Anytime Travel Series

A small comma for those tired of everyday life, and a traveler's record of seeing the city at their own pace.
The third city in the Blue Fragrance emotional travel essay series, "Travel Anytime," is Gyeongju.
In a place where quietly accumulated time and warm daily life flow together, the author delicately captures scenes where heritage and daily life coexist, following the rhythm of the four seasons.
From the splendid ruins to the present-day life living alongside them.
Let's walk quietly and deeply through the current race.

Bulguksa Temple, Cheomseongdae Observatory, Gyeongju National Museum, Beyond the Brilliant Heritage
Hwango-dong Alley, Seongdong Market, Banwolseong, Bonghwangdae, Nosori, Gampo Port, etc.
From quiet cafes and local markets to bookstores and the sea
If you want to slowly collect the current race!

A four-season Gyeongju travel guide: walking, running, tasting, and resting
A city of a thousand years, as beautiful and generous as a postcard,
Let's unfold the spring, summer, fall, and winter of Gyeongju.

A place where you can walk through the graves of the dead during the day, the forest paths in the low castle where they lived, and the alleys of the present, and in the evening, stroll along the bridges and ponds where moonlight shines on both the past and the present.
Gyeongju is a city where UNESCO World Heritage and daily life flow side by side.
This book tells the story of a journey through the four seasons of Gyeongju.
In spring, I walk along the swaying magnolias, fluttering cherry blossoms, the comforting poplars, and the free-flowing wildflowers, and I run through the green summer, looking at the deep green Gyerim and the Inwang-dong tombs, the country roads filled with the fragrance of rice blossoms, and the lotus flowers in front of the cave and Wolji Pond.
Welcoming the vibrant colors of autumn in Bulguksa Temple, Tohamji Pond, Nosori, Daereungwon, and Gyerim, and in winter, feeling the cold wind in Gampo, warming ourselves with warm handmade noodles and a small bathhouse, we wait for spring to return from the cornelian cherry trees on the walls of narrow alleys and the flower gardens of Cheomseongdae.

"Anytime Gyeongju" lovingly presents a classic route that allows visitors to see splendid relics and historical sites such as ancient tombs, temples, and museums, as well as a new route that allows visitors to experience modern-day Gyeongju through markets, alleys, cafes, bookstores, and along lakes and seas.
As you follow the rhythm and rhythm of the Gyeongju trip, as depicted by the author, along with the emotional Gyeongju travel photos that make the scenery of the four seasons unfold before your eyes like a postcard, you will find yourself wondering what season to visit Gyeongju next.

Living things raise and spend different youths every year, conveying different emotions even in the same place and season.
At every moment, Gyeongju was filled with things that showed a different life.
Then, when I suddenly came across an alley, I became curious about the life there.

The bus passed the Gyeongju Museum and stopped in front of the Millennium Forest Garden.
Outside the window, new leaves like a baby's palm glistened.
I thought it would be nice if you could go a little slower.
Contrary to my wishes, the bus that was running along the straight ginkgo tree-lined road past the Unification Hall slowed down as soon as the stop bell rang.
As the bus stopped, an old woman leisurely got off.
There are only rice paddies and fields around here, so where are you going?
The sky was reflected in the rice fields filled with water in preparation for transplanting.
Clouds and birds pass through it.
I could also feel the wind blowing through the waves that spread out from time to time.

Just like the main character in a drama who put a dot on the wall and became a different person, they just hung lanterns, but the atmosphere was different, as if I had come to a different Bulguksa Temple.
I feel like I've encountered the human side of Bulguksa Temple.
Somehow, I felt like I could laugh and relieve myself of the guilt I was carrying in this world.

Even though it held the distant past, the three of them sat side by side on chairs under the old trees of the lush Jinpyeong Royal Tomb, making the passage of time seem meaningless.
Children who laugh even when teased harshly.
That day, when we were laughing and joking around but the cicadas didn't care and just kept chirping, remains a refreshing summer day for me.
I hoped that this would be a memory that would lead my children into the next season without them feeling lonely.

For me, the most shining moment of the year at the Gyeongju Museum is around 4:30 PM on a clear day in mid-November.
The ginkgo tree reveals its presence only after it has turned red.
It's a breathtaking sight on a late autumn afternoon, when the sunlight filters through the ginkgo leaves and colors the side of the museum.
If you look up at the eaves of the roof from below, the shadows cast by the ginkgo trees strangely resemble the ribs of a comb.
Even the museum windows are bathed in warmth.
If it falls off in a few days, you have to wait a year.
But what a relief it is to see you again a year later.
Many things eventually fade, fall, and disappear from their glory.
So, you shouldn't worry too much about things that disturb your mind.
Just, you have to be willing to rejoice and enjoy this beautiful moment.

I left my words and feelings there, telling them to fall like the ginkgo leaves of Gyeongju, as they only made me feel heavier if I kept them and piled them up.
No, I wanted to leave it behind.
"If you shake it off, it's just dust. How can it be a heart?" I muttered to myself in my head, laughing pointlessly.

The road from Banwolseong to Gyeongju Museum.
There is a place that only those who know about it know about.
You should go to that place, which has been properly prepared, when the sun seems to have set far to the west.
It's so bright that I have to bring my hand to my forehead to shade it and look at it.
A small stream that flows into the Hyeongsan River.
Only those who have sat there know how beautiful the sunlight shining on the moss is.

The hearts, V’s, and smiles of the people on the screen all look as lovely as my own children.
I take pictures in the hope that the moment will last a long time.
Good times scatter quickly like spring flowers or fallen leaves.
That's why it's called a moment.
There's no such thing as a "good forever," is there? I want to capture that moment forever, so I'm adding my own little touch to that photographic heart.
With the feeling of making a moment into eternity.

The road to Hwangnam-dong Tomb is beautiful with the sunset.
At the entrance of Hwangridan-gil, I turned the steering wheel into an alley.
The back of the elderly man walking ahead shone in the sunset.
It seemed like a new-fashioned bicycle, and it disappeared into the winding alleyway without even pedaling, just as if it was leisurely gliding.
A road where life and karma coexist, encountered while riding a bicycle through alleys where cars cannot pass.
In a house where no one lives, the dogwood tree's flower buds were sprouting.


There is affection hidden in the shadows created by the flowers and trees grown in front of the house.
When was the last time I saw people huddled together in front of a hole-in-the-wall store, chatting?
The image remains in the alleys of Gyeongju.
While riding my bike, I suddenly turn the handlebars as my heart desires and carefully ride down such an alley.
If you run fast, you can feel the wind, but if you run slowly, you can feel life.

The reason I keep taking pictures of the trees in a house, the colored gates and roofs, the alleys filled with chrysanthemums in full bloom, and the elderly riding bicycles is because I don't know when those scenes will disappear.
Just as houses are with people, the roads made by houses are also with people.
In the alleys where empty houses are increasing, the flowers that used to bloom in front of the houses are also gradually disappearing.
In the alley where grass grows instead of lettuce and smoke no longer rises from the chimneys, you cannot feel life even if you drive slowly or stop.
That day will come someday, but for now, I walk and run the race of life that is still vivid.

--- From the text