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Start
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Daereungwon Ancient Tombs
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Cheomseongdae
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Gyochon Village
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Gyeongju National Museum
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Bulguksa Temple
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Bomun Tourist Complex
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Gyeongju Tower
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Bunhwangsa Temple
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Food
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Finish
As I said in the first travel note, Gyeongju doesn't have many famous restaurants, but when you go in Gyeongju, most of the shops are bakeries that sell Hwangnam Bread and Barley bread, which tells you how Gyeongu's bread are famous.
So I compared Hwangnam Bread and Barley Bread and smile bread instead of reviewing restaurants.
Hwangnam Bread (Choeyeonghwa Bread) 황남빵
The name Hwangnam Bread is originated from the place Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, where the bread was originally sold. Now there are places selling Hwangnam Bread everywhere in Gyeongju, but the place where the local residents think the best is…
Is the Gyeongju Hwangnam Bread that is listed on 'Dusan Encyclopedia' that the inventor is Choeyeonghwa. Nowadays the descendants of Choeyeonghwa are making the bread.
In the shop there is a line of customers to buy the bread and on the right are the workers who are making Hwangnam Bread.
If you tell your name at the counter which is at the inner side, you can get the fresh made warm Hwangnam Bread right away.
The Hwangnam Bread bakery has been here for 80 years, and sell the bread with the price of 8,000 won per 10 breads. According to the rumor, most of the kins of the owner also work to make Hwangnam Bread.
After about 20~30 minutes, my name was called finally. They put the breads in a plastic bag, telling me to wait 10 minutes for the heat to cool down and then close the lid.
Hwangnam Bread is made with flour and egg mixed roundly, and red beans are put inside. After that the bread is stamped into a chrysanthemum shape and baked with egg water on it.
The bread is consisted with 70% of red beans but it isn't that sweet. Old citizens who like chestnut bread and sweet jelly of red beans will love the taste.
Of course, I also enjoyed it.
Address: Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do hwangohdong 307 (경상북도 경주시 황오동 307)
Phone Number: 054-743-4896
Opening hours: 09:00 to 18:00
Price information: 1 set (10) ₩ 8,000
Gyeongju Barley bread (Jinsu Miga) 경주찰보리빵
Next is Barley bread, the bread that's all over in Gyeongju like Hwangnam Bread.
The most famous shop that sells Barley bread is 'Danseokka Barley bread' but it's quite far away from here, so we just put it back in our minds until the last day, and finally bought the bread from Jinsumiga Barley bread bakery, which is near the express bus terminal.
Actually it is said that Barley bread was first sold near the entrance of the express bus terminal and near the parking lot of Cheonmachong, so maybe this place is the origin. There was a bake ware in the shop, but we couldn't see the actual process.
Barley bread are wrapped up individually, which is different from Hwangnam Bread. Barley bread is like pancake made of flour.
There are red beans between two chewy Barley dough. The chewy taste is marvelous, more than the taste of the red beans. That's why young people like this bread then Hwangnam Bread.
The price is 12,000 won for 20 breads, but if you persuade the owner well, you can buy 10 of the bread.
Address : Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do noseodong 243-5 (경상북도 경주시 노서동 243-5)
Phone Number: 054-749-1159
Homepage: http://www.gjbread.com/
Silla Smile bread 신라미소빵
The last is Silla Smile bread. The bread resembles the 'Maksae roof tile's smile, and is getting popular nowadays.
This place is always operated by the inventor and the shop is near Cheomseongdae.
In the shop the walls are filled with various certificates and on one side there is a place for customers to drink coffee and water.
I liked the owner's kind attitude, who advised us not to buy much to consider the bread's expiry date.
The ingredients of the bread's stuffing are red beans, walnuts and blueberries, like the middle type of Hwangnam Bread and Barley bread.
The breads are wrapped individually like Barley bread. The price is 7,000 won for 1set, which contains 10 breads.
Inside the wrapping is the bread having the same smile of Maksae roof tile, also called 'smile of the thousand years'.
Silla Smile bread is thicker than Hwangnam Bread. The walnut and blueberry ingredients made me think that the bread targets young people.
