Another Culture Filled Day


Advertisement
South Korea's flag
Asia » South Korea » Seoul
March 20th 2006
Published: March 20th 2006
Edit Blog Post

Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guards
Wow in the 2 days I've been here I've experienced a lot of Culture. Jen's been great filling my days with adventure even though she's has to work from 2pm till 10pm on the weekdays. There is so much to see here in the City and she too has yet to check out so it's great.

So today I woke very early, 7:30am, got dressed and headed out to the subway with a piece of paper and written directions on where to go. Jen had a lesson in the morning at 7:00am so we met up in the subway station near where she was and continued on together to the Gyeongbokgung Palace. We got there around 9am had a great white chocolate mocha and muffin for breaky and made it for the changing of the guards. They are those guards that don’t move, ya know you can do whatever. They're uniforms are very bright and traditional and they have swords (very cool). They switch out like every 3 hours I think and it’s a ceremonious event (also quite cool). The Palace was built in 1395 by King Taejo and was the primary residence of the royal family. The
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guards
craftsmanship of the entire Palace is unbelievable; I imagine it took many hands and hours to create. In 1592 destroyed and burned down by the Japanese when they invaded Korea. Funny because 95 percent of the tourists there were from Japan, they're everywhere actually. It wasn’t until 273 years later when the rebuilt only to be once again destroyed by the Japanese again. Hell if Id ever let them back in, but today they are on good terms I guess. Then again in 1990 the South Korean government started a restoration project that has yet to be complete. But this place is huge with lots of separate buildings, they trained soldiers here and had invented a lot of really crazy technical gadgets. These people were very advanced. Ah okay the history lessons over. I got a lot of pics I hope they turned out good it wasn't very bright out so the colors may not be so great. We ended up spending like 3 1/2 hours there and it was enough.

After the culture fill we headed back to the subway and to Jens apartment. Seeing as Jen is at work I’ll spend the afternoon somewhat planning the
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guards
next few weeks I will be spending in South Korea. It looks like there is a lot to do and see, hot springs, temples, national parks. I’m going to try and refrain from writing about what I have planned ahead because we all know me and plans ALWAYS seem to change.


Additional photos below
Photos: 15, Displayed: 15


Advertisement

Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guards
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guards
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

Changing of the Guards
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

Silly boys, in training I think
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

The Kings office
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

Sundial they used with a interesting mathamatical equation to tell the actual time.
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

Amisan Chimnies, They heated the Palace through th efloors and this is where the smoke was released through these
Gyeongbokgung PalaceGyeongbokgung Palace
Gyeongbokgung Palace

Jen, they had little statues of all the Chineese Year symbols
Folk MuseumFolk Museum
Folk Museum

Traditional clothing
Folk MuseumFolk Museum
Folk Museum

Traditional clothing


22nd March 2006

jelouse
those red guard suits are wicked hey .. there wearing high-top chuck taylors and those plastic dress-up fireman hats with peacok feathers sticking out !! awesome! im sooo coming after exams if i "accidently" dont find any solid work for the summer haha have FUN!!!

Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0747s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb