Gyeongbokgung Palace

It has been quite some time since my last post. We actually haven’t been up to that much lately, just sticking around our abode and exploring the restaurants and shops nearby. I realized that I had not posted about our trip to Gyeongbokgung Palace a few weeks ago, so I thought I would share a few photos from our trip.

We started off the morning by having coffee and a waffle with ice cream (yes, for breakfast) at the Poop Cafe. Sounds delicious, right?

Many of the drinks here are served in a toilet mug. Unfortunately mine was just a regular mug with poop on the side. Our waffle was in the shape of poop too. Jealous yet?

It was actually a very neat cafe. They had poop decorations all throughout the place, even plants growing out of urinals. The giant happy face turd was pretty awesome too. It had little flies stuck on it, so detailed. I bet you are getting an appetite with all this poop talk. I know when we first heard the name of the place it made our mouths water.

Moving on…

 

Our next stop was Gyeongbokgung Palace. This photo was taken just as you enter the palace grounds. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous.

Gyeongbokgung Palace, the “Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven”,  was built in 1395 during the Joseon dynasty and was the main royal palace of that time. During the Japanese Invasions in the late 1500’s the property was destroyed by fire and later abandoned for two centuries. The buildings were later restored during the reign of King Gojong (1852-1919).Gyeongbokgung Palace is arguably the largest and most beautiful palace out of all five of the grand palaces built during the Joseon dynasty. The photo above is Gwanghwamun Gate, the main entrance to the palace.

This was taken right in front of Geunjeongmun, the third inner gate.

Here I am in front of Geunjeongjeon, the throne hall where the king granted audiences to his officials, met with foreign envoys and held official functions.

I paparazzied these two ladies taking selfies in their hanboks.

Here is another side view shot of Geunjeongjeon. The inside was absolutely remarkable, as you can see in the photos below. I still can’t get over the detail. Absolutely beautiful.

This is a photo of the throne inside Geunjeongjeon Hall.

This was taken in one of the pavilions surrounding the hall.

Here are a few more photos from the palace grounds. As you can see, everything was starting to bloom. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day so the pictures aren’t as great as I was hoping. I’ll have to go back again on a sunnier day.

The photo above is Hyangwonjeong Pavilion which was built around 1873. The bridge (Chwihyanggyo) connects the pavilion island to the palace grounds. It was originally built on the north side of the island and was the longest wooden bridge constructed during the Joseon dynasty. Unfortunately it was destroyed during the Korean War and later rebuilt on the south side of the island.

This was taken from the north side of the island.

The building above is Jibokjae, a two-story private library that was used by King Gojong.

On our walk out of Gyeongbokgung we discovered the Blue House (Cheong Wa Dae) which is Korea’s version of the White House. At the time we didn’t know they did tours there so we will probably end up venturing back at some point.

That about completes the end of our adventure. We are actually going back up to Seoul in two more weekends for a lantern festival. This weekend we are venturing to the Taean Tulip Festival which is about two hours east of us. Adam is so excited, let me tell you. He just loves flowers so much… Anyway, hopefully I will be more productive and get my posts from our two upcoming trips out sooner than this one. I hope everyone is well and has a wonderful week!

-Elaine