to Gyeongju and the Tumuli

After 3 days in Daegu we decided to go elsewhere, both of us didnt like the city too much and it was time to move on to Gyeongju. Again we took the bus, but this time the bus driver was not as crazy. The ride itself took us about an hour, nearly as long as finding the bus station and buying the tickets in Daegu.

The weather in Gyeongju was very hot, and we had a hard time finding a decent priced room. After 1 hour of running through Gyeongju we found a nice small Hotel. The couple, who owned the Hotel was very friendly, they even washed our clothes for free.

After 2 or 3 hours of rest, we decided to check out one of the numerous sights in Gyeongju. It was alrdy 3 or 4 pm, so we had a quick trip to General Kim Yu-Shin's tomb 1 kilometre outside Gyeongju.
The gardens around the tomb were very beautiful, the tomb itself was not too impressive as it was only a small green hill in the middle of a wood. The site was very old, probably about 1300 years,  this General is still very prominent person in Korea. He was the first to unify Korea in the Silla period in 668 and he even succeeded to the throne as king some years later.

After we inspected the tomb we wandered around the area for an hour and then we took a taxi to the tumuli park to see more of those hill-like graves. This site was a lot cooler than the General's tomb, because there were more of those hills (tumuli), and you could even go into one of the tombs, called Heavenly Horse Tomb. There we saw the grave of an unknown Silla king, how those tumuli were constructed and some of the artefacts the archeologists retrieved from the grave, including an awesome crown!

After this historic excursion it was time to get something to eat. I had my first Kalbi grill experience that night and it was excellent. All the side dishes, Kimchi, rice, sauces and the salat to wrap the meat, mhmm.
Stuffed and tired we went home to get some sleep for the next day.