So Saturday morning indeed came early, and I dragged my sorry carcass off the floor mat and into the shower to get a start on the day around 5:45am. I finally met up with the girls I'd emailed the night before (J from New Orleans & F from Brooklyn). We trudged up from the depths to find our way to the buses. On the way we were pleasantly surprised to find a 24-hr grocery store, so we each picked up some fruit, cookies and snacks for the bus. I had a brief conversation with the bag-"boy" (adult man) about the sudden invasion of white faces, he was very confused, I was very amused.
This task was not complicated, we actually got there about 15 minutes early as there were 3 busloads of foreigners heading to the same place: 130+ of us all in one place is a bit overwhelming to the senses!! I've found in Korea that I'm quite accustomed to turning off my ears everywhere I go, it's kind of like walking meditation since everyone around me speaks another language most of the time. Walk into a group of 100 English-speakers and my brain got irritated with the innundation almost immediately! I wasn't the only one, so off we went down beneath the streets in search of the nearest McDonald's... though we came up empty (apparently it was almost 2 blocks away and the line was filled with other foreigners... better luck next time!). Poor J was near-dying over her craving for REAL coffee... having just arrived in March, she still hasn't found anywhere in her town that serves a real cup of coffee (more on that another time if you remind me!).
So the 130+ of us all piled onto the buses (well-organized and such of course) and before long we were on our way. Unbeknownst to me it was a near 5-hour drive from Seoul to Gyeong-Ju. Having been up all hours Thursday night writing a paper, and then the night before in the sauna, I was WELL PAST tired and didn't actually think about going to sleep. Instead I chatted with my seat-mate F. Several suggestions about volume later (she's kindof a loud talker) and we were at a public rest stop. I didn't take a lot of photos there, but I did take this one, because 'only in Korea'... "Lactation Room?" Really??
I watched the Korean countryside go by outside the window on the way there, it's so pretty here in the country, much like home. Everything here is already greening up, and as opposed to the flat countryside of the prairies back home, hills and small valleys are the norm out the bus window, accompanied by many burial mounds, rice patties and gardens. Much ado (and 2 pee-breaks) later we arrived in Gyeong-Ju. Now pee-breaks on bus trips are a story unto themselves that I will save for another weekend, perhaps next weekend... ask me to tell you about the adjummas and their shoulders and elbows...
So this weekend was meant to be a bike tour of the city of Gyeong-Ju (hereinafter to be: GJ). GJ is very rich in history. It was the capital of the Shilla kingdom for more than a thousand years, which ruled most of the remainder of the country if I have my history correct. There are a lot of things to do and see, so we were all pretty excited. Our tour leader William (in the left of the photo, brown t-shirt with a swiss-style flag design on the front) had designed a few courses that we could take if it suited us, and printed us out some maps and distance guides to follow. Thusly armed, our busload descended on the neighbourhood bike rental shop, and they handled us all pretty well.
It was kind of cute watching everyone collect their bikes... like a bunch of little kids really, hoping for pink streamers and maybe a basket on front. You can see J in the picture here, grey t-shirt and white sleeves with the pink and cream bike... "Ohhh yaaaaaah" was what you heard when they wheeled her bike out to her. A quick word from Will about the direction to start off in and we were on our way!
First stop, the many hills of dead guys. Now of course it has a much nicer name, that being "Dae-Rung-Won" in Korean, the site of some royal tombs. Big pretty-looking nicely almost sculptured-looking hills that once housed coffins of some memebers of the royal family (long since excavated I think). There were pretty trees in the park, despite the otherwise-boringness of it all (such a history-buff I am). We did actually get to go inside one of the hills to look at some really cool pieces of art and treasure that were recovered when the tomb was excavated (I don't know people, DIGGING UP all your dead guys??)... turned out that the actual items were housed in a nearby museum, and there were only replicas onsite... I hate that! So anyway, we took a few pictures of the flowers and pretty trees, and we headed out to find something (anything!) more exciting.
When we started getting hungry we picked a restaurant pretty much at random in the nearby "Food Village" and sat down to eat. F is a vegetarian so it was fun trying to find her something without seafood in it, but neither J nor I are picky eaters so ordering was easy! The big fried fish you see in the picture seems to have been a local specialty (we saw it a few times through the weekend).
We stopped on cherry-blossom lined roads, rode down bike paths, and made our way to Bomun Lake resort where there is a family picnic spot and an amusement park. My lovely bike's back tire started running the frame about an hour into our ride so it began to feel like someone was constantly tugging on my back tire - even downhill! We parked the bikes near the amusement park for the evening and took a bus back up to our hotel to get cleaned up for dinner out with the group.
The hotel was gorgeous outside, I really liked it. Typical Korean-style ondol sleeping (no bed in those rooms!) so we each had a mat and blanket and a couple of pillows on the floor, but it's usually quite comfortable. The grounds of the hotel were lovely, and they were quite close to the temple we wanted to visit the next day.
Dinner was bulgogi (just a marinated meat meal) with the usual schwack of accompanying sides, and I thought it was pretty good. The company was actually just as good as the food, if not better, I really enjoyed myself!
We followed dinner with a walk in the cherry blossom forest (it was very dark so it was hard to take good photos, but I'll try to upload a video later, I think that captured it better! Lastly, before heading back to the hotel we also stopped at Anapji Pond and took in some spectacular views (unedited and photoshopped, it was that pretty)...
I could have stayed at the pond all night because the reflections of trees, temples, and statues were just incredible, but the bus was leaving and we still had a bit of a walk to even find it, so off we went. When we got back to the hotel bedtime came pretty quickly as we were pretty exhausted from all of the bike riding and exploring of the day. Another day of exploring on the way...
