"Museum Without Walls"

In a continuation of my never ending weekend, I traveled up to Gyeongju on Tuesday. I had the day off for my schools B-day. On Monday I did the usual sham of going to school for 7 hours and wasting time. I mixed in a 30 minute nap this week.

Gyeongju is called the Museum Without Walls because of the historic sights scattered about the city and countryside. It's the former capital of the Silla people, who are like the native Koreans. There are temples, burial mounds, carvings of Buddhas and various other historic homes and temples.

I took my bike out for it's first real ride. Most of the sights are with in riding distance, though the roads through teh country side could use a little work, as there's no shoulder.
This is one of the most famous Buddha carvings in the world. It dates back to the 8th century. It reminded me of the Ajanta caves of central India which had Buddjust carving of about the same size and age. Photos aren't allowed for some reason. At most Buddhist statues they don't care, so I thought it was OK to take one.


Last Friday was Buddha's birthday. Happy 2478th birthday Buddha! These lanterns are strung up all over the city and at the temples. I think they look cool.
These are Burial mounds in the town of Gyeongju. It's hard to tell how tall they are, but they're about 30 feet. They're full dead people and their belongings. Thrilling, I know.
I went up to Gyeongju on a weekday to avoid the crowds. But no such luck. There were students, 6th graders from all over Korea on a 3 day field trips. I liked it though, they livened it up a little bit. Here I am posing with 3 kids from Seoul in front of East Asia's oldest astronomy observation tower.
I became extremely jealous of anyone who likes to excersize in this city. Check it out, there are three lanes. 1 for running/walking, 1 for roller blading, and 1 for bikes. I run through a Home Depot of exhaust and motorcycles and taxi's and Koreans who refuse to walk in a straight line while texting and watching TV on their phones.