Traveling back into time at the Deoksu Palace on Hangeul Proclamation Day

Just came back from my SNU Buddy Group 2 outing at the Deoksu Palace, indeed, it was a romantic night with Jen,Yuni and Becci (;

We met at SNU station before meeting Jen at Nakseongdae and then we met up with the rest at the palace.

From what i know, it was the smallest palace in Seoul . It was a short - less than 1 minute walk from city hall station exit 12 to the Palace main gates.

We paid 1000won each for admission fee into the Palace. It feels funny, because right beside the palace is the modern buildings and right in front of us is the ancient traditional Palace. Like another walk back in time through a time portal with the Palace gates being the time portal.

A view of the gates from inside

Our ticket!

our girl clique group photo. me, Becci, Jen and Yuni, with Sunhyun being our Photographer!

 The mythical creature

 Sunhyun! Nice Backdrop of the Palace

A close up view

 Selca with my camera.

Yuni-eonni with Becci! Wish Becci could give me some of her height, she is more than 180cm tall! And she is younger than me. 

The Emperor's seat as a painting behind. On the painting, you see 5 mountains. The moon and the sun on the extreme sides. There is some meaning to it, cant remember again T_T , imagine,hundred of years ago, the kings sat at those very seats. WOAH

 The dragon on the ceiling - has some meanings also , sigh i cant remember

 One of the modern buildings inside the palace. The king was influenced by westerners and loved the western architecture so much that he had it built in his own palace

 The giant bell ,and clock beside it. 

 Picturesque

 random artistic photo of the western building in the palace

 Apparently, in the woods behind the information panel, it used to be other parts of the palace but it was demolished/razed/whateva, main gist is that, it no longer exists. 

 One would see Pine tree everywhere in the Palace, this is because , it is the national tree. 

 As you can see, pine tree depicted in the architecture of the korean-western fusion buildings

 The Jeonggwanheon (hall)

The architecture here has western influences and was built in 1990. Its the first European architecture ever built in a royal palace. Parties were held here . The interior has a korean style.

Review:

It is a good place for couples to go at night, enjoying the palaces scenery. Deuksogung Palace is one of the 5 Palaces and if im not wrong, it is the smallest palace. So if you dont have much time but you would like to se palaces, do drop by Deuksogung Palace and be awed by the beautiful structures in it! Btw we only spent like at most 2hrs at the Palace and we finished it!

Directions: Come out of City hall stn exit 12 and walk straight all the way, the palace will be on your left.

 After the palace visit, we went to have dinner ~

made you drool eh (; the food was good, except the pancake, it didnt quite suit my taste. love the rice though yum yum.

After our dinner we walked by gwanhwamun, and saw some events going on

apparently, there was a bboy performance, pretty cool !

King Sejong

these are the hangeuls that King Sejong invented, most of them are still in use today.

took 2 photos of the gyeongbokgung palace gates. Jen said that this photo looks animated

alright thats all folks (:

Visiting the palace on Hangeul Proclamation Day makes it very meaningful to me. Firstly, i get to travel back into time and admire the past architecture. Secondly, seeing King Sejong statue strucks a chord in me, as he was the one who invented the Hangeul and here i am, standing before his statue. It was a constructive and meaningful day. Enjoyed the night with my babes (:

Gyeongbokgung & Yellow Pub at Hongdae

We had lunch at a shop nearby our place. Me and YH had bibimbap while Pat and Grace had stew. 

Yay they gave us steamed egg. Love the steamed egg. Yummy!

Prior to having my bibimbap ,  i was quite wary of eating it as i get hungry easily when i dont eat meat. Im a meat lover. Carbohydrate lover too! I was expecting the bibimbap not to fill my stomach since there wasnt any meat. So i was quite surprised that the bibimbap turned out to be quite filling!

Today we went to Gyeongbokgung since i hadnt been to any palace before even though this was my second time in Korea.

It is said that if you walk under this door, you will stay forever young ^^ i walked through it last year so maybe thats why i hadnt aged (; hahah kiddingggg

yay ,here i come!

Disclaimer: This post will be filled with Gyeongbokgung photos. Please scroll down if you just wanna skip to the Hongdae section.

there is a reason why the ground is uneven. This is so that when it is sunny, the ground will not be reflective. And killers cannot assassinate the king. Thus its a safety factor. Pretty interesting right (; we were eavesdropping on those tour groups, kekekeke. ninja me.

the antiques placed in the king's room. Being his red seat, there is a painting with mountains and sun and moon on each side. 

The banquet hall where parties are held, the lake--> man-made

Notice the green flat things  hung from the ceiling? Those are actually the doors! During winter, or cold seasons, then they place the doors back . As another layer of protection from the cold or wind. And when its warm, they hung it up.

the small black thing is heater. to keep the interior of the hanok warm

such a cute and small door, dk whats it is for though

the scenery here is very nice, you can see mountains behind the palace!

the must take jump shot. it was hard to get a shot where everyone was in the air. retook it countless time

red symbolises woman. green symbolises man.

All the houses are painted in these colours, man earn money for the family as sheltering the family/house. While woman raise the children as keeping the family intact. Thus the pillars are in red while the roof is in green.

we went to the souvenir shop to chill a bit, the weather was sweltering!

Ratings: 5/5

Review:

If you have yet to visit any palaces , do visit this palace as it is the most popular and well-known! Expect to spend at least 1/2- 1 day at the palace as it is really huge! I only went during late summer. I heard that it would be nice to visit during winter too when it snows! Alternatively, if you only have 1-2 hours to spare, you can go to Deuksogung instead. 

Click here for directions to Gyeongbokgung!

After that we went to hongdae to meet YH's SNU buddy!

i wanted to do a review for this restaurant but i forgot the name and location. Its in hongdae but i cant remember which part of hongdae. definitely at exit 9 side. 

review:

the food was good, argh i cant remember what i ordered. It was among the popular/hot food . Eunji brought us here so i just followed blindly. nice ambience, not the classy feel but casual dining . 

After that we went to Yellow Pub for drinks! Immersing ourselves into Korean's social activities-drinking

If you wanna drink, can come here. As for directions, i have no idea cos it was YH's Korean buddy who brought us here. 

and we ordered these to try.

I cant remember alcohol names at all >< but i had a nice time drinking. kept going to the toilet though as my face was totally flushed from the drinks. Asian flush ><

im not gonna promote drinking so no reviews hehe, too bad if you are a jiu gui.