Location: Seoul, South Korea

I’ve been so tired at the end of my days that I’ve been falling asleep super early, and consequently waking up early too. This morning I awoke fully rested at 6 am (that’s absolutely unheard of), so I tiptoed around until shops started to open up, and made my way over to the palace part of town. The one I wanted to see is closed on Monday’s, so that will be on the docket for another day. Luckily the second one, Gyeongbokgung Palace, was open.

I showed up just in time to beat the really long lines, but not to miss the crowds. I was surprised a Monday morning was so busy! One thing I absolutely love is that if you dress up in traditional formalwear called ‘hanboks’, you get into the palaces for free (mind you renting the clothes is more expensive than the entry)! I was just as happy to be able to observe all the bright colourful puffs of fabric. Pearls and sparkly floral appliqués were everywhere you looked, creating a bit of a time travel feel to the whole experience (ignore the average ‘Jane and John’ tourist and you’re good to go).

The palace was originally built in 1395, but has since been destroyed and rebuilt multiple times through fire or war. Some of it is still being rebuilt today after the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910-1945. All of them have a very Chinese influence (apparently a lot of old Korean buildings are very similar to Chinese), made of brick and wood, with reds and greens being the dominant colours of the gates, while wood and white stone make up the living spaces. I have no idea where the time went but before I knew it I had been wandering the grounds for close to 3 hours! I caught the changing of the guard on the way out (the guards have pheasant feathers on either side of their straw hats that stick straight up and wave in the wind, which was my favourite part. Their bosses [?] have peacock feathers).

I knew I had a lot more walking ahead of me today so I pounded down some water and powered forwards towards Bukchon Hanok Village, basically the ‘old town’.

I. LOVED. IT. (Punctuate that with claps, Carl).

It was exactly the kind of place I had been imagining I would find here and was so stoked to explore. The little streets were lined with old traditional houses of white stone, warm wood, and iron (they were all still inhabited) and shops of all kinds. Once I made it away from the main avenue full of touristy stuff, I found a whole bunch of little local shops with all sorts of handmade jewelry, leather works and clothes. Cafés and traditional tea houses lay hidden in little street corners, each with their own mini gardens (big enough for maybe four people to sit). I stopped in a teeny tiny lunch place and had spicy rice cakes, which turned out not to be what I expected at all. The picture looked like penne pasta with a red sauce, my mind was imagining american rice cakes, and what I got was gummy-like sticks of mashed rice, grilled and coated with extremely sticky spicy sauce topped with green onions and sesame seeds. Korea has some weird but tasty food. I explored as many lanes as I could, before I realized I was backtracking a lot and had seen almost all of it.

I was running out of steam so I stopped in a coffee shop down the hill, Penncoffee, for a macchiato, a short rest and some blog writing. Blogging takes a lot of time generally, but is also a great excuse to take a break from the constant walking. It can’t last forever though MY EYES HAVE THINGS TO SEE!

I had a decently long journey home to Hongdae, where I stopped to grab a quick dinner. I walked around the neighbourhood again, which seems to be a nightly pattern for me now. I sat down and watched some young guys kpop dancing before retiring to my hostel. I was pleased to find the owner had attached a pipe from the sink to the floor while I was gone today so there’s no danger of spitting on your own feet anymore!

Small wins!

Sav