Seoul: Day 2 - Palaces

On our first full day in Seoul we decided to explore the city's palaces. We started in Gyeongbokgung Palace and wandered around the palace exploring rooms that held major state ceremonies and official royal business. It was a huge site with buildings that were kept so well. Most of the buildings were made from wood and had beautiful painted roof designs.

While on our way to Changdeokgung Palace we walked through Bukchon Hanok village which had narrow streets and old Korean style homes.
When we arrived at Changdeokgung Palace we bought our ticket and were told that an English speaking walking tour was starting in ten minutes. Our guide told us that the Palace was built during the Joseon Dynasty in 1405 as the royal residence but was destroyed during the Japanese war in 1592. It was then rebuilt in 1610 and continued to be used until 1910. We learned that the signs on the top of the Temples are in the Chinese language. This is because Chinese was used as a universal language among asian countries for communication similar to the use of Latin in ancient times. It was a very interesting tour as it was great hearing the history and some stories about previous kings and queens from Korean history.

The Changdeokgung Palace has a secret garden but the tickets were sold out so our guide recommended walking around Changgyeonggung Palace instead as it has a garden which is a third of the secret garden. The grounds were lovely with a pond and plenty of cherry-blossom trees.

The final cultural moment we visited on our first day was Jogyesa Temple which had beautiful colourful lanterns hanging outside the temple and a giant Budda inside the temple. There was a ceremony taking place in the temple so we were not allowed to stay inside however the lanterns were very pretty to look at so we were happy to walk around outside. There was also a large drum that if you hit three times you could make a wish, of course we had to wait in the queue for our turn to make our wishes.

On the way back to our hostel we came across the Cheonggyecheon stream which is 10km long with a walkway alongside it. We sat down by the stream for a while before walking parts of it as the sun set. After a shower and rest back at the hostel, we went for a hotpot dinner in a local restaurant. This time we were able to sit opposite each other. This hot pot was like a rice dish with salmon and vegetables on top that you mixed together. I really enjoyed it and thought that it was very favoursome. As it was Saturday we said we'd go for a cocktail on a rooftop bar, thankfully there was an inside area as we realised the night had turned pretty chilly. We got some random Korean specialized cocktails but neither of us were convinced by their flavours.Read more