that I mentioned in the previous post

similar side dishes

all those internal organs 🤩

But the taste was so-so (actually similar to the other shop)...and the organs were not tender enough. (Again, I think Koreans like their food chewy) Before going there, I had thought that it was a waste that I wouldn't be able to try grilled intestines, since that would probably need more than one person to eat. But after trying this and the other dish with intestines at Seomyeon, I think their grilled intestines are probably not for me. :P

Anyway, with slow chewing, at least it fulfilled the purpose of going into a restaurant...by the time I left the restaurant, it was already night.