Where are Tinus and Barrie?

I am back to writing on a bus!

We spent the last week in Gyeongju and Wonju. A breath of fresh air after Busan, since both cities are not riddled with generic, ugly high-rise buildings, but architecture you could peer over if you climb a hill. Gyeongju is especially beautiful. And I’ll report on fun shenanigans we got up to and observed to do with bears, bunnies and bullet points. And dinosaurs.

Oh yeah, the first part is maybe a bit more of a traditional blog, so skip ahead for the weird and wonderful if that’s more your thing.

Low-rise, high fun

Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla kingdom (57 BC – 935 AD) for almost a thousand years. The city and its surroundings are scattered with grave mounds of Silla royalty. You’re basically tripping over UNESCO World Heritage and national treasures.

The Bulguksa Temple, UNESCO World Heritage.

This warning felt very poetic to me.

There’s also loads of beautiful walks to go on around the city, which we did. Because fuck it, I didn’t carry these trekking poles for nothing!

I present you my husband: intrepid traveller, explorer extraordinaire and dashing discoverer.

In Gyeongju, I caved and set my ‘no sugar treats’ rule aside to try Injeolmi Bingsu. A sweet rice cake shaved ice dessert, including condensed milk and red bean puree, topped with toasted soy bean powder. Ok, this description might not have sold it to you, but I guarantee it is absolutely epic.

This is the face of a woman experiencing absolute bliss, a state I did not even reach during our temple stay.

Gyeongju definitely is the most touristic place we visited, but with good reason and without it feeling obnoxious.

Definitely NOT touristic but worth it was Wonju. We went there to visit Museum SAN (thanks for the tip, Rean!), but we had a chill time in general.

Museum SAN is not easily reached with a regular bus, so we took the Wonju Tour Bus, which stops at all the highlights (there’s like, five to be honest). It not only had fake plants on the ceiling, but was filled with middle-aged Korean ladies that were entertained with facts by the tour guide. We just nodded like we knew what she was saying, although the only words we picked up were “Wonju” and “cable car”.

We in fact did not go with the cable car, but to an abandoned railway station. We thought there was a small theme park on the grounds of the station. Well, there was, but that turned out to be abandoned too.

So we had a walk around, which was actually quite beautiful.

The cable car flying overhead over the abandoned railway line.

Museum SAN was absolutely stunning. The building is by Tadao Ando, with trademark clean lines and deceptively simple design.

We also had a nice stroll along the river, and made good use of the ‘random chairs everywhere’ culture described in the last post.

Like seriously, who bothers to haul a full-ass couch to a park?!

All in all, even though Museum SAN is an easy day trip from Seoul, I would recommend spending the night in Wonju. It’s not super special, but a nice break from high-rise hectic vibes.

Posing as the semi-enthusiastic Wonju Tourist Recommendation Representatives.

Going all in on bears, bunnies (and dinosaurs)

On our way to the UNESCO World Heritage Bulguksa Temple, the bus stop ‘Teddy Bear Museum’ was announced. We instantly looked at each other and telepathically communicated to each other: “We are SO going here on our way back.”

At the entrance, we found out the museum was not just about teddy bears, but bunnies as well. And yes, dinosaurs. More on that later.

We were greeted by the most nervous woman in Korea trying her absolute best to make sure we did EVERYTHING in the museum. Such as donning bear ears and participating in a bunny creation workshop. We went all in.

Photo op one of about 5,625. Pretending to paint, with bear ears on, overlooked by a bunny angel.

In deep conversation with bunnies and a bear.

A mermaid bear (Merbear? Bearmaid?).

And then for some reason, there was a whole room FULL of bears, bunnies and dinosaurs. The fever dream was complete.

All that was left to do, was to create our own bunnies. Overseen by the kindest woman that surely didn’t sign up for crafting with adults, we made keychains!

Bert the bunny, freshly created, still steaming from the hot glue gun.

Highly recommended museum, 10/10 bear paws.

Korean business cannot exist without bullet points

We noticed early on that stores, cafes and restaurants make clear what they have to offer with bullet points. A cafe might boast on its facade;

• Beer
• Wine
• Whiskey

Good to know. Way to state the obvious.

But they can get out of hand.

Ah yes, the age-old combo of coffee, dessert and *checks notes* pretzel and horses.

They can also tell you to get lost, for instance:

My kind of place.

But others capitalise on that and take a different approach:

Love the clear communication of bullet points!

Depressed bears and other random things

We have seen a lot of giant depressed bear plushies outside of stores and cafes. Perhaps because they were not selected for the Teddy Bear Museum?

In a previous post I showed an ad that had something to do with Steve Jobs. Even the Teddy Bear Museum loves him!

All the noodle soups I have been eating has resulted in many stained shirts, due to the collateral damage of slurping said noodles. Luckily, all restaurants have bibs! And I am not too proud to wear them.

Ok, I am out of bus time, so here’s a photo dump. Last post on Seoul will be up in a week or so!

Oh yeah, using our picture to promote your restaurant? Well, we won’t be looking happy about it!

Street “art”

Dorothea Tanning <3

Two friends having a laugh.

Two friends having a grump.