Something has surged through Grumpmas blood as for the first time this trip, this morning it was Grumpma striding out making the pace. All that relentless exercise has paid off as she is showing signs of increased fitness, or has she simply swallowed two days of pills by mistake.
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| Gyeongbokgung Palace |
Our morning trip aimed for Gyeonbokung Palace to watch the changing of the guard ceremony and to explore the grounds. One of my personal favourite places in Seoul lies within the palace grounds is the Gyeonghoeru Pavillion.
this stately Pavillion lies just to the West of the main palace residences and official buildings. It is surrounded by a large artificial pond/lake. If only this lake was filled with trout instead of carp and the Kings Pavillion would make a perfect casting platform. There actually is a salmonides specks native to Korean waters, it has an orange to gold stripe along its body similar to a rainbow trout, which is crossed by about 5 wide bars of blCk vertical lines. It can grow up to 9 or 10 pounds.
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| Changing The Guard Ceremony, Gyeonbokung |
As it is practically located In The North East corner of the palace grounds we also took in the National Folk Museum. It has three main display halls showing, the history of Korea, Korean life, mainly typical,village life form roughly the 1600's to early 19000's and the third was more aspects of culture such as education, writing, health, science etc. outside are a few Hanok buildings. If you have not been to Korea before and want a bit of an easy crash course then the folk museum is a great place to start.
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| The Ultimate Fishing Shack |
Lunch was chosen as a less spicy Korean dish adapted from japan, kimbap. Most would look at these and immediately call them sushi, or Nori rolls. However kimbap are slightly different. Firstly they are larger in diameter than most nori and usually longer I length. I could make plenty of crude puns, at this point, but it is a family blog.
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| Folk Museum, Dondaemun |
Amelie had lost her diamente head band, so a trip back to Insadong was next to allow the girls to shop for Naff. Given a moments invitation to go check the music stores for ukuleles, the smoking trail there took 0.000000000000000000000328 light seconds, only because I had to stop for the traffic lights. For some, the expression is pig in mud. Imagine a building about the same size of Myer filled with little music shops of instruments of every kind, although how they get grand pianos into such a rat run of corridors half blocked with the next shipment is beyond me.
I haven't bought anything yet. Most "foreign" brands are about the same, if not dearer than in Australia. However many ,Korean, Chinese and Indonesian brands do seem to be much cheaper for equivalent such as solid mahogany. Liz and I will make a trip there after the upcoming ukulele festival.
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| Folk Museum, Gyeonbokung |
It is amazing how plans can changed especially in the face of eminent disaster. This tale could only happen in Korea. Liz lost the mobile phone we had rented. After taking a call from me it was put back into her shorts pocket. When sitting and chatting to a local, it simply dropped out of her pocket. Now if this were Melbourne, that would probably be that. One lost phone and most likely a hefty bill, cos tge finder chose to have a spree. None of that happened here. I called Liz's phone and in a broken English/Korean conversation worked out the phone was in a shop in insadong. Typically Korean, when Liz thought she should buy something from the shop to say thank you, the owner tried to give her a discount. So often Korean people are considerate.
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Of course guys changed plans for dinner which turned to bibimbap in insadong. It turns out, once the gochugang was scrapped off to be mothers favourite food to date. Just ad wellfor what was to follow, a night trip to Dongdaemun. Boy has this area changed since our first visit. Of course there are the night markets of clothes and food stalls, there are numerous multi story department stores, but mos impressively has arisen an eclectic, futuristic set of buildings found in the. Culture park. There are museums, galleries and a most exciting "Designer shp/ dept store". It is full of cute, sometimes innovative, definately highly functional purpose built gadgets and day to day objects. Everything has a particular flair. Some is not cheap, but there are times when one appreciates a little more than market naff.
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| Dongdaemun Gate |
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| The flowing curves of the Cultural centre, Dongdaemun |
Liz and I ended up with a pair of shoulder satchels that are proving much mure practical than our Aussie Crumpler bags when doing a lot of walking around the city.
Finally before the clock strikes 10 it may be time to get Amelie off to bed as with tonight's late night, we will know allllllll about it tomorrow I am sure.
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