Location: Seoul, South Korea

I was ready to tackle today right from the minute I woke up. It’s my last day in South Korea and I had a few things left to check off my to-do list!

First thing on the docket: Changgyeonggung Palace (say that even once). I’d tried three times to get to this palace and this was my last chance! Finally finally it was open, and lucky for me I must have hit a sweet spot in the day because there was almost nobody around. It was similar in decoration and painting to the other palaces, but lots of it hadn’t been rebuilt recently like the other palaces that had been burnt down or ravaged by war. I mean this one had been… but not for like a few hundred years (which is an impressive feat for Korean Palaces that burn down from one thing or another like every 100 years).

I wandered the grounds for hours, taking pictures I felt lucky to get. No people? In Korea? Unheard of. This is a massive landmark and I hadn’t been around so few people since I left the desert a few weeks ago. The throne room was particularly impressive, with wooden cranes and clouds still hanging from when they had been hung 400 years ago. In one other room there was a rice chest, like a normal old chest. Cool okay sure! Rice!

Nope.

It’s never just rice, is it?

Apparently one of the kings heirs was accused of treason and so the king put that 29 year old son inside the rice chest to die.

OKAY WOW. OF ALL THE THINGS.

I was definitely not having rice for dinner.

I was near Cheonggyeonggung Stream, a river oasis running for many kilometres through town, so I decided to take a walk. Let’s walk more. Sure sounds great. The stream was worth it though- it turns out it was an old sewer canal (yes that’s a thing) that the city decided was smelly and gross so they cleaned it all up and converted it into a beautiful garden and river. Well that’s a 180 if I’ve ever seen one. Huge whiskered fish swam lazily through the water, stepping stones spanned across the river at important points, and trees hung high over the surface.

The daylight was waning and I had been walking for ages before I realized HOW DID I COME TO KOREA AND NOT EAT REAL KOREAN BBQ. WOW.

This needed to be remedied Immediately so I called up Kale (who had been sleeping all day) and basically said ‘pick a legit bbq place we’re going.’ Thank god he knew where to go and what to do because I would have been so lost and I was running out of time! The bbq was absolutely incredible. We ordered pork belly that you cook at your table and then dip, wrap or fill with all sorts of things they bring to you. I was so shocked I almost missed this tastiness!

We took one last evening stroll through Hongdae, sharing red bean cakes and a bottle of chestnut rice wine. Before I knew it I had to leave. Man I am never emotionally ready to leave a city when the time finally comes! I said goodbye to Kale with a big hug and hopped on the train- I wasn’t sure exactly how long the trip would take so I decided to aim early and ended up at Incheon Airport with a sweet three and a half hours to spare.

Apparently apparently three and a half hours is not enough time! The lines in this airport are insane. In a nutshell: I had to frantically book a departure flight for sometime in the next few weeks (in less than 10 minutes), I had to sprint for almost a kilometre in a jean jacket, I vaulted myself down 7 escalators, and I made it onto my flight 11 minutes before it was due to depart.

I’m sitting on the flight right now and it’s going to be an interesting one. I arrive in the middle of the night and have nowhere to go until tomorrow afternoon. Airport floor bed, anyone?

Philippines, here I come!

Sav

NEVERMIND.

They just made us get off the plane due to a technical issues.

Stay tuned tomorrow for an update!