I have to start out by saying that we all really were so tired that Elizabeth skipped swimming last night and went to bed early. Jeong hui woke up at 5am and neither Stacy or I heard him!! Thank goodness Elizabeth was up and got him a bowl of cereal!! She has been so much fun to have on this trip and it has been priceless to have an extra set of hands...especially when they are tickling a little boy!!!
When we came 4 years ago to pick up Hyeon su, we had a city tour that was hosted through our adoption agency. The ONE thing I wanted to make sure to do on this day was to go to Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was the Main Palace of the Joseon Dynasty. The Joseon Dynasty was founded in 1392 and the palace was built in 1395. The Dynasty ended in 1910 when Japan forcibly annexed all of Korea. Well, our city tour day was Tuesday...which is the ONLY day of the week that the palace is closed. I almost cried. So in essence, I've waited 4 years for today!!! And it did NOT disappoint!!
We were fortunate enough to be just a few minutes early for the English, docent led, tour of the palace. So while we waited, there were a few games of "chase me" and I'm really not sure which one of the 3 boys was having the most fun!!
The woman who led the tour was extremely knowledgeable and quite funny. She was dressed in a sort of traditional hanbok type dress. I hope she had one some long underwear under the dress because it was quite cold here today. Stacy & I both opted to not drag around our jackets all day...and regretted it the entire day. During the tour, we learned that the best angles to view any building in a courtyard was from a 45 degree angle. So we went over to the corner and looked back at this building, which is the Throne Room for the palace. Notice how the roof line matches up with the mountain in the background? This happened often on the palace grounds. Korean architecture doesn't want to compete with nature, but it seeks to find harmony with nature.
Inside the thrown room it was fairly sparse except for the throne itself. This would have been perfectly fitting for a Confucian King.The picture below was taken from the east window of the thrown room. The dragon painting on the ceiling can only be seen from this spot. It was amazing, but difficult to get a picture of because it was so dark inside. The thrown can be seen in the lower right hand corner of the picture.
I'm SO glad we decided to take the docent led tour. We actually made it through the palace grounds a lot faster than we would have if we would have just wondered around by ourselves and we learned SO much on the tour. For instance, I knew these little spiky things were to keep birds from perching. What I didn't know was why it was SO important to keep birds away. If birds were to perch on the pillars, they could set up a nest and then lay eggs. Snakes like to eat bird eggs, so the wire mesh and spikes also helped to keep SNAKES out of the palace!!
I feel like this is one of the most recognizable views from Korea. It can often be seen in advertisements or promotional videos. It is a beautiful pavilion in the back of the palace. This would have been were most of the women on the palace would have lived. Of course, mine is the only one which will also include one of the prettiest girls to walk around Korea. :)
Poor Stacy! I'm not sure how he did it because my arms would have been FALLING OFF at this point. He carried around 37 pounds of dead weight through most of our tour because apparently Jeong hui is going to sleep his way through Korea again...just like he did 4 years ago!!
We almost ran back up to the front gate at this point so that we would be able to see the changing of the guard ceremony. It was so interesting to see all the colors of the traditional outfits worn by the men who were marching around!
And for those of you who think Koreans are short. Most of these men HAD to be over 6 feet tall!! Stacy isn't short and they towered over him!
The irony of this picture makes me smile. This is the back of a young Korean soldier, (there were 3 of them together) taking a picture of the gates to the old palace. It may just be me, but it made me smile.
The great King Sejong the Great is the creator of Hangul, the written Korean language. It is the only language in the world you know who created it and why it was created. He wanted common people to be able to read and write. The main palace gate is in the background. It was a very neat view.
We finally found the perfect spot to have lunch!! Well, it was completely planned, but a bit difficult to find! We originally went to the wrong side of the building. If you've watch the Kimchi Chronicles series on PBS, you'll know this place!!! It is a modern take on a very traditional dish.
The food was pretty good. I had a hot stone bowl with black rice and topped with bulgogi. I picked the sesame sauce, but wished I would have picked a different sauce. The meal came with a cold kimchi soup and a hot soup that had mung beans sprouts in the bottom, but the broth was clear. I do not know what it was, but it was hot and delicious. Everyone was about frozen through at this point and to just sit and warm up was refreshing. The boys gobbled up the food and we had to have a second order of mandu! I love this picture of the outside of the restaurant. Like everything in Korea, space is a prime commodity. You cannot spread out...everything goes UP. When we walked up to order, we didn't think there was any place to sit down, but the downstairs dining area could seat quite a few people and the upstairs dining area was twice as big!
After our visit 4 years ago, I learned more about Cheonggyecheon Stream. It has a very interesting story over the years. It went from a humble stream, to home to shanty towns after the Korean War in the 50s, to having concrete and a highway go over it and finally being restored to its current condition in 2005. What I didn't realize, until after we were home from our last trip, was how incredibly close it was to our hotel!!! So today, we were finally able to see parts of the stream. The whole thing is 8.4 kilometers long. This very interesting piece of artwork is at the beginning of the plaza to where the stream starts.
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