Martina Busovska 지방답사 후기

Before coming to Korea, I was very pleased to see the three day trip to Gyeongju on our program. I of course heard a lot about Gyeongju, Bulguksa and Seokguram grotto during my studies, and i always wanted to see them with my own eyes.

Our first day started by very rainy visit to Yongin Korean Folk Village, in which you can experience and see how people used to live in the Joseon period. I didn't mind the rain much because it meant less people, so I was able to sightsee in peace. I never expected the folk village be so big and I felt like I could spend a whole day there easily. I couldn't see everything even though I tried. I liked the (real) temple the best. I think many people don't even realize it's there but it's very nice. We have seen traditional Korean wedding and also samulnori performance. Accidentally, the musicians performed the song we learned during our samulnori classes and we could see and feel the huge gap between us and professionals. Someday I want to come back to Yongin and spend more time in the folk village by myself. After Yongin we continued on our way to Gyeongju. After arriving we had nice dinner and then went to visit Anapji. It was really nice place and from the number of people i could easily say, everyone likes to come enjoy the night view there. I also noticed how in the centre of the city are no apartment buildings, just Korean houses - hanok. It's because of regulations on buildings and I really liked that.

Our second day started with visit of famous Gyeongju tombs with our own personal guide. The tombs are all over the city and I find it very impressive. Gyeongju is Korean city with the highest temperatures in the country and I could tell it's true because the weather was incredibly hot. That made our sightseeing harder but it was still interesting. We saw Cheomseongdae, which is the oldest surviving astronomical observatory in East Asia. Then we visited the Gyeongju National Museum, which had a lot of interesting artefacts. Especially, of course, from Silla era. After that we went to the East Sea. It was true blessing, because it was very refreshing to feel the sea breeze during the very hot day. We also saw the Underwater tomb of king Munmu. While some people enjoyed the sea (by bathing in it etc.), i went to take a walk and talked to some locals who were very kind.

On our third day we went to the famous Bulguksa temple first. I was pretty horrified seeing the modern building ruining the nice sight and was happy to hear, that they are going to rid off of it as soon, as they are done renovating the stupa. The temple had many interesting and beautiful sights inside too though and it's definitely worth the visit. The visit was even better with the explanation from our guide. After Bulguksa, we headed to Seokguram grotto which was impressive but I would love to visit it from the inside too (and that's apparently possible on Buddha's birthday).

I immensely enjoyed this trip and break from our usual routine and was happy, that I could personally experience the many famous sights and places.