Don't Pinch Me

So the past couple of days I spent grocery shopping and doing laundry.  (Unfortunately those things need to be done in Korea too.)  But since my chores were done today, I decided to spend the day playing in Seoul.  I headed north this time to Gyeongbokgung Palace and Bukchon Hanok Village.  I took the subway to the Gyeongbokgung Station and this is the view I got when I walked out.

Wow.  Honestly, I can't believe that I live here.  I keep waiting for someone to pinch me and wake me up from this amazing dream.  It is truly surreal seeing all of this history in real life.  This is Gyeongbokgung Palace.  It was the royal palace for the Joseon Dynasty.  This palace was originally built in 1395.  Unfortunately it was burned down during the Japanese invasion in the 1500s.  It has since been rebuilt.  I had the cutest English speaking Korean tour guide.  She was fabulous.  

She took my tour group all around the palace grounds and gave us the history behind the palace.  This is the Throne Hall where the king greeted any visitors or gave important declarations.  

 Here is the King's throne inside.  The five mountains symbolize the five major mountains of Korea.  As the tour guide explained, all five were part of the kingdom during the Joseon Dynasty.  Now only two belong to South Korea.  The other three are in the north.  (I'm sure I heard some sadness in the tour guide's voice as she said this.)

This is the pavilion where banquets would be held.  Everything in this palace represents the Yin & Yang (opposites that are interconnected).  This building shows the opposites between Earth and Sky.  You'll notice the pavilion is built in the shape of a square to symbolize the Earth while the pillars inside are cylindrical symbolizing the Sky.   

There are so many other fascinating things from this tour I could blog about, but it would take all night.  I find that I'm taking WAY too many pictures these days too.  For my mother who reads this blog, I'm turning into you!  Here are just a few others that I took here.

After the palace I headed to Bukchon Hanok Village.  This is an area of traditional Korean houses called "hanok."  They too date back to the Joseon dynasty, but unlike the Palace, these are original houses.  There are some that are tourist attractions, but most of the ones I photographed today are residential houses.  They're beautiful.  

It is so amazing to step back in time in this little village, yet to be reminded of the very modern city just in the distance.  This is truly one of the coolest places I've been.  You'll notice two of the school girls in my picture above.  There were several school trips here today.  They were hysterical.  Everywhere I went they would ask me if I would take a picture with them.  I'm used to this happening with the kids, but not with me. I don't know how many picture books I'm going to be in.  Maybe I should start charging.  :)

That's all I could squeeze in before needing to take the subway back to pick the kiddos up from school.  What a day.  If I'm dreaming, don't pinch me, because I'm not ready to wake up yet!