Lucy's Korea Blog!: Gyeongsangbuk-do Overnight Trip

I'm going to start by saying that there I have been doing so much since last I posted that I'm having a hard time remembering everything! So far I've only been posting about the big events and trips I've been taking, but I think the smaller stuff is important too, so from now on I'll be trying to post at least every other week even if I haven't been up to much.

A couple of weeks ago the culture class had an overnight trip to Gyeongsangbuk-do in the East, which has many Buddhist cultural heritage sites and also UNESCO world cultural heritage sites.

The first place we headed to was the Daereungwon Tomb Complex. It was a gorgeously sunny day and we got to wander around the grounds where all the tombs were. The tombs themselves just looked like small hills dotted around, but when we went inside one it was full of thousand year old treasures and the bodies of the dead King and Queen.

Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside the tomb

Such a beautiful day!

Some of the tombs

Next we headed to the Gyeongju National Museum, which had artifacts from the tombs and also ancient art from the area.

Outside the museum

Then we headed up the mountain to visit the Bulguksa temple which we wandered around for a few hours. It was great fun to explore around all the different buildings surrounded by trees and rivers.

Late that evening we headed to the Anapji pond which was gorgeous. It was dark when we arrived, but the place was lit up by hundreds of lights which were reflected in the clear water.

The next day we visited Andong Hahoe village in the foothills of the Hwasan Moutain, a traditional Korean village. This village was a lot bigger than I'd imagined and was still a functioning village with people still living in the traditional house. When we went there was an apple festival taking place, where we got to taste free samples of the most delicious apples I've ever eaten in my life (or that might just be because I hadn't eaten an apple in so long...). Near the village was an amazing mask museum, full of Korean traditional masks and a few masks from around the world.