Changdeokgung Palace and Myongdong Night Market
MAP
Somewhere between Osaka and Seoul I had lost my toothbrush. Fortunately the convenience stores in Korea are fantastic. There were at least ten different kinds of toothbrushes to choose from! We were also surprised to find that they sold hanafuda cards (called hwatu in Korea). We bought a pack. It’s kind of a niche game in Japan, but in Korea, they play a classic family and holiday game called Go-stop with them.
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| Of the many convenience stores in Seoul, CU was my favorite. |
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| Buy two spam, get one free! |
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| Goodies from the convenience store: yogurt with berries, sweet potato bread, and egg salad and grape jelly sandwiches. |
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| These Yakgwa cookies are really good! BTW, a gat is a traditional scholar's hat. |
We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant “First Floor”. After breakfast, we took the subway to Changdeokgung Palace. The T-Money app is very convenient for subway travel and convenience stores too. The only trick is that, unlike Suica, you can’t charge it up inside your wallet, but you have to go to do it in the app.
We went on a guided tour of the palace and royal residences which was very worthwhile. After that we took a guided tour of the secret garden. “Secret” in this case really meant private, and it’s a garden with buildings in which dignitaries were entertained by the royalty of the Joseon Dynasty. Walking around Changdeokgung Palace was like walking around the set of one of those Korean historical dramas. Because the kitchens played such an important role in the show “Dae Jang Geum” I asked the guide where the kitchens were. She said there was only one remaining and that was currently under restoration. Too bad. I would have liked to have seen that.
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| Injeongjeon Hall. Not the characters from the famous Chinese story, Journey to the West, along the roof line. |
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| Throne Room |
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| Ceiling Details |
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| Pavilion in the Secret Garden |
We found lunch at a trendy “scorched rice” place on the second floor of a highrise office building. The walls were all glass, and the inside was painted all white. There were small branches hanging from the ceiling. The kimchi mixed with tomato soup was super good!
On our way back to the hotel my niece wanted to stop at Olive Young. It’s a cosmetics and skincare shop. It was funny seeing all the bored men hanging out waiting for their partners to finish shopping! On the subway ride back to the hotel I noticed that people are not as silent as they are on subways in Japan. There’s regular chatting and occasional laughter.
From the hotel, we walked to the Myongdong Night Market. Lots of stores open, big crowds, and food vendors. We went to the HBAF (Healthy But Awesome Flavor) almonds flagship store. Everything in the store was bright yellow! I’ve never seen so much yellow and so many flavors of almond snacks.
At the night market some of my favorites were the gyeran-ppang (계란빵) egg buns and the hotteok (호떡) sweet pancakes.
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| HBAF (Healthy But Awesome Flavor) |
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| Myongdong Night Market |
Proceed to the next day ->
