Inside of Gyeongbokgung Palace
Our first stop was Gyeongbokgung Palace and the statue of Admiral Yi Soon Shin. Both are famous tourist sites and since it was Chuseok there were a lot of people out and about enjoying the holiday.
Yi Soon Shin's statue has been featured in quite a few dramas but I'm most familiar with it from City Hunter and (of course) Gu Family Book.
Gyeongbokgung Palace is only a short walk from the statue and is an amazing sight to see in the middle of Seoul.
Pretty flowers along the walk to Gyeongbokgung Palace
The palace has also been in many dramas including Queen In-hyun's Man, which I adore.
Screen cap from Episode 1 of Queen In-hyun's Man
Gyeongbokgung is huge! Plus, it was really packed with tourists. Probably because of the free admission for the holiday. It was a little frustrating but I'm still glad we went! It's just not something you see every day.
The architecture is ancient and beautiful. There are also some great gardens and even a lily pond inside that help portray the historical setting and significant elegance of the palace.
From Gyeongbokgung, there is an area where you can step out and see the Blue House, which is South Korea's equivalent of the White House. Drama fans like myself will know that the Blue House was a major setting in City Hunter (although I couldn't find any screen caps that specifically showed it). But even if you are not familiar with that drama it's something worth seeing.
The Blue House
Of course, that's as close as they will let you get (and this is with my camera zoomed in all the way). Plus, all the police officers and guards standing around was a little unnerving, so we took our pictures quickly and then went back to Gyeongbokgung.
We spent quite a bit of time inside the palace because it is just so huge and it took forever to walk all around it. Once we finished though, it was off to our next destination: Changdeokgung Palace.
Unfortunately, there is only so much you can see at this location without being part of a tour group and the line was huuuuge so we just looked around at what we could and decided we would come back for the tour some other time when it's less busy.
It's all so pretty, though!
As we were leaving we stopped by a street vendor cart and bought some snacks. I don't know what these are called but they are delicious (like the texture of a fried waffle and filled with sweet bean paste). Our first street food!
Yum yum yum!
We rested for a bit in the station after that (it was hooot) and then met back up with our friend Michelle for lunch and more sightseeing.
For lunch: cheesy ddeokbokki and a spam omelette (I know how that sounds...)
It was really good (which was a relief since none of us were familiar with the restaurant) and we left feeling stuffed.
Our next (and last) stop was Naksan Park. It's somewhat of a less well known spot (which I of course know from dramas) but I think it's beginning to get more popular because of how unique it is.
The park itself is more like a hike up to what is called Naksan Fortress. It's a restored part of what used to be the Seoul City Wall and during the Joseon Dynasty it encircled the entire city.
This spot was featured in the drama The King Two Hearts and actually I had forgot all about that until later but now that I remember I'm even more excited about it.
The view from the park is breathtaking and totally worth all the effort it took to get up there (trust me when I say we were covered in sweat).
Surrounding the park is a bunch of residential buildings built on hills in a very Korean fashion.
It's crowded and grungy but holds it's own rare beauty. It's becoming famous because of all the street art in the area. At first glance it may look more like graffiti, but the paintings are cleaver and visually stunning.
Plus, a scene from one of my favorite dramas--Rooftop Prince--was filmed here.
Naturally, we had to find those spots and take pictures (it was actually kind of hard to find, but we did it)!
And that's how our second day of Chuseok came to an end! It was a nice trip into Seoul and we can't wait to go back but it probably won't happen again until next month.
On Friday, Michelle came down to visit us in Bundang and we went out to dinner and then to go see The Mortal Instruments. Actually, Jenee and I had already seen it in America but it just came out here a week ago and it was worth a second viewing. We had to go to the 1AM showing though because there were no seats for the 10PM one we had originally planned on going to. Somehow, we managed to stay awake.
Michelle spent the night at our apartment and on Saturday we went out to a famous jajangmyun restaurant that's right up the street for the first time. It was actually our first experience at a real, authentic Korean style restaurant and the food was very good!
Mmm...
When we came back home we decided to dig in to the cake we had bought on Friday to celebrate all of our birthdays together (since we missed each other's birthdays this year). Cakes here are so pretty it was almost painful to have to cut into it but it was certainly delicious.
All in all it has been a very nice vacation and I'm so thankful for the opportunity we've also had to just rest and relax. I can't wait to do some more exploring though!
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