And the shop is the only one among the three bakeries who smiled to us and gave us two samples. The kind service was excellent.
Address: 755-6 inwangdong Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do (경상북도 경주시 인왕동 755-6)
Phone Number: 054-773-3900
Opening hours: 08:30 to 22:00
Homepage: http://www.shillamiso.co.kr/
The conclusion is simply Hwangnam Bread has a solemn taste without any messy techniques. The Barley bread has a fun and chewy taste and the Smile bread has a kind and funny smily taste(?).
All three kinds of breads had their own style. I say Gyeongju is a blessed city to have so many various breads to grow into a speciality~.
Rumorpang 루머팡
Arter we had ate the tasty Gyeongju breads, we went in to a coffeeshop named 'Rumorpang' which is across Gyeongju Express Bus Terminal, to have a cup of coffee that we couldn't drink for a while.
At first we thought it is an individual coffee shop, but it turned out to be a franchize coffee shops spreaded in Gyeongju, Pohang, Gumi, Ulsan and Daegu.
The simple outterior and the interior were all decorated with wood, giving a comfortable feeling. The price rate and menu also satisfied me.
They also selled 'Bun' with stuffings and German cookie 'Schneeballen' along with coffee,
Because it's near the terminal, most of the customers might be tourists, rather than regular customers. On a bookshelf at the wall on one side there are post-its that tourists wrote, more than books.
And under the bookshelf is a visitor's book classified annually. It'll be fun to visit later and find your sign that you had left before.
And, to remind this is Gyeongju, there is a model of a drinking dice on one side.
My little kid who likes latte chose a blueberry latte and I held an americano to an outside table at the innerside of the cafe.
There were Lailac flowers with fragrance above our heads while we took a rest, tasting our coffee after our busy schedule in Gyeongju.
Rumorpang has a tidy interior and various menus, and enough space for a comfortable rest, despite it is located near the terminal. It satisfied us much.
And the taste of coffee was also good, good enough to compare with major coffee shops in Seoul area.
Address: 488-7 sajeongdong Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do (경상북도 경주시 사정동 488-7)
Phone Number: 054-743-5697
Opening hours: 9:00 to 22:00
Homepage: http://www.rumorpang.com/
Gyeongju Terminal 경주터미널
After we came out of the shop, the sky was dark before a rain, like a weather forecast.
We went into the terminal and issued the notes of the 16:00 bus we had reserved. And looked around the terminal, as we can't move for 4 and half hours in the bus.
Between the Gyeongju Intercity Bus Terminal and Gyeongju Express Bus Terminal is a Gyeongju Tourist Information Booth. And right behind is Pegasus Tourism, which operates City Tour.
And there is a well established taxi stop. All the buses in Gyeongju starts from here, so it is the hub of transportation.
And there are exquisite motels gathered for 2~3 blocks behing the terminal, so even though you didn't reserve an accommodation, you don't need to worry.
At the front yard of the Gyeongju Tourist Information Booth is a complimentary machine that you can take a selfie and send it to your mail with a tourist map of Gyeongju.
Mw and my kid also took selfies for twice, standing the looks of people on the street. But 'No...' We have been fooled by the machine.
We checked a lot of times at home, but we didn't recieve any mail, maybe the machine had a problem.
We looked around Gyeongju well for 1 night and 2 days, and got fooled by a machine... But we got on the bus for home.
We went asleep fast, and woke up at Mungyeong service area and ate delicious service area food.
We had such a great time, because we had wished to come back to Gyeongju after our Buyeo tour. The tight schedule and the long distance travel could't stop our satisfaction.
Although there are some places we couldn't visit because of the construction and weather and time, it will be difficult to find a tourist who felt Silla's breathe this much for only 2 days.
We came back to the bus and looked through the pictures and talkde about our tour, while the rain started to fall along with the sun...
Our faces having the smile of the thousand years and the royal azalea bloomed at the corner of the terminal shined brightly with the rain water.
Gyeongju Intercity Bus Terminal 경주시외버스터미널
Address: 160-2 noseodong Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do (경상북도 경주시 노서동 160-2)
Tel: 1666-5599
Homepage: http://gyeongjuterminal.co.kr/
