Happy 4th of July! I did a little sightseeing this morning and afternoon before crazy pouring rain shot down any evening plans. I saw two palaces, Changgyeonggung and Changdeokgung, which are connected and were sometimes used together. I had seen the first palace in a korean show before, and it had some crazy history connected with it, so I was excited to see it:
Main throne room and officials' courtyard in Changgyeonggung
I was the only one to sign up for a guided tour of this palace, so an older lady and I just got to stroll the grounds while she explained some of the symbols and history. Palaces here were more complexes of buildings for different purposes, rather than a huge castle like we imagine in Western society, so this is just one part.
Do not be fooled: I am very much in the center of modern Seoul. When I turned around from the throne room, this was my view:
A little jarring to see modern buildings rising on all sides of the palace walls.
Apparently this palace complex had many more buildings, but when the Japanese occupied Korea for decades before WWII, they razed dozens of buildings, and put in a forest, pond, and what was once a zoo. It's pretty now, but it's sad to think of what was lost.
Pond at Changgyeonggung
I just walked up some steps in the back to see the other, somewhat grander, palace Changdeokgung.
Throne room at Changdeokgung
Inside throne room at Changdeokgung
All the buildings were painted in these brilliant colors and patterns on the roof.
After the palaces, I wandered around some side streets and went to town for not a lot of money in an accessories shop called "Naughty Cat". Cats really had nothing to do with anything in there, so yay random English words!
I wanted to explore some other areas last evening, but it poured rain for hours. Even those with umbrellas got soaked, so I relaxed at my hotel instead, since I'd only gotten 2 1/2 hrs of sleep in the past 2 days.
The people at my hotel are so nice, when I was about to go out to get some food, looking tired as all get-out, he offered to order some delivery food for me. Here's a magical thing about Korea: I got a big bowl of jajjangmyeon, black bean sauce noodles and vegetables, for about 4 dollars, it was delivered in 15 min in the pouring rain, no delivery charge or tip, and when I was done with the bowl, I just left it by the front door in a bag for them to pick up a couple hours later. That's just how they roll here, and I am a fan. How everyone is not 500 lbs here, I'll never know.
1 comments:
Love all the pics! Would those palaces be the ones used in the Korean show that I like? The first one looked familiar but maybe all the palaces look similiar.
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