While in Korea, we checked out the historic sites of Gyeongju, which include ancient tombs as shown below. I tried to figure out why, after years of poverty, occupation, war and such, nobody raided these! We went into one, and there was gold in there, I don't get it.
There were lots of them!
Then again, they were protected by angry stylish warriors with moobs,
And strangely, by skateboarders with nunchucks
We enjoyed the historic sites although our comprehension was limited.
This is Cheomseongdae, used by 7th century Koreans to view the stars.
This giant bells signals that it's time to eat.
If you don't like street pickles,
there are plenty of other street vegetable options as well.
I had a business trip to an exotic place called "Cowtown" in the "New West" because the old West is scary, lots of guns.
Even the police wear cowboy hats here. I saw them do important things like giving tourists directions!
Since I was focused on shopping in my spare time (I'm cowgirl sized), I did not check out the sites, but there was a tall tower.
And many choices of what to do: this building has a church, a modelling agency, and fashion makeup!
There is also oil money.
And most importantly, my friend Chantal lives in Calgary! She and I support Beer and Wine, even when the stand is closed.
Korea offers unique shopping opportunities. Barry bought many socks, because he finds them very fashionable. He is also a big fan of video games on tv called Star craft and involving strange creatures at war.
Barry tried out his own forest war tactics, but he ended up stuck in the bushes, can you spot him?
Personally, I was more into rugged sports like cycling. I thought my bike's basket was pretty cool...
And also I wasn't wearing the latest in Korean sun protection like this woman.
Biking and forest maneuvers were tough, so we chilled at the Western Ice Bar.
There were many choices for dinner.
Stuffed tigers prefer live food:
Ya, so Barry's got this weird new habit of making me imitate statues.
But don't worry, I got revenge:
Barry went onstage to "rock out", and, well, now you know why he's not a rock star.
I stuck to food-oriented confusion.
Some things in Korea are confusing: why is this sushi cutting up a sushi?
Other things less confusing: isn't this a great ashtray?
In much of Korea, limited English is spoken. No problem, we would walk into a restaurant, shrug our shoulders, and then the above ($12 worth) would show up! Sometimes, there are pictures or plastic food at which you point, as in the below.
Barry demonstrates our confusion when this showed up. Happily, this confusion led to the servers helping us cook our own...
Until it was transformed into this (well after we ate some, since our photography vs. hunger priorities shifted)! This delectable dish is called dak galbi, and we suggest drinking it with the low cost, tasty and cooling 
Koreans are also really good at street food.
And western fusion food. Hot dogs with Korean sauce? Sure!
Now let's talk about attitude. Korean food's spicy and bad-ass. Check out these street peppers - wouldn't wanna run into them in a dark alley, would ya?
To learn more, we went to Seoul's Kimchi Field Museum, where we learned that before the hot pepper, Korean food was duller and kimchi was just, well pickles. Sounds British, leading me to wonder why the brits didn't bring their cabbage closer to their peppers. Anyway, my faves are the radishes, as shown.
Barry was really into the kimchi museum, almost inappropriately so.
Tell a Korean you're going to Gwangju, and they'll look at you strangely and ask why, while trying not to offend you. 
In Gwangju, we happily learnt there was an amusement park beside our hotel. However, it turns out its amusement had long fled.
We started to wonder what had happened that had scared the owners away so quickly.
Soon, we forgot about it and were on our way up a mountain in an otherwise empty chair lift.
At the top, there was a lookout.
And a fun house.
And, strangely, a former mountain train station.
To avoid getting totally freaked out, we relaxed at a restaurant, which appeared as if just for us (since we saw only 5 other people in 2 hours). Here, we enjoyed local makoli rice wine & kimchi. Yes, drinking out of bowls is what you're supposed to do.
And the view of the city was fantastic. Especially with no one else around.
I was only a little bit scared on the way down. Barry helped via 
