Day 43 - Flying Horses

On Sunday we were still in Gyeongju and we went on a bus tour of the tourist sights around Gyeongju. Gyeongju is known as the "museum without walls" and has lots of temples and buddhas and monuments around the city. First we went to the small tomb of King Taejong Muyeol. Korean tombs are huge mounds of land filled with the king and treasure. Secondly was the bigger tombs. There is one you can go inside called Cheonmachong which means flying horse. Third was the Wolji Pond also known as the Anapji Pond. The Wolji Pond was a pond next to a palace that was destroyed. Next on the tour was Seokguram Grotto. the Seokguram Grotto is a walkway to a giant Buddha statue carved into a mountain. After that was we went to Bulguksa which was a temple to Buddha with golden Buddha statues everywhere with people praying.

Tomb of King Taejong Muyeol

Cheonmachong

Wollji Pond

Buddha statue

Golden Buddha

Day 42 - The Kingdom Of Gold

On Saturday we went to Gyeongju on the KTX (Korea Train Express - a super fast train which went up to 302 km per hour). Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla kingdom for over one thousand years. When we got there we took a taxi to the Gyeongju National Museum. The museum was split into four parts. We found out lots about the Silla kingdom. Next we checked into our hotel. Then we decided to go on a walk around town. We walked past a water wheel and a lake. We continued to walk for a while until we reached a dead end next to the lake with a 4D car racing game. Then we turned around to head back when we saw people on swan boats on the lake, so we rented a swan boat and we paddled it around for a while until Leah and Dad got tired because it was a bike-boat but there weren't any pedals in the back where me and Mum sat. After that we went to a coffee shop to have a drink then we walked back to our hotel.

KTX train

Silla, Kingdom of Gold. King's crown.

Buddhas

Swan boat

Water wheel

Day 39 - Woolly Rhino

On Wednesday we went to the Chungbuk National University Museum. One day we were walking around campus and we found this museum so we decided to come back later. When we came back we took a look around. The first floor had exhibitions about ancient Korea when cavemen were around. We saw tone tools and skeletons of animals. Next we walked to the second floor which was mostly art but there was also house models and statues. My favorite part was the woolly rhino because it was a skeleton.

Bear skeleton

Bronze daggers

The museum

House model

Day 38 - The Secret Garden

On Sunday after the tour of the palace we went on a tour of the secret garden. The secret garden is the garden of the Chang Deok Gung palace. There were lots of trees, pathways, small picnic buildings and a few lakes and one was shaped like Korea. Beside one of the lakes there was a library and a reading room for the kings and queens to read in the garden. It was still raining and the tour took one hour and a half but towards the end of the tour we got really hungry because we didn't get a lunch break between tours so we missed lunch.

Palace entrance

Island in the middle of a lake

Library

Picnic area

Day 37 - The Soggy Palace

On Sunday we went to the Chang Deok Gung palace in Seoul. The Chang Deok Gung palace is one of the ten palaces in Seoul. When we got there we booked a tour of the palace but it was raining and the tour took an hour. During the tour I learnt about the statues of animals on the roofs of building. It turns out that the number of animals is for how important the building and the more animals it has the more important the building is. Another thing I learnt is about the Korean phoenix. The Korean phoenix is not like other phoenixes because they don't die and be reborn from the ashes - the Korean phoenix doesn't die at all.

Throne room

Palace wall

Its raining

Animal statues

Day 36 - Sejong's Sundial

On Saturday after the museum we went to the Special Exhibition. The Special Exhibition is a gallery about King Sejong the Great. King Sejong is one of the many kings of Korea. Korea was ruled by kings up until 1910 AD, King Sejong was a very important king he invented the sundial, he invented the language I am trying to learn Hangul (the Korean language), a measuring device for rainfall and he helped make some guns. After we finished walking through the exhibition we went to the donated art room that had lots of fabric pictures of birds.

Compass

Hangul book

Rainfall device

Sundial

Day 35 - Museum Madness

On Saturday it was a nice sunny and warm day and we decided to go to the national museum of Cheongju (국립청주박물관). It was on the road to the Sangdangsanseong Fortress but not as far, and we went in a taxi. The museum was split into four parts, the first one is called pre-history. This gallery is about the Korean people about two million years ago to twelve thousand years ago, so mostly was about cavemen stuff.  Next there was gallery two which was called Ancient History and this was around twelve thousand years ago to about 700 AC. During about 100 BC to 700 AD in  Korea there were three kingdoms: Baekje, Goguryeo and Silla who fought many wars during this time, so there were lots of weapons. The third gallery was called Goryeo Dynasty, The Goryeo Dynasty lasted from 918 AD to 1392 AD. We saw lots of bronze bells and Buddhas. The final gallery was called Joseon Dynasty, The Joseon  Dynasty ruled from 1392 AD to 1910 AD and that was the final Dynasty of Korea. There were lots of maps and writing, I liked the fact that it was a sunny day because we have been having a lot of rainy days.

Dragon bells

Flag pole base

Stone knifes

Me and statues

Day 32 - Spot The Squirrel

Today I will be telling you about something that is quite strange and it is trees. At the Chungbuk National University they have a huge staff of gardeners that cut all the trees and bushes into strange puffy clumps of leaves on a stump. The trees are also held up with giant sticks for reasons unknown. On the side of roads, and around buildings, old people dig the dirt up and plant herbs and little plants to grow. There are also lots of flowers blooming and people taking photos of the flowers and themselves and their friends with the flowers.

