One Day in Seoul, South Korea

Palace and Skyscraper

   This Wednesday I had the day off of school for a national holiday in South Korea known as Hangeul Proclamation Day (I wrote about this day on my other blog. Click here if you would like to read more). My friends and I took this opportunity to follow the itinerary of places to see in Seoul. The Day in Seoul Itinerary listed the top locations of; Gyeongbokgung Palace, Bukchon Hanok Village, Changdeokgung Palace, Insadong, Namdaemun Market, Myeongdong, Namsan Seoul Tower, and Dongdaemun. The article I read says that you can do all in a day; which I definitely think is possible. However, a bit of a stretch; unfortunately my friends and I did not make all the destinations on the list. My friends and I started our adventure just before noon--which probably accounted for our inability to make all the stops.

Gyeongbukgung Palace Guard

   First was Gyeongbokgung Palace. A quick stop due to the large number of crowds gathering in the grounds for celebrating the holiday. We seemed to arrive just at the end of a Changing of the Guards Presentation and were able to catch men in uniform leaving the palace grounds carrying flags. We also saw many people there dressed in traditional Hanbok wear and taking photos. We decided to make plans to return and visit the palace more thoroughly.
   If you are visiting Seoul anytime soon, I recommend this palace as well. If you are a history buff it is a great place to experience the culture and history of the city. If you are not, the contrast of the traditional palace surrounded by skyscrapers is enough to leave anyone in awe.
   As you are leaving the palace be sure to get a photo with the guards out front; but please respect them and do not touch them. I watched a guy in front of me try to put his arm around one and they are very quick to assertively and politely require their space.
   As we left the palace, the courtyard across the street was also filled with people celebrating the holiday. Along with numerous amounts of people,
there were also countless numbers of police; although they did not all appear to be on duty.

제 친구; 조지예요

   After the palace, we began to make our way towards the Bukchon Hanok Village. What would have been a short 15-minute walk took us almost 45 minutes. The area around the palace is filled with beautiful modern art and pastel-colored buildings that made for a great impromptu photoshoot.  We also walked past an art museum that had a display outdoors filled with families and their children playing in the structure, as well as other young women taking photos of each other.
   When we finally arrived at the Bukchon Hanok Village we almost passed it. The area of town is very clearly a mix of traditional housing and modern shops, but the main street of the Hanok Village is tucked away in the back. While walking around you can find shops and traditional tea houses. We stopped at one at the base of the hill. An old house had been turned into a traditional tea shop. Upon entering you are asked to take off your shoes and then you sit on a pillow at a traditional kneeling table. We each ordered a different tea and rice cakes. Each tasted amazing and the atmosphere of the place was a great relaxing point in our adventure.
   We finished exploring the village-- with plans to return-- and began our way to the next stop.

      

    The next stop on our list was Changdeokgung Palace. We had hoped to go into the secret garden, however, due to the fact that we arrived close to the time of closing and knowing we had plans of returning we decided to continue on to Insadong.
   This would have been a great place to enjoy a multitude of cheap street food, but all of us were full so we took a rain check on this as well. In Insadong you can find many different shops selling antiques and souvenirs, but some of the places to find items to buy is from the street vendors. Not only are the prices cheaper, but the people selling them seemed more wanting to join in casual conversation.
   We pasted an accessory shop having a sale where I bought some new glasses frames for $10 and a novelty of soju earrings.
   This marked the end of our day. We could have continued on with the list and probably make it to all the stops. Myeongdong and Namsan Seoul Tower are great to visit at night, but we all had our Korean midterm the next day, so we decided to call it a day and make our way home to finish our night with studying.