Gyeongju

Hi all, another quick message without an pictures (Actually i am just adding them in now... mg)- i am at the hostel in Gyeongu, which is Southern South Korea, almost down to Pusan. Its nice that it isn't as hectic as Seoul, but there isn't that much to do, and i have seen most of what i planned to. I will stay one night, then return by train to Seoul tmrw. I think i will spend tmrw morning looking at a big park, maybe go out to the lake area, and then check out a market - i want to get some things for friends and damily - especially seeing i will be away for Christmas this year.

The hostel i am at is quite good, it is only about AUS$25 for a single room without private bathroom - and it has free internet and breakfast, as well as a kitchen, and a REALLY helpful host who has good english. The room is very basic, and the walls are literally paper thin (made of paper! duh!), and all open onto a shared courtyard which is cool. So far there are no people my age here as i hoped for hanging out, but still - its cheap, close enough to the train station and bus stops (about 10 minutes walk - 15 at the end of the day!), and ... well thats enough really!

I am pretty tired now, have had a lot of long days, with lots and lots of walking (as the expression goes, my blisters have blisters), and generally i have not gotten as much sleep as normal - between 4 and 7 hours a night. And whilst i wouldn't say i am home sick, i certainly miss my friends and family - especially princess katie. So yeah, i look forward to taking it easy here, sleeping as late as the noise around me permits, then heading back to Seoul for my last days before going home. I will try to post more pictures once i am back to seoul, and will be sure to after returning to Australia. If anyone is actually reading this, feel free to leave a comment, or send me an email - i still check it daily. Byyyyeeee.

This is the fast train i took down to Gyeongju - and on the left is just a picture i took of a town we passed at 300kmh.

This is a 1000 year old necklace on display at the boring museum i went to..

This was the 'Traditional Korean' meal i had at the restaraunt at the museum... i had a really interesting time ordering and trying to retrieve the piece of paper i had info about my dietary needs written in korean on - i had no korean, and they had no english, it was fun!

A shot from the mountain top temple i went to, as are the ones below.

I just thought this was nifty - a mobile phone that was just a small pair of headphones.. they have to coolest technology there.. especially with phones.

This was the totem at the door to the entrance of the hostel i stayed at.

In the large memorial park in the centre of town, which houses lots of massive tombs of previous emperors etc.

This is my puppy in front of one of the tombs

This is two of the bigger tombs. They buried the person in a wooden casket, then piled up loads of stones, then covered it in dirt, then left it to grow over with grass.. i guess the bigger the size, the more important they were.