Me and Jenny at Bomun Lake, Gyeongju
In South Korea, they are crazy about cherry blossom trees and have a whole festival in the month April surrounding this. There are two main areas to go and see the cherry blossoms and one of these is the historic town of Gyeongju which is about 25 minutes drive from Pohang.
Gyeongju is very famous in South Korea as it has a number f UNESCO World Heritage sites and was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla which ruled most of the Korean peninsula between the 7th and 9th centuries. Due to the vast number of archaeological sites Gyeongju is often referred to as “the museum without walls”.
My co-teacher, Jenny, is from Gyeongju and still lives there with her husband. She was very keen for us to visit Gyeongju during the cherry blossom festival and so invited us one Saturday afternoon. However, we had gone out for a “few drinks” the night before and as usual, Monica was suffering a tad. Anyway, we met her at school (in South Korea, even in elementary school, the kids attend school 2 Saturday mornings every month and as such, Korean teachers also need to work on some Saturdays – us lucky EPIK lot escape this tragedy) at 12.30pm and she drove us to Gyeongju.
We started off with a tasty hangover lunch in Mr Pizza, a Korean pizza chain which does REALLY good pizzas – although I am NOT a fan of the sweet potato mousse (yes, that’s right, sweet potato mousse) that they often feel the need to put on the pizza or fill the crust with. Why? So we munched until we were full and then headed off for the Bomun Lake area to see the cherry trees in full blossom.
Bomun Lake is a man made lake about 6 km outside Gyeongju but is very beautiful during the cherry blossom season as it has millions of cherry trees around its edges. I found this lovely quite on the Korean Tourist Info website and thought I would share it with you – “Viewing the beautiful scenery of this walk with pink petals dancing with the wind wind make you smile gently.” It did and we smiled a lot. We spent the afternoon walking around the lake and chatting.
Gyeongju is very famous in South Korea as it has a number f UNESCO World Heritage sites and was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla which ruled most of the Korean peninsula between the 7th and 9th centuries. Due to the vast number of archaeological sites Gyeongju is often referred to as “the museum without walls”.
My co-teacher, Jenny, is from Gyeongju and still lives there with her husband. She was very keen for us to visit Gyeongju during the cherry blossom festival and so invited us one Saturday afternoon. However, we had gone out for a “few drinks” the night before and as usual, Monica was suffering a tad. Anyway, we met her at school (in South Korea, even in elementary school, the kids attend school 2 Saturday mornings every month and as such, Korean teachers also need to work on some Saturdays – us lucky EPIK lot escape this tragedy) at 12.30pm and she drove us to Gyeongju.
We started off with a tasty hangover lunch in Mr Pizza, a Korean pizza chain which does REALLY good pizzas – although I am NOT a fan of the sweet potato mousse (yes, that’s right, sweet potato mousse) that they often feel the need to put on the pizza or fill the crust with. Why? So we munched until we were full and then headed off for the Bomun Lake area to see the cherry trees in full blossom.
Bomun Lake is a man made lake about 6 km outside Gyeongju but is very beautiful during the cherry blossom season as it has millions of cherry trees around its edges. I found this lovely quite on the Korean Tourist Info website and thought I would share it with you – “Viewing the beautiful scenery of this walk with pink petals dancing with the wind wind make you smile gently.” It did and we smiled a lot. We spent the afternoon walking around the lake and chatting.
The cutest thing I have yet to see in Korea. This was a remote controlled kids car, complete with K-Pop tunes blasting out of the little speakers and little girl with a head scarf that it is a must for any lady in a convertible.
Me and Garry blossoming it up!
Hiding in the blossom.
And a bit more blossom....
Trying to make the blossom photos a bit more original....
Jackie Chan style blossom.
Ah, two cute little bottle of beer enjoying the view.
No idea what we were looking at but it must have been interseting...
Mandatory "kimchi" sign to do in all Korean photos.
Tunnel of cherry blossom, it really was beautiful.
Happy days with the blossom.
Conquering the huge lake one step at a time...
Another little cutesome one, this time with angel wings on the back of his lickle rucker-sacker.
Beautiful blossom and blue skies.
And some more.........
And yet more........
Love these paving stones, they are from the Silla Dynasty apparently and all around Gyeongju (although I fear they may not be entirely original)
After our legs were worn out, we headed down to the university district in Gyeongju and had the most amazing fresh strawberry juice drink I have ever had. And only for a pound. The noises I made were not normal!
I have clearly stolen Garry's strawberry juice also....
On the same weekend there was also a Rice Cake and Rice Wine Festival being held in Gyeongju so we headed over there late in the afternoon. However, due to our late arrival, most of the festivities were ending. We sampled some ricke cake which Jenny insisted on buying for us – its not at all sweet and in Korean is called “dok”. Its made by pounding rice to within an inch of its life with a big hammer and then made into a ball shape of doughy, stodgy, tasteless stuff. Sometimes they put red bean paste in the centre which Koreans think is sweet – its not.
We sauntered over to the rice wine tasting section and sampled some Korean traditional rice wine. We have tried this before and are not really fans. Its kind of like a starchy, milky, grainy cream coloured liquid that tastes like alcohol. Not good. We bumped into a few friends who had clearly had an afternoon of sampling and one recommended a berry wine she had sampled so I bought a bottle and we headed off home.
For a hangover day it turned out pretty well and was really good to spend some time with Jenny outside school and get to know her a bit more.
We sauntered over to the rice wine tasting section and sampled some Korean traditional rice wine. We have tried this before and are not really fans. Its kind of like a starchy, milky, grainy cream coloured liquid that tastes like alcohol. Not good. We bumped into a few friends who had clearly had an afternoon of sampling and one recommended a berry wine she had sampled so I bought a bottle and we headed off home.
For a hangover day it turned out pretty well and was really good to spend some time with Jenny outside school and get to know her a bit more.
Hammering away the rice to make delicious (??) rice cake.
Finally, some new Korean words for all you readers:
Makgeolli (pronounced 'mak elli') = Korean rice wine.
Dok (pronounced 'dok') = Korean rice cake
Makgeolli (pronounced 'mak elli') = Korean rice wine.
Dok (pronounced 'dok') = Korean rice cake
No comments:
Post a Comment