Insadong with Mum and Dad

Our first day in Bukchon was a success.

It helped that we were on a national holiday, since the palaces were free ;)

On the second day I thought we could visit Insadong. There was also the temple close by the big Insadong street that I had visited before, but that was a good opportunity for my dad to see temples. Getting out of Seoul and back during Chuseok is a bit suicidal so as we stayed downtown, the downtown temples seemed a decent alternative to the faraway mountain temples that we would have gone to visit another time....

Oh.

Another thing.

When I got to Korea I realized something really weird. I was used to Japan, and China and even Taiwan, for when it comes to the culture and the everyday life. What I experienced was the early bird early sleep of Japanese people. Stores opening pretty early, as people get on with their day and enjoy it during the sunlight hours. 

Then Korea blew my mind.

In Korea, there is simply no end of the night. During weekdays, people with drink out of their minds, sometimes til 4 -6AM before waking up and work the next day. That's why, there is NO store, restaurant, coffee shop, snack canteen open before 10AM, sometimes even 11 (with the lonely exception of Paris Baguette that opens at 9AM I think).

I thought that was a great thing. That would allow me to wake up early and take walks in the empty towns and enjoy the shining sun, and in the heat of summer, have the chilly mornings for me. 

I obviously never did that. But possibility, there is.

Thing is. My parents are the wake-up-at-6AM type. So we had a lot of time on our hands. We got to Insadong at 9, by reeeeeaaaally dragging it in the morning and taking our time at the guest house. but there is always so much you can do to drag on.

Thing is, having a town completely empty, that's also cool for one thing. Taking nice building pictures without anyone around. So that's what we did at first. Good morning Insadong!

I noticed, as I met korean friends there, that there are not that many Koreans who really went to Insadong. Unless they went with their parents and went when they were too young to remember. I think, tho, that among the people who did go, not that many got the chance to see an empty Insadong, and had the time to admire the buildings for what they are, instead of for what they sold. 

There were surprisingly a great amount of amazing looking buildings, cleverly designed spaces and buildings with unusual material. Every time I walked around Seoul, I always got a thought for my dad, thinking that he'd be really enjoying the sight of all those nice buildings all over the place. Well I am happy he finally got to see some :)

Ssangji Gil, that building, that closes at 6PM, was always closed when I visited the first times, but I am happy I finally got to go. It is a weird 4 floors building, of which you can climb up without even realizing that you are walking up. There are obviously staircases on each corners of the building, but the most interesting way to go up is to just walk in squares (I want to write walk in circle, but it sound inadequate, since the building is no really a circle, and I am a sucker for details). As you can notice on the picture below, the sides of the walking ways are slightly slanted upwards so you gradually just get to the top without straining yourself as you would by walking up flocks of stairs.

The building has tons of trinket stores with mostly hand-made jewelry, bags, clothes and accessories. I didn't buy anything, but then, it's more the kind of place you would stroll by with a boyfriend and maybe get some silly couple accessories, or stop on the rooftop coffee shop for an expensive coffee.

As it was, we really went there for the view.

I read somewhere that there was a Trick-eye museum, like the one I went to with Rosemary on Hongdae, but there were so many people by the time we came back to Ssangji Gil that it was not tempting to look for it. I'd go later, I told myself.

We waited in line outside an amazing Mandu place called "palace", where we got our money's worth of deliciousness. We got pajeon (Korean pancakes) and boiled mandu (dumplings).

There was a paparazzi...