Andrew's Travel Blog: Gyeongbokgung Palace

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Gyeongbokgung Palace - Seoul, Korea

Well, we had all last week off from school and I thought it was too soon to go out of the country again, so I spent most of my time in Inje. It was quite relaxing. I thuoght I would get bored or go crazy in this small town - especially with all the other english teachers on their vacations - but to my surprise, I kept busy and wasn't bored.

One day I went in to Seoul by myself. My original plans were to help one of the teachers at my school to the airport. Her contract ended the last week of January, so she booked her flight for that week. The last time a teacher left here, we helped her with her bags to the airport. I thought I would do the same, get out of town for a while and spend a day or two in Seoul. We had everything planned and what time we were going to catch the bus. It takes about two hours riding the bus and however long on the subway to your final destination. So I usually like to go early and leave late so I can squeeze in a full day. We decided to take the 12:40 bus just so she had time to gather her things and whatnot. She Facebooks me (yes, that's a verb) and tells me she won't be ready. She told me to go ahead, so I did. I caught the 11:40 bus instead.

I haven't done many touristy things in Seoul, so I thought I would go to Gyeongbokgung Palace. I knew how to get there using the subway and I had to follow exit 5 and I would be right there. And I was literally right there. I come up from underground and I see the ticket booth. It was strange. Usually I would have to walk on the streets somewhere and find the entrance to the place I was going, but this popped out right at the entrance of the palace grounds. Very convenient. I saw the ticket booth and didn't really want to pay, so I didn't and just walked in. Later I found out that I was in the part where you didn't have to pay, but if you wanted to continue through the first gate, then you would have to pay. And I didn't want to pay because I thought it would be a lot of money, so I took as many pictures as I could then I was going to leave. Then I go to the ticket booth and come to find out that tickets were only 3,000won, which is less than $3. Lame.

Before I bought the ticket and entered, I saw the changing of the guard. It was a big show. They started by beating a huge drum three times. Then from another gate entered guards with traditional clothing. They had such serious faces, just like you would think of Buckingham Palace guards in the reed suits with the tall black hats, but these were a little different...Asian style.

The palace grounds were huge. I don't even think I saw everything there is to see in the two hours I was there. Now I know I can go back because the cost of the tickets are so cheap. There are lots of things that happened to this palace in its history. I don't know exactly what or why, but some of it was destroyed by fire when the Japanese invaded in the 1500s. Also when Japan occupied Korea in the early 1900s and during the Korean War is when more building were destroyed. Now they started restoring some of the buildings. Way too much history to take in in one day, but I would definitely like to go back.