My first day out in the city I went to the Deoksugung Palace area. I got kind of a late start but it made it all the
better to take photos. An interesting thing about Deoksugung Palace is that it is one of five royal palaces. It is also the only Palace that has two western style building on the grounds...they are art museums...that were built after the palace was no longer in use. After strolling the grounds for a few minutes I checked out the art museums to get out of the cold. It is easy to forget that Korea has only recently become a developed country...since the late 1950s...so all the art previous to that time was constructed in a 3rd world country essentially. It was interesting to see how artists back then saw the world and who their audiences were in their masterpieces...the scholars and nobility. There were not too many common everyday scenes in their works.After warming up for a little bit I found my way to a famous market called Namdaemun. It is what you would picture a market to be in Asia. Small streets lines with shops while in the middle of the streets are stands selling anything and everything you can imagine. You can pretty much get any clothing label here for cheap and great finger food while you walk. I decided I would not buy anything because I don't really want to haul it all around the rest of Asia and I am assuming I will find the same kind of thing in China with cheaper prices...everything is made in China.
Decided to take it easy for one more night to be positive I was healthy again and just relaxed in the hostel. Been reading a good book but I am 225 pages into a 1000 pager and it is sometimes discouraging to think I have been reading for 2 weeks on and off and just 1/4 way through. Enough about that.
Yesterday, I went to Gyeonbokgung Palace and the surrounding area. This is the oldest palace of the Joseon Dynasty being built in 1394 by King Taejo. This palace is absolute humongous, it is 47 acres...I think...which contained 330 buildings when they were all standing. I began just wandering around and was pretty awestruck by this one building. It was called Geunjeongjeon...the throne. It appeared to be a two story building from afar but up close it had a gorgeous high ceiling.I continued to wander for a while and then I kind of met
up with an English tour. I tagged along and learned a lot more without having to read any signs. This picture is of the Gyeonghoeru. It is a two story pavilion...the largest balcony in Korea...that was used for throwing royal banquets. From there we walked to the King's and Queen's quarters. They did not live in the same house which something I found interesting. The Queen's quarters housed the Queen and anywhere from two to 7 other mistresses of the King in case the Queen could not have a child. Another interesting fact was that it did not matter how many children the King had, the first son and one other were chosen to be Crown Prince, all other children were dismissed from the palace and would never be King. Of the two left, a crown prince would be chosen somewhere between the ages of 10 and 12 and they would be married then. Of the 27 crown princes that came to be in the Joseon Dynasty only 7 came from the Queen.After the tour ended was getting a little cold and there was the National Folk Museum on the palace grounds. I spent a few hours in there and was very much like my mother..
.reading everything that was in English. I learned some really interesting things but one of the most fascinating things I saw was a letter that was sent from a father to his son in 1720. The letter basically said the son's brother had arrived a few days ago and brought the grandchildren. He was happy for the company because he lived by himself. The father thought the son...since he had nothing really to do...should find a study group and really apply himself and pass the civil service exam. All the way back in 1720 dad's were getting on their sons to do good in school, things don't really change that much. I thought it was very interesting to see that most people would have skipped over.Last night had a good old time with people in the hostel. A new guy arrived...an Aussie... that had a friend of a friend DJing in Itaewon. We met up with him and brought along two Canadian girls, A Japanese girl, and another American. It was a lot of fun and he was a pretty good DJ playing mostly music. We drank way too much but had a good time because I was not sick anymore.
Today I woke up a little hung over but went to Myeong-dong to get my passport and visa for China. Everything
is squared away but a little frustrated at the Chinese. For US Citizens it costs 120,000 won to get a visa while for everyone else it only costs 35,000 won. I guess that is what it costs to be an American...money well spent I say. After getting my passport I checked out Myeong-dong. There are a lot of stores and restaurants in this area but it also has Korea's first Western style brick building... the Myeongdong Cathedral. It was completed in 1898 and has a steeple that stands 45 meters tall. There was really no information available there about the Cathedral but I went inside to find a completely silent place with about 20 Koreans praying. The notion of religion I find is a bit more instilled here than in Japan...I imagine because of the great number of American troops over here since the Korean War. There are still loads of soldiers in South Korea and there are a lot of churches.Taking a ferry to Qingdao tomorrow and really excited to see China.
