I had badminton on Friday. I had to do a couple more drills, but I actually got to play some games this time. My form is still generally terrible, but I can hit a birdie, damn it, and that's what matters. I got a good two hours of playing in, and I was definitely feeling it for the rest of the weekend. My entire left side was aching incessantly, but I toughed it out and ticked another city off the list: Gyeongju.
My neighbor was nice enough to take both me and her cousin to Gyeongju in her Hyundai beater, which is about an hour away. She had sent me a text message, in Hangeul (which I could not understand, obviously), stating when they would be leaving in the morning. I stayed out late, as I am wont to do on Fridays, and slept past this target leave time. I felt bad, but with a quick rinse in the shower, we ended up leaving about a half hour later than planned.
Our intention was to go to Gyeongju to check out the cherry blossoms, but then we found out that everybody else in Korea's intention was the same. It happens, I suppose. I'm going to make an attempt to paint a picture of Gyeongju for you real quick.
Gyeongju is special not only as home to thousands of cherry blossoms, but also because it was the capital of the Silla dynasty of Korea until about 1000 years ago. This would not be that huge of a deal, but with Korea's attitude of out with the old, in with the new, they made it a point to get rid of old crap all around the country. This would have been the fate of Gyeongju, except that the Prez-i-dent (read: dictator) in the 70s and 80s put a bunch of protections on buildings in Gyeongju, along with height restrictions on buildings around historical areas, and some sort of law that all the buildings must have that traditional Korean roof. All that aside, there is a lot to see that's worthwhile there. This includes Gyeongju Land, which is that campy theme park that most Korean cities seem to embrace. You can't go wrong with a cheesy theme park right in the middle of a historical city.
We began with some lunch, but while waiting (like I said, every other Korean was there, too, so all the restaurants had waits) we checked out the royal burial mounds right next door:
There's a whole park full of them. All dead kings and queens and little baby infants, etc. The highlight of this park is Cheongmachong, which means "Heavenly Horse Tomb." It is the only tomb that you can enter. It sounds cooler than it actually was. You shuffle in in one of those museum lines that just snakes along the route, and you see the artifacts that were in this tomb, not in their original place, but in glass cases along the wall. Then you get to see the burial area, which is basically just a gravel area with a box sticking out of the center. They don't want you to take pictures in there because it will detract from tourism numbers if they were to find out how disappointing it was.
Lunch was good and traditionally Korean. I got to try mulkimchi, which is water kimchi. It tastes like kimchi...in water. Otherwise, it was pretty good, and I ate my fill. Next we went to the most aesthetically pleasing area of our trip: Anapji pond.
Anapji is the site of a former palace that was built around 1300 years ago that, of course, now is gone due to various political shifts and disrepair. The pond and the stone foundation remains, so they rebuilt a few of the buildings to house relics and smale scale models of what the palace once looked like. It was a pretty nice place. I bet they had killer parties here.
From there, we walked to Cheomseongdae, which is the oldest observatory in East Asia. The actual observatory is fairly lackluster. What is much more interesting, to me anyway, is the park sorrounding Cheomseongdae. It was full of flowers and children and wholesome family fun. It was the kind of fun that has been missing from America for the past few decades. The kind of fun that requires a family to go to the park together, ride tandem bicycles together, play in the stream together, eat ice cream together, and just enjoy the awesome day together. It was one of those tranquil moments where you realize just how great life can be when there's genuine love all around you. Yeah, it's that cheesy, wholesome type of place, but it was totally Korea.
From there, we headed to our final stop. Bulguksa Temple is one of the most famous Korean sites I can think of. It was built in the late 500s, almost destroyed by the Japanese invasion, and left to rot for a few hundred years before being reconstructed. It looks a lil sumpin like this:
It's kinda big, so I couldn't capture it all in one photograph because there are trees in front of it until you get too close. Anyway, it's pretty cool because this guy is shreddin' and totally into it:
There are a few pagodas inside, symbolizing yin and yang, etc, and some Buddhas. Pretty standard temple stuff. One neat area was this part:
You're supposed to stack a bunch of gradually smaller stones on top of each other. This means that your dreams will come true or something. With a slight language barrier, it is difficult to convey concepts like that and I only understood so much. Anyway, Gyeongju is a pretty neat place that I hope to return to. The added bonus that there were fully blooming cherry blossoms everywhere and a pretty bangin' day weather wise certainly helped the experience. I didn't get to see all the sites I wanted to check off the list, so I'll be back.
The ride home was a period of realization for me. I've told my friends several times that I miss the 80s. There's something about that decade that is so ridiculous I wish it were back. Well, a lot of things that I particularly miss in the 80s are present in Korea right now.
Side ponytails: in.
Acid wash jeans: in.
Wearing a dress on top of acid wash jeans: in.
Perms: in.
Shoulderpads: in.
Cassette tapes: in.
Hair metal: in.
Korea is like if the 80s were taking place in the 10s. The fashion is absolutely an 80s enthusiasts dream, but everyone has the latest technology to go with it. But even the technology slightly resembles that "80s future." Anyone who's seen Back to the Future II knows what I'm talking about. It's kind of bizarre, and it doesn't really hit you immediately how much this is true. Only after two months of staring it in the face do you start to realize that Marty McFly could easily whiz by on a hoverboard at any moment and the only thing that would strike you as out of the ordinary is that he's not Korean.
Anyway, Gyeongju is a neat town and definitely unique for Korea. Even with the hordes of people, it still seemed pretty and peaceful. But, like with a lot of places, it's a great place to visit, but I'd hate to live there. Everything is so spaced out and tourists would constantly be in your way. Such is life, right?
I'll close with my favorite pic of the day. I don't know why it's my favorite. It just is.
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