Korea, Kimchi and more!: A weekend in Seoul, Saturday August 15

So after working just about every Sunday since being here I finally got an entire weekend off so I decided to spend the entire weekend in Seoul. The two days I will be talking about actually are the two days following my previous post on the baseball game.

Leaving home at about 10AM I caught the train with 6 other people who I would spend my first day with. For about a dollar more we booked our first class train tickets (which are totally worth it) and started our day.

Our first stop was Unhyeaongung, which was a former royal residence back in the 1800s. Personally I was not that impressed as it was small and didn't really offer that much to see. I guess I felt that way because I was comparing it to the other palaces which are HUGE. You will know what I am talking about from previous posts and also what I will talk about below. Anyways here are some of the pictures I took from Unhyeaongung.

Storeroom of sorts

Traditional clothing

After finishing our time at the royal residence we walked about 1000 meters to our next stop Changdeokgung Palace which made the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List in 1997. The palace can only be toured with a toru guide so we had to wait an hour before we could enter so we relaxed at a coffee/tea shop just down the street. The next two paragraghs are from Wikipedia, haha

Changdeok Palace, is set within a large park in Jongnu-Gu. It is one of the "Five Grand Palaces" built by the kings of the Joseon Dynasty and because of its location east of Gyeongbok Palace, Changdeokgung is also referred to as the East Palace. The literal meaning of Changdeokgung is "Palace of Prospering Virtue".

Changdeokgung was the favored palace of many kings of the Joseon Dynasty and retained many Korean elements dating from the three kingdoms of Korea period that were not incorporated in the more formalistic Gyeongbokgung. One such element is the fact that the buildings of Changdeokgung blend with the topography of the site instead of imposing upon nature.

Instead of going into a ton of detail I will let the pictures to the talking. :)

From across the street, the entrance to the palace

Inside

Our lovely tour guide

Here I am standing on the road reserved for the King's advisers and to my left where the stone is raised is reserved for the king.

Throne room

Decedents of the royal family actually lived in this section of the palace until the late 1980's

Road to the "Secret Garden"

In the Secret Garden

Library used for research, the building on the left was once used for preserving old books

Video from the King's "Secret Garden"

After the palace tour which took about 90 minutes we headed over to the COEX mall (Convention and Exhibition). Wow, what a cool place, it is the largest shopping center in Seoul and it is really easy to get lost in. The main reason we all went (6 of us) was that we were all craving some Mexican Food and they have an On The Border there. Before going I had never heard of one but it is just like Chevy's. After a Quesadilla and 2 large margarita's I was quite satisfied.

Ahhhh the first one was good, the 2nd was better

Korean Apple store

It is good to get a real cup of coffee, around most of Korea you can only get instant coffee and it sucks.

The love florescent lights here

After dinner and going to the Bookstore I split from the group as they all were heading back home. Since I had the whole weekend off I had made the decision to stay the night in Seoul just to get away. Earlier that day I found out it was Korean Independence day so getting a hotel was a little more difficult then I originally would be. Anyways I ended up staying near Insadong at the Best Western Kukdo where I got a room on the 19th floor which gave me a great view of the city.

After checking in I went out to the Dongdaemun shopping center which really comes alive at night. Take a look.

Here are some pics of my room