I had planned on waking up early, catching the train in Seoul. Visiting the National Palace Museum for the 11:00am English tour then walking to the Museum of Contemporary History for the 2:00pm tour. Nope.
I arrived at the National Palace Museum at 11:12am, so catching that tour wouldn't happen. Instead I thought I could kill time in the park and go on the 2:30pm tour. I only assumed it was a aprk because it was green on the map, it wasn't. It was actually the palace itself. A massive massive palace right before my eyes.
As you can see from the photo, this is not the isolated experience like yesterday, in fact today was particularly packed. I suspect it's because of the traditional nature of this site. At least 1 in 10 people here came dressed in their traditional clothes for Chuseok making it all-the-more authentic.
This is Gyeongbokgung Palace, a guaranteed stop on any tour bus style trip of Seoul and the centerpiece of the Joseon Dynasty. It reminded me of Beijing's Forbidden City, both in architecture and layout. The streams of people culminated at the Folk Museum where there was a Chuseok Festival going on with music, dancing, and various booths. So I wound up at visiting the Folk Museum quite extensively and checking out the festival.
I found these stone statues right outside museum. They are the animals of the zodiac, but with human form, which is quite popular in Korea. Here's my year of the Monkey.
I wondered back to the Palace Museum to see the 2:30pm tour but I got distracted. Again everyone was funneling out the front gates. The voice on the loud speaker spoke in English and I learned there would be a presentation of sorts. Everyone was crammed against the exit, stopping immediately to see the traditional guards. I followed a semicircular path around the crowd to a fron row seat of to the right. Then, by miracle, one of the palace workers called people to move in closer, and I got probably the best spot available.
This lasted just long enough for me to make it to the Palace Museum for 2:30pm. Only to discover there was no English tour during the holidays. Oh well. I opted to do the whole tour another day.
I left to walk around Seoul with a delicious stick of meat and a smile on my face.
I think I found the embassies of the US, Finland, Romania and Australia. I thought I had found Canada's, but it turned out to be the Four Seasons Hotel. I did some exploring, signed a petition, took some pictures, and found some heavily guarded government buildings (that I did not take pictures of). All and all, a busy day. Over 15,000 fitbit steps later I'm happy to be lying down.
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