Seoul, Korea

It's been nearly two months since I went to Korea and I have not written a single thing about it. I have been busy with work and my new gym routine that I have been ~~very lazy~~ lacking motivation for writing about my trip to Seoul. I remember writing down on my notebook with shiny eyed excitement all the places I wanted to go to on my 5 day trip. I'm pretty impressed with myself that out of the seven places I wanted to go to, I managed to go to five all together.

1.) Gyeongbokgung Palace & 2.)National Folk Museum of Korea

I know I know, you probably didn't even read the work Gyeongbokgung cause your brain was like Um, what the heck?! Don't worry, I did the same thing.

However, its pronounced

GEEon-Buck-GUNN

You're all welcome.

This Gyeonbukgung (GEEon-Buck-GUN) Palace was built in 1395 and is the biggest palace out of five. The name of itself, Gyuonbukgung (GEEon-Buck-GUN) means Greatly Blessed by Heaven. The palace itself is not as big as its former glory, only a few dozen structures remain over the several hundreds of structures it previously encompassed. During the Japanese takeover, mostly of the buildings were destroyed or dismantled except for the last few buildings that remain.

Gyeonghoeru Pavilion
This part of the Palace was surrounded by a moat and only had two entrances to get in and out.

The Large Building in the back is the National Folk Museum Of Korea

The structure itself reminded me how similar it reminded me of the Forbidden Palace in Beijing however, I really liked the beautiful details in all of the buildings in the palace. It was also massive. Perhaps, a big bigger than the Forbidden City in China.
The day I went, it was really hot and I empathized the people in their rented hanboks. It was too hot to play historical dress-up in the long silky garments. No thanks. Within the Gyeonbukgung Palace was the National Folk Museum of Korea. Which was free to enter to the public if you purchased a ticket to get inside the Palace itself. Here they had mini replicas of traditional Korean homes from way back in the day as well as mid 20th century replicas of what stores looked like back in 1940's
I felt like I had time traveled and it also gave me a little more in-depth perspective of its history though time.

National Folk Museum of Korea

The only thing out of the century in this picture is me and my phone. =)

3.) Raccoon Cafe

Goodness gracious. I have never really thought I'd ever go to a cafe where you can willingly pay money to pet and play with trash pandas. These cuties are extremely mischievous and playful. I, myself, enjoyed just observing the raccoons in their natural rambunctious play. Of course, this place also houses a few rescue pups who put up with the coons crazy antics.

The only thing that soured my experience was this one ~~bitch~~ employee who really aggressive with the raccoons when the trash pandas would get to rowdy or playfully nip at a customer. She squeeze their fur not like a raccoon mother does to her babes but like she really intended to hurt. It hurt me just looking at it and was completely I stupefied when I saw this, I didn't even do anything to stop it the first three time this ~~bitch~~ woman did this. The last time I saw it I recorded it and i had to say something but the language barrier was clearly an issue.

The poor trash pandas run from this employee because clearly they don't want a cruel punishment. Aside from this one bitter apple, I enjoyed my time in the cafe.

A raccoons coat is coarser than I had imagined it to be and their little hands and feet are so soft and warm but watch out for their little claws at the end of those soft little digits. They're quite sharp but also apparently very sensitive because these cute little night bandits normally need to wash or lick their hands before eating something. That's because of the little magical sensors in the raccoons hands that enables it to taste or sense the item in their little grubby hands.
Maybe that's why they they try to eat everything they come across.

4.) Hanok Village

This village is actually a residential area made of of the oldest homes. And while it may no longer be a village, its still called a village due to the beautiful traditional homes surrounding the area. The area here is, again, residential and because of this people who come here have to be mindful of the people who live here. To get here, you either have to walk in a up hill loop all the way around the high hill or climb an endless staircase that's hidden on the side of the main road just to get to the top. I took the latter.

The amount of tourist that go through here can bring quite of money to local business a lot of noise traffic to the people who live here. There are actually volunteers from the residential committee that patrol the streets and make sure that people keep their chatter to a low level. Mostly these volunteers are retired (yeah okay, they're senior citizens) and hold big signs in English and Korean to keep quiet.

This cutie did a little dance as walked by and I just had to stop and say hello. His owner made a tiny little cafe in her own hanok home which she opens to the public and the welcome committee is this cute Corgi!

5.) Nansam Seoul Tower and the Bridge of Looooooooooooove
Namsam Tower was the first radio wave tower of Seoul built in 1970's that broadcasts radio, T.V.
It had no idea how to get to the top despite finding a bus that goes down the mountain but I couldn't find the bus that would take me up. So walking up hill on a hot day, well, lets just say I almost threw the towel in the air and said screw this. Of course, by the time I made it what I though was half way there, a 7-11 appeared in front of me with a welcoming arms in the form of a cool draft from its doors. And after some much needed cool down and refreshment, I was actually 10 more minutes from reaching the top of the tower. I must admit, it was totally worth it. I stayed here until the sun set over the sky and the Tower lit up like a Christmas tree in June. There were tons of tourist who came here due to its popularity in TV dramas and movies. (Yeah, I have seen a few of those Dramas too.) Another reason for its popularity is for the Locks of Love Bridge, much like the one in Paris, where lovers write their names or their wishes and then lock it to whatever available space they can among the million of other message locks. I, too, bought a lock and wrote my message on it before securing it among the other locks.

In conclusion, my 5 day trip to Korea was fun packed and full of sight seeing. I was sad to leave, especially my beautiful traditional Korean guesthouse. The owners were super nice and polite and thanked me for my stay. Perhaps next time I stay I will stay for much longer, and who knows, maybe it will be cool enough to wear traditional hanbok attire.

As always,

Annyeong
(Goodbye in Korean)