Seoul

Today we headed into Seoul with the idea of going to Itaewon and just doing some sightseeing around the city.  We got a little bit of a late start because we were exhausted from being up really late the night before.  Once Brittany and Stephen joined us we went to the train station in Songtan to catch the train to a station near Itaewon.  It was a little confusing at first because it was mostly in Korean and only the names of cities were in English.  At several times throughout this day I was grateful that the majority of my abroad trips have been organized by other people.

When we got off of the train, Stephen told us where he had wanted to eat lunch, Vatos Urban Tacos.  I know we are really reaching out and trying new things.  It was pretty good though, so I'm not going to complain.

 

 

As we were walking we saw this welcome sign for Itaewon.  This was a much more westernized shopping experience than in Songtan.  There were a lot of really cute clothing items.  I think all of their sizes are 0-3, but cute nonetheless.  Dad said the last time that he was here all of the shops were underground.  There were some that were underground, but not very many and nothing like he remembered.

 

 

After walking around Itaewon for a time, we decided to go to the Seoul tower.  We were asked by a very nice Austrailian woman if she could help us and she instructed us to go on the bus. She told us how to get there and even walked us all the way to the bus stop to catch the bus, however, we ended up deciding not to go to Seoul Tower. After deciding not to go on the bus, we chose to go to Gyeongbokgung Palace.  We must have looked like poor tourists because several people asked us if we needed help.  All of the Korean people who helped us (which was thankfully quite a few) were very concerned about us walking in the heat.  I mean it was probably mid 80s in temperature, but the humidity was about 80 percent.  Dad claims they kept him in the direction that he was going... I'm not so sure.  But once we arrived it was definitely worth it.  Below are pictures of the palace.  It's right in the middle city. The first is from the walk leading to the palace.  Very picturesque with the mountain in the background.  The second is just inside the Gwanghwamun gate and palace wall.  It's called Heungnyemun.  Your guesses at pronouncing those are as good as mine.

Below is a picture of Sajeongjeon where the King would conduct his state affairs.  This entire palace is a replication.  It was originally built in 1395, but was burnt down in the Japanese invasion in 1592.  It was rebuilt in 1867 in grand scale fashion with about 500 buildings in total.  But then again, during Japanese occupation it was demolished.  This final round of restoration began in 1990 and there are areas where they are still continuing to rebuild.  It's very sad to think about. 

There were a lot of rooms that you could peek in and they had them styled similarly to how they would have looked in the 1300s.  It was a lot of open air and the architecture was very similar to other Asian cultures.  Below Stephen is hiding in one of the Ondol systems which is a Korean floor heating system. 

 

 

Overall we saw quite a bit of the city.  Probably one of the most interesting parts was when we saw the line for the Dunkin Donuts.

 

 

 

I jest.  There was actually a peaceful protest (we think it had to do with the British Embassy), but the picture opportunity was too good to pass up.