On spring in Korea: To Gyeongju, and back again! Part 1

It's April in Korea, and you know what that means!

showers!

Cherry blossoms! If you're anything like me, and watched too much Ouran High School Host club and other romance animes, you know that cherry blossom season is the season for love and bicycles.

and honey sempai

I accomplished one of those things! 

My girlfriends and I decided to take a voyage to the lovely city of Gyeongju. It's known for lush gardens, picturesque landscapes and bread. It's the perfect place to scratch your itch for both carbs and pretty things.

First-How in the world do you get there?

The easiest option (in most opinions) is to take the KTX from DongDaegu station to Gyeongju. However, the KTX station is a ways off from downtown Gyeongju. The more convenient way is to take the bus from Seobu Bus Terminal. The bus drops you in a pretty central location, about 5,000 won away from downtown Gyeongju. Which is exactly what we did.

to get to the terminal by bus or taxi check this out:

http://globaldaegu.blogspot.kr/2012/07/seobu-bus-terminal.html

"The easiest way to get to Seobu intercity terminal is using subway line no1. You can take the exit number 3 when you get off at Seongdangmot station and it’s right next to the gate."

That's directly from the globaldaegu site and it worked fine for the girls. I opted to take the 618 bus from Seobu Market. It took about 30 minutes but dropped me within walking distance to the station. I had to cross the street twice, but it was really simple.

The hardest part was actually getting on the bus. The bus station sells tickets, not seats.

huh?

This means that you basically buy a ticket and wait in a line for the bus that you want to take. Unfortunately for us, by the time our last member came to the station, we were so far back in line that the 10:20 bus filled up before we could get on. We had to wait for the 11:00. 

Word of advice, get in line early.

11:00 came slowly as we stood outside waiting for the bus to pull up. When it did we were almost the first people on the bus. All 5 of us rushed to the back and sat down. Good thing too, because the bus was soon so full that we had people sitting at our feet.

 

Yes, that is a Korean man sitting right at my feet, and an aisle full of Korean women.

An hour+ later, we made it to Gyeongju.

After dropping our things off at our hostel, we decided to get some grub at my favorite place in South Korea, Bbasak! 

Bbasak has two things on the menu; dongkatsu and udon. The dongkatsu is hand breaded by a burly man in the front of the shop. You can watch them make your order while you wait. And you will wait. 

It's worth it, however, for the food that does come out. 

Is that rice shaped in a heart? Yes, yes it is. 

After stuffing ourselves with fried pork, we decided to walk to the bike park. Pictures coming in the next section!