Continuing from the post about Seoul, we visited Gyeongju next. On account of my miscalculation, we ended up running to our train and got to the platform with about 10 seconds to spare. When we arrived in Gyeongju, we were hungry and it was late, so we went down to the local night food market. The lines were super long, but the food was good, and so was the soju.
 |
| Street food, Gyeongju-style! Luckily "soju" in Korean is "soju." |
The next day was probably the low point of the trip and I was super mad at Buddha. It was the celebration of Buddha's birthday and we were trying to go to a temple at the top of a mountain, but because of the holiday it took almost four hours. From that point, it was going to take another ninety minutes to see the statue, then the time to get back down. So, we skipped seeing the Buddha and headed back down to the main part of the temple, which I ended up seeing, but my friend was injured from the walk down, so it was just me. Anyhow, the main temple was really nice.
 |
| Bulguksa Temple |
That night, to try to salvage the rough day, we went to a recommended park called Anapji. It was really gorgeous. So, I got over my anger with Buddha on his birthday.
 |
| Anapji at night |
That evening, however, we went out for eat. We had delicious Korean dumplings and Korean sausage in a really spicy sauce. Although I enjoyed the food at the time, my stomach had had enough of the spice-level of Korea, with this sausage being the spiciest thing I'd eaten in years. Still, it was delicious.
 |
| Don't eat that tasty sausage. Warning: when a Korean menu says it's spicy, that's a dangerous thing. I used my phone to translate words like "rice" and "beer" to deal with the spice and the server kept looking and laughing at us. Good times. |
The last things we saw in Gyeongju were the burial mounds, which are hills that act as tombs for Gyeongju's ancient royal family.
 |
| Cheomseongdae Tower. It's super old. |
 |
| Gimbap (a Korean version of sushi) |
Busan
Busan was a nice chance to relax and really just wandering around the city. This included walking around the various markets, checking out the beach, and visiting a giant Korean style bath/spa. Busan was great, but the place we stayed was hilariously bad. They gave us slippers to use inside, but they were practically dripping with water the whole time (which, I think, defies science), and after everything else, my friend's chocolate was missing after they cleaned up the room. My friend's review of the place was titled "dude stole my chocolate." It's funny now...for me, but I didn't have my chocolate stolen.
 |
| I definitely tried the Korean body scrub at this jimjibang. Since Korean baths, much like Japanese ones, are done without clothes, the scrub down is very thorough. And gross, because the man showed me all the dead skin that he had scrubbed off of me. |
 |
| Haeundae Beach |
 |
| Fish soup near Haeundae Beach. Surprisingly few foreigners considering the location, but I guess there must have been some Korean TV show that filmed something there. Maybe a Korean drama. |
 |
| Korean steak with fries. On a drink. With ice cream rolls. Korean fast food is good. |