A weirdly cut bush

A weirdly cut tree

Some trees

A squirrel running through some flowers

Day 31 - Sculpture Garden

On the way to lunch every day we pass the sculpture garden. The sculpture garden is the grass outside the N-16-2 building. There are lots of different sculptures of weird things like spiders, flies, weird metal roots, wooden robots, wolfs, giant flowers, a giraffe, the hulk, a rainbow dog piano, draws coming out of the building, a person in a metal cage, another person sitting on a metal seat, a metal cat head, a jumping fox thing, a red cube, people hanging off the building, a walking hand, a carved apple, Winnie the pooh, a mosaic chameleon and a crane. Most of them were made of metal wood or stone. my favourite one was the wolf.

Hulk statue

N-16-2 building

The white wolf

Day 30 - The Great Wall Of Cheongju

On Sunday we went to the Fortress of Sang-dang-san-seong (상당산성) which is the mountain fortress of Cheongju, it is on Mount Uam. We took a taxi to get there but it still took half an hour. When we got there we had to climb up the mountain to get to the fortress which was tiring to climb. When we arrived at the top we found the great wall of Cheongju, so we decided to walk along it (bad mistake) but we only got about one tenth of the way along before turning back. After that we walked down to the town of Sang-dang-san-seong. Next when we got to the village we were given free seeds, we ate them. Finally we got a taxi and went home.

The fortress wall

Turtle monument

Fortress gate

Stairs to the vilage

Day 29 - Delicious Doughnuts

On Sunday we went to the Lotte Outlet. Lotte is a company that sells everything and owns everything. The Lotte outlet is a giant department store with a car park, its own fast food restaurant called Lotteria, a waffle shop, a doughnut shop, a food court, a Smoothie King, a bunch of clothes shops, a tech shop and a Toys R Us shop which is the biggest toy company in the world. At first we looked at clothes but we all got bored because there wasn't very much compared to the Hyundai department store. Next we had lunch at the food court and we had sushi. Then we had the best doughnuts I have ever had in my life. After that we went to Toys R Us we looked around it for ages because it was huge. Finally we found the supermarket and we bought food and then we left.

Toys R Us

Day 28 - Everland Theme Park

On Friday we went to The Everland theme park in Seoul.We were able to gt a bus straight from Cheongju which took about ninety minutes. When we got there we had a bit of trouble getting in but we finally managed to get in after our driver gave us our tickets. Leah and Dad went on most of the rides but I preferred to play the games, win prizes and eat ice cream. The best ride I went on was the racing coaster, the worst ride I went on was the global village because it was very boring ( I could have fallen asleep on it). While we were there they had a tulip festival on with tulips every where. We also saw a Madagascar circus show with people juggling bowling pins on fire on top of a ladder with no one holding the ladder and other acrobats.

The X - Train ride

The Hurricane ride 

The Rodeo ride

Tulip festival

Day 24 - Shopping Shopping Shopping

On Saturday we went to the G well city mall. When we got there we found that it was split into two parts. So we decided to go to G well city mall 2 for reasons unknown. There were about 4 floors. Most of them where clothes shops but underground there were cafes and restaurants. Then we crossed over to G well city mall 1. When we first got there we saw lots of restaurants with over priced food. But we decided to eat at a Japaneses restaurant. After that we went to the Hyundai department store with too many floors to count, It had clothes shops, car parks, shoe shops and instead of a supermarket there was a bunch of small shops that sold different things (food hall). It had two ice cream shops that looked very yummy and it was very hot inside the shop, but we didn't get ice cream.

G well city mall 1

G well city

Hyundai department store

Day 23 - Korean Characters Part Two

Today I will be teaching you about more Korean letters that I have learnt. But first i will recap on what I taught you last time and they were:ㅏㅓㅗㅜㅡㅣㅑㅕㅛㅠ. Now the first new letter I will be teaching you is ㄱand it makes a "k" sound at the start and end of a word but at the start of a syllable it makes a "g" sound. The next character is ㅋ and it makes a 'kh' sound, it sounds very similar to the last character and does not change at different places in the word. Then there is ㅎ which makes a "h" sound, but is silent at the end of a word. The final character that I will be teaching you today is ㄴand it makes a "n" sound and it makes this sound at the end and start of a word and syllable. And now a word from the Korean language, the word is 휴가 and it means holiday. Can you pronounce it? If not you say it like "hue-gah".

Day 22 - Spaceship In Seoul

On Sunday after the war memorial we went to the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park (동대문역사문화공원). It is a massive curved building made of steel and glass that looks like a giant spaceship. It is made up of three buildings: an Art Hall, a Museum and a Design plaza. When we got there the Art Hall was closed which was sad because we wanted to see the art. Then we walked to the museum, but you needed to have a ticket to get in. So we looked around the design plaza and shops, there were lots of things they had like tech, clothes, food, things for the house, books and stationery. After looking around we went shopping at the department stores around Seoul and had drinks at a cafe.

Us arriving

Robot

Spaceship from above

rabbit beanbag