Korea Seoul-Day 3

Namdaemoon Market

On our Seoul-Day 3, we started the day by going down to Namdaemoon Market, in search of silk pillowcases similar to the ones our guest house had. That would make a nice gift for people back home, a pretty but useful gift, like my mother likes them. Unfortunately we did not get to find what we were looking for. We learned later that most people just go buy fabric at Dongdaemoon and get it done by making specific orders. There was no way we'd be doing that in the short amount of time my parents were in Korea, so we gave up on the idea. Still, it was nice to walk around the crazy market under the heavy heat of the end of the summer.

Namsan Tower

Our second destination: Namsan Tower. I had been before, but I had taken the bus both times, so this time, we took the shuttle thingy... man how do we call that thing already? Anyways, that lil thingy moving on cables, that brings you to the top. My mom is afraid of heights, so she had a hard time, but travels are for going over your fears aren't they?

The locks of love. I have never seen so may locks. Makes me wonder how many of those couples are still together, and how many of them are married? I know some people come find their locks to break them when they break up. Such a pain in the ... if you ask my opinion. Try to find yours when there are so many....

There are many different kinds of love. Right now, the only valuable one for me is family. I'd love to come here with a date one day, but I'd have yet to meet a single man that is worth trusting. To be continued....

Paparazzi shots warning!

My parents in a cute couple spot. Can there be anything sweeter? Ok, they could have put a lock. But that was too much for them :P

 

Han Gang Walk

As we were on our way to the Namsan Tower, I called to make reservations at one of the most renown Korean restaurant serving traditional royal dishes, al including a dance show with traditional costumes and instruments.

My next blog will be about it, because there were too many pictures of the evening to simply add them here. That'd have made this blog entry too heavy...

The reservation was much later that evening, so we went to take a walk by the Han river, where there was a nice bicycle trail (we would have been better just renting bicycles, because the trail was never ending, and I literally killed my feet walking what was probably around 10 kilometers....) to kill time, in search of a spot that was nice to enjoy. 

While we didn't get to the place we wanted to go to (the place is much bigger than we expected), we discovered nice shadowy spaces where people could train and chill during the heat of summer.  

Goguan Take 3

Do you ever get bored of getting to that place and take pictures?

Does it look like I am anywhere near getting bored of it? Because that's never happening, sorry ^3^

So here, the other thing we did that day in Insadong, was going to my lovely Goguan to take pictures with my parents. I love that studio because they have a really large collection of outfits, they take the time to make everything nice, and even fix your hair and makeup. 

I like that we have the opportunity to take our own pictures apart from the professional picture taking in the studio part of the store with our own cameras. 

I remember that when I started to watch Korean dramas I found that the costumes looked a bit weird. As much as I love them all in all their weirdness, I can imagine that my parents might think that the costumes look weird and would not want to take pictures in them. But when my brother went to the States for 2 months, they took studio pictures in costumes and as it had been a great success for them, I felt like there was something to be done with that.

My parents really don't look Asian at all. But I don't know why, my dad was the perfect fit for the Emperor costume. Being really tall already, he was reluctant to wear that costume, however, so he chose the captain of the guards uniform. I still stick to the idea that he was meant to be king. 

Fortunately, there was something nice that happened. Another Korean couple got in as my mother and I were changing, who wanted the same costume as my dad. They got to get it first (go ask why) so they got my dad to wear the king outfit first and told my parents to go take free pictures while we were waiting on my dad's other costume. 

So trick of fate made it so that I had my dad wear the king's costume. 

Aren't they adorable?

I was not there when they picked my mother's costume, so she just went with the one they picked for her, but I was a bit skeptical at their choice. I felt like the costume, fabric and pattern was too modern. It especially clashes with the very traditional look of my dad's king outfit (see the difference in the shades of gold and embroideries).

I must have watched too many dramas, but I feel like the clothes I chose gave the same kind of vibe as the clothes of Jang Ok Jung in The Moon that Embraces the Sun. Family picture <3

Meeting the Queen Mother :)))))

Why so serious?

I want to photoshop the back of mommy's head, her hair was too short to be tied, so it needs a little smoothing up, but I still think the picture was beautiful enough to keep it :)

Daddy smiled on this one! My dad smiles ALL the time, but he looks so serious in those pictures, I think I thought it would not fit a king to smile... eh eh

Those pictures have no effect of photoshop, so the light does not always make people look at their advantage, but as the official pictures were smoothen up like crazy, I feel like that's a refreshing change... 

Now here are the official studio pictures we got together, with my dad wearing the outfit he chose...

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...