Gyeongju Cherry Blossoms

One Sunday in April we all went with the people of the English Cafe to Gyeongju to go see all the cherry blossoms. We all met at the train station and got on the train to Gyeongju, about 35 minutes from Ulsan. At the station in Gyeongju we rented some bicycles, our transportation for the day. My first bike was a mountain bike, but I decided to trade it for a cruiser with a basket, wise decision.



Jean, JiYoung and Anriette (my new co-teacher and our new partner in crime)



  

We were devided into teams of three, one foreigner and two Koreans. We then split up into two big groups and hit the rode to a big lake on the other side of Gyeongju.

There were thousands of trees with millions of beautiful bossoms.
It almost looked the they were covered in snow.

It think we rode the bikes for about 10km until we finally reached the lake. We took a well deserved break and then hit the road again to go meet the others on the other side of the lake.

On the other side of the lake on the left you can see Gyeongju World.

After meeting the others we went to a Korean restaurant for lunch. We were all starving.

Gerdus, Lindie and Tommy.

Me and my team.



Back outside, this little guy was having a blast in his battery-operated
Mini Cooper convertible. Sometimes I was I was still a baby.

It was time to hit the road again and we split up into the two groups again. Just a few meters up the road we stopped at a waterfall and watermill to take a another rest after the 2 minute drive up the road. It's an absolutely beautiful place, and it the cool breeze coming from the waterfall was heavenly.

Gerdus and Lindie spreading the love...

...and then the battle to see who gets wet first, not really.

The waterfall is real, but not natural. The Koreans love to create beautiful
places in the middle of cities and towns.

And the we got on the bikes again. Luckily this time we were going down hill. The traffic in Gyeongju was insane that day. Bikes were an excellent choice of transportation.

On the road again...

This whole street was surrounded by hundreds of trees with millions of
cherry blossom. A lot morea beautiful in real life than on photos.

After about 45 minutes we reached our destination, Anapji Pond, a place where all the kings went to play with their girlfriends. About 5 minutes after we got there the other group arrived as well. Perfect timing!

After walking around for a while we sat down to take a rest and a few of us decided to take a quick nap.


Tika, Jean and I napping...



Hugh, Anriette and JiYoung.

When we left Anapji Pond we all took the bikes to Gyeongju National Museum, a big building with a lot of interesting exhibitions.

The museum.

Stone pagoda outside the museum.

When we left the museum the sun was setting and it was one of the most
beautiful sunsets I have ever seen.

We were on the bike again and off to the train staion. We took a small road through some parks and a Hanok village. As we were going along the road, the sun was busy setting behind the mountains. It was gorgeous.

Best photo of the day.

Jean and I spotted some Korean kites in the air and we tried to get the sun, traditional house and the kites in the frame. The kites are a little small, but if you open thefull size picture they are easier to see.

Here the kites are more visible. They look like long-tailed birds hovering
in the air.

After enjoying the sunset we headed to the train station and back to Ulsan. We were all wiped after a day full day of pedaling bikes through the whole Gyeongju, but it was worth every drop of sweat, muscle pain and aching bum.

Bamboo Forest

About two and a half months ago Jean, Cha'man and I went to the Bamboo Forest at the Taewha river. It was an awesome day for that time of year and we had to take advantage of it. So we decide to hop on a bus to the forest. It's probably just 10 minutes by bus from home. The bus that we got on was really full and we had to stand. There were a few high school students sitting and we were standing next to them when an old guy started shouting at them. The only words we could make out were 학생 "hakseng" (student), 외국 "waeguk" (foreigner) and 안자 "anja" (sit). They didn't look very pleased and started getting up. We realised that the old guy wanted them to get up so that we could sit down. The more we told them it's okay the more the old guy went on in Korean, insisting that we sit down. Eventually we did. We asked Cha'man what the man had said and he told us that the man wanted the students to give us their seats so that when we go back to our own countries we would speak highly of Korea. Probably 5 minutes after we sat down we had to get off the bus anyway.

Bamboo panda pose.

The forest runs along the river and it's huge. It has a few paths going through it, but we stuck to the main one.
It is truely beautiful. After every ten steps we found a bench and sat down to relax in the cool air, wishing we were pandas living in the forest. It would be panda heaven!

While sitting on one of the benches a couple with a little girl, probably about 2 years old, walked past us. the little girl was so intrigued by seeing two foreigners with a Korean that she literally turned around and started reversing after her parents just so that she could keep staring at us. At that moment a boy on his bicycle was driving past and he almost wiped out trying to miss the little girl and stare at the same time. Cha'man kept telling us how all the people are staring at us, but we have gotten so used to it that we don't even notice it anymore. Well, except when the people stop in front of you to stare or when little kids start reversing while staring and then wipe out against a parked car.

When we exited the forest at the other end we walked past a group of kids playing basketball and having fun. A few girls came running up to us and shoved a cellphone in Jean's hand so that she could talk to one of their friends. Jean tried to talk to her but all she heard was breating. The poor girl probably got a panic attack. We wallked around for a while and then turned around to go to the busstop and when we walked past the kids again I asked them if they wanted a photo with us. They almost jumped out of their skins and immediatly lined up for a photo. The girls even took photo's with Jean on their cellphones.

Kimchi!

Then we took a bus to Shinae and decided to go to a multi-bang. That is a noraebang, pc-bang and Wii-room all in one. We played some Wii there and Cha'man totaly kicked our asses in everything, escpecially in boxing. When wrapped up the ass-wippin' at the multi-bang we were starving so we went to Samsan-dong to a galbi restaurant and had some delicious galbi-jim. Then we tried to go on the Lotte Wheel, but we got there like 2 seconds after they closed for the night. So then we voted for Ulsan Grand Park. Hopped on a bus, hopped off, and guess what? Closed, again. Luck was clearly not on our side anymore so we called it a night and went home. Despite the two bummers at the end, it was an still an awesome day.