South Korea: Day 4 - Bulguksa Temple & Gyochon Hanok Village

We had breakfast issues again this morning. Seems that breakfast before 11am is just an unrealistic expectation in Korea. After more time wasted in fruteless searching, we finally grabbed a sit-down coffee at Cafe Arden and then headed for our bus to Bulguksa Temple at around 10:30. On the way we managed to grab a snack at Paris Baguette, and soon enough we were ensconced on bus 12 for the 40 minute trip.

We arrived at the temple at around 12pm, and were greeted by a balmy 8 degree day out on the temple mountain. We spent a pleasant hour and a half checking out everything a buddhist temple has to offer - these things really are built to the same predictable spec. To be honest, it was just nice to be out and not freezing cold (I can't believe I'm saying that). Soon our stomachs were urging us to find a real meal, so we headed back down to the cluster of restaurants servicing hungry pilgrims.

We decided on a place for lunch called "My Mother-in-law's Korean Restaurant", mainly because it was doing a brisk trade. We were certainly not disappointed with our choice. We enjoyed an amazing beef bulgogi hot-pot, and walked back to the bus stop singing the mother-in-law's praises.

The mother-in-law cooks a mean hot-pot.

Hopping on bus 10 back to Gyeongju, in an hour we were back to our guest house. We immediately headed back out for a much needed caffeine hit! We chose another of Gyeongju's infinite supply of cafes - Cafe Florian - for another sit-down coffee, and it was great; especially with a chocolate cake chaser.

The welcome one-two hit of caffeine and sugar at Cafe Florian.

Batteries recharged, we decided to walk to Gyeongju Gyochon Hanok Village to check out the traditional buildings. Unlike the hanok villages in Seoul (which we have yet to see), this village didnt seem to contain houses that actual people anyone lived in. It was just a bunch of businesses - and had a real touristy "display village" type feel. A little disappointing to be honest.

Gyeongju Gyochon hanok display village.

While we were out, we realised that we were very close to Woljeong Bridge - a local attraction that we had planned on seeing at night (reportedly the best way to view it). We decided to check it out anyway, and promised ourselves we'd make the trek back out to see it all lit up at a later stage.

Woljeong Bridge - stoically athwart the frozen river.

As the sun set behind the mountains we were afforded some spectacular views from the bridge itself. 

From the bridge, we walked back towards town and the Cheomseongdae - an ancient Silla observatory and a really big deal here in Geongju. It's the oldest celestial observatory in asia. All the while the sun kept dropping and lights were coming on. 

Cheomseongdae nicely lit up, as were the barrows that surrounded it.

Soon it was time for dinner, and we put our names down at a restaurant we had failed to get into the night before - Hwangnam Gyeongju Sikdan The spread of roasted meats that we ordered was delicious.

Gloriously roasted meats at Hwangnam Gyeongju Sikdang.

Some gelato was consumed as we walked back to the Poseok-ro where pop-sockets were purchased, and then it was on to a well earned rest at our guest house.