So Long, Gyeongju

It was our last day in Gyeongju and Andrew and I decided to rent bicycles to get around town.  This way we could finish up seeing everything we had wanted to without having to worry about the less-than-accurate bus schedule.  Kara had gotten up early and headed back to Seoul already because she had to tutor later in the day.

Andrew and I grabbed breakfast and then headed into town.  We once again returned to the park with the burial mounds, but this time we actually bought tickets so that we could go inside one of them.  The park was beautiful.  It was so peaceful, and as I've previously mentioned the colorful leaves were just amazing.  Being in a city for so long made me forget how much I enjoy the foliage.

Entering the park, so beautiful!

The mound was very neat.  We walked inside and it was set up like a museum, there were a few artifacts and exhibits that we could read about, and of course, the actual burial of one of the kings.  We left the park and headed towards the tourist complex to rent bikes.

We set off for a different part of town that we had not yet been to.  Our first stop was the Poseokjeong, which is a small park and garden featuring rocks placed in the shape of an abalone.  The Poseokjeong is also part of a small waterway and it's said the be the place of an ancient Shilla villa.  After walking around the park we decided to bike around the village.  We "off-roaded" a bit and biked down a cement path through some farmland.  It was a lot of fun and a very relaxing way to spend our last day.  We headed through some of the villages a bit and it really surprised me how rural some of these homes still were.  It's astounding that Seoul, a city so huge, complex, and developed is only a few hours from this part of the country that seems to be years behind.

The Poseokjeong, shaped like an abalone

The village was very pretty and it was nice to be out of the city for awhile.  We stumbled on a huge Buddha sculpture and decided to take a closer look at it.  It appeared to be simply part of somebody's backyard, but as we cautiously approached, nobody stopped us.  This Buddha was so big that we couldn't help but want to climb up on it.  The only thing I could think of was that it'd be cool to sit in Buddha's lap!  So quickly, Andrew climbed up and I snapped a few pictures, and then I climbed up and he did the same.  Mission accomplished.

Big Buddha and me!

Tired, a little stinky, and very hungry, we headed back to town to get lunch, grab our things, and get going.  We had a delicious lunch of soybean porridge.  I had mine with brown sugar and rice cake and Andrew had his with noodles.  We said goodbye to our hosts at Sa Rang Chae and then walked to the bus station.  Unfortunately, the earliest bus available wasn't until 6pm, but we didn't mind waiting.  The bad news was that the normal 4 hour trip turned into a 6 hour trip because of all the traffic heading into the city.  It was a bummer getting back into Seoul so late, but stopping for some midnight Korean BBQ before heading back to SK Global House definitely put Andrew and me in a better mood!

Saying goodbye to our wonderful hosts at Sa Rang Chae