Sara finally had a day off work and we were excited to see the town. I told her so much about the little neighborhood I stayed in that she wanted to see it. So we went back to the guesthouse I stayed in.
And realized that they had a ton of hanbok to try on. Shoes included.
Who wouldn't want to try one of these fancy dresses on?
Especially when there's a photo shoot involved?
And props?
Chaeson (I know I spelled this wrong) was the owner of the guesthouse.
Remember how I said they filmed popular Korean tv shows in Bukchon? We walked out the front gates and right into a film crew. That guy in the denim shirt is apparently pretty famous, according to someone I asked in a shop nearby. Strangely enough, I also ran into another crew filming a show a few days later.
Next, we met up with another volunteer guide to tour Changdeokgung- another palace in town.
I said that every guide I had taught me something different. This guide turned out to be our culture guide. She was very kind to answer any question we threw her way. We wandered the palace and enjoyed all the little kids. (It was a Saturday, so the place was packed.)
Everyone was out getting their photos taken, including this group of teenage boys. They were good sports.
I missed the peak of cherry blossoms in DC, but we did get to see some apricot blossoms in bloom.
The jewel of this palace is the Secret Garden, where the prince spent his time learning and studying to be king. You can only go in with a tour. And our tour guide was a pro. It's too bad they don't tip in Korea, because she certainly earned. She sprinkled in plenty of humor for us foreigners.
Right above Sara is the prince's private library. a guy could get used to that.
The prince's teachers got to stay up here. They were second only to the prince.
Sara, I and Eugene under the arch that promises eternal youth to all that pass through. I'll take it.
One last shot in the gardens. We didn't finish the whole tour of the garden( it's quite big), but instead opted to go get some food.
We found a little place that served spicy grille pork and got very embroiled in a Korean historical drama. It was very dramatic and we had a great time speculating what was happening, even though we couldn't hear anything. Let's just say a guy turned into a wolf, babies were floated downstream and there was lots of crying. They were certainly on par with some of the dramas we watched in India.
Next we walked to Jogmyo Shrine, which is clearly the preferred hangout for every old person in Seoul. Retirement is compulsory at 60 in Korea, so hundreds of old folks headed to the park to play from games.
Once we got in the park, we met an old man (who was maybe a little senile) who found out we were American and spent the next 20 minutes playing 70s musical trivia with us. I've got to say, I nailed all of the Neil Diamond and Kenny Rogers songs he knew. Somewhere over in Seoul, there's an old guy who thinks I'm pretty great.
At this point, i clearly had some pretty heavy camera fatigue, so I didn't take many pictures of the amazing Gwangjang Market, except with the ones i got from my phone.
To do it justice, I pulled this picture off Google image search. Essentially, Gwangjang is where you go to get all of your traditional Korean needs met.
Food (included whole pigs heads cut up for you while you waited), clothes, fabric, decorations- it was here. Do yourself a favor and check out the image search.
I scored a cup of silkworms for consumption. You know I did this so I could post the picture to facebook and freak everyone out. (It worked.) They really weren't too bad, but my western sensibilities about eating bugs kept coming back and I didn't make it through the whole cup.
In the meantime, Sara found a long line and decided whatever food was being served at the end must be worth the wait. She waited while I took a quick tour down the homegoods aisle and bought a bright pink buckwheat pillow.
At the end of the line, I got a rice pancake filled with a sweet bean mixture. It was really good.
Unfortunately, the whole place shut down around 5:30. We did get into a store just in time to score these awesome shoes, which are probably the favorite thing I bought on the whole trip. I really meant to get back to this market one more time before I left.
No comments:
Post a Comment