Busan X the Sky
Today we would be leaving Busan and going to the historic city of Gyeongju. We had an intercity coach booked for 1pm, so still had some time in morning that we could spend in Haeundae. We decided to visit X the Sky, an observatory on the 98th to 100th floors of the second tallest building in Korea.
The windows were very heavily tinted and reflective which messed with my photos a bit, but being so high gave us a great view over the sea, city and surrounding mountains.
The observatory is also home to the highest Starbucks in the world and we stopped for a drink. I had a refreshing frozen watermelon slushy.
Once we were back at ground level there was still a bit of time until we had to get the bus. We found somewhere to sit overlooking the beach.
Gyeongju Hanok Lodging
The intercity bus went directly from Haeundae to Gyeongju with no stops and took just over an hour. Gyeongju is a much smaller city than anywhere we’d been so far but very culturally important as it was the capital of the Silla Kingdom, one of the three original kingdoms of Korea, from 57BC until they united in 935CE.
It was nice to be surrounded by fields and hills on the journey and as we got close to Gyeongju, all the the buildings, including petrol stations, started to have traditional style curved roofs.
Once we’d arrived, we walked to our accommodation for the next couple of nights. We were staying in a traditional Hanok house that had been renovated and converted into 4 holiday lettings
It was very fancy and a lovely mix of traditional and modern. There were lots of high-tech gadgets (like a Balmuda steam toaster, Dyson airwrap and a Samgsung steam closet), a little kitchen area and a massive onsen style bath.
As it was a very hot day and we’d melted on the walk to the house, we decided to stay in for a bit, have a cool bath and then and go back out when it wasn’t quite so hot in the evening.
Cheomseongdae Observatory
In the evening we walked to the Wolseong historic district where the Cheomseongdae observatory is located. This is the oldest astronomical observatory in Asia and was built in the 7th century
Around the observatory were lots of colourful flower fields
Daereungwon Tomb Complex
Dotted around Gyeongju are large green tumuli – these are the tombs of Silla royals. Our walk back towards where we were staying took us though an area of these.
Dinner
For dinner we tried our first Korea BBQ. You pick what meat you want and then a selection of side dishes are provided. We had no idea what most of them were, or what you were supposed to eat them with but it didn’t matter, it was tasty and fun!
