15/4/2014
Of coz, the place that appeared countless times on almost every korean dramas or movies.
We just got out of bed this morning, took out the map while having our breakfast and decided that we'll come to this place today. That is of coz, without much research done.
Turned out, we shouldn't have visited this place today.. of all days.
Firstly, it was a little hazy, as seen in these photos. Not sure if this is normal here.
Secondly, there was a demonstration going on, as seen in this shot below. [the guy holding the board, the staff holding the big tripod meant for those huge video recording cameras from the local news station and a traffic police (?).]
and of coz, the demonstration itself.
but that's not the main point here.
The main reason why I said it was sort of a bad idea to have come here today was because it's closed, on Tuesdays. -___-
but that's okay, coz I'm not a big fan of places like these.. especially if they're not free to enter.
oh well, thanks to no homework done.
So we ended up walking around the area. First we walked down the street on the right side of Gwanghwamun.
And then we decided to look for food, and a friend said that there's a famous Ginseng Chicken here but unsure of the exact location.
So I stood outside a restaurant and leached on their free wi-fi. :D
Turned out it's on the other side on Gwanghwamun, the left side of the palace. And we had to walk all the way back to where we came from and down the other street.
No, not this street. It's 2 more blocks down the road before we turned left to walk down the street.
After some directions from the locals, we finally found the place.
How the restaurant looks like. I had my 35mm on, couldn't capture the whole restaurant but you get the idea.
We ordered Ginseng Chicken (duh?!) and some other stuff.
pretty good, diff from what we have in Singapore. There's a ginseng in the (spring) chicken itself! and the glutinous rice is stuffed in it too.
and pancake,
The ginseng chickens were not cheap, but worth a try.
After lunch, we proceeded down the street and behind Gwanghwamun. While me and a friend was contemplating a coffee break, we saw this.
It's the Blue House! (equivalent to the White House in USA). Before we could cross the street over to the building, we were stopped by the guards in the area. Guards who dressed exactly like what you would see in Korean Dramas like IRIS, Athena or City Hunter. In suits and shades with earpiece and a gun on their waist. D: Just like the guy in the picture above. The guard who blocked us looked at us and said "foreigner?""cannot cross". We were like "oh?? ok..." x.x
Though, a visit to the Blue House is possible with a pre-booked guided tour. This has to be done beforehand on the government website itself I think.
We actually walked a lot today. We came across this busy touristy part of the area just beside the governmental buildings. By the way, we're back on the right side of Gwanghwamun. Basically we walked around the whole palace, from the front, down the left, to the back and up the right of Gwanghwamun, but not inside -__-
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| "walking tourist information counter" |
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| inside the cafe |
There're some old buildings behind this street.
and from what I see, it's actually a residential area so we have to keep our noises down.
There were lots of up slope and down slope here, which requires some bit of stamina. It's good exercise after that heavy lunch. :/
Our itinerary for the night was Seoul Tower. So we got to the nearest train station (which I have no idea which, we just randomly bummed into one) and took the train to Myeongdong Station.
And before we hopped onto the bus bound for Seoul Tower from Myeongdong, we dropped by a convenience store to get some drinks and top up the T-Money card. And I got myself a banana milk (friend said it's a must have in Seoul) which tasted so-so to me. Once in a while is good but not too much.
IIRC, we took bus 05.
and got off at the Seoul Tower stop (a few stops away from Myeongdong Station, about 15mins ride).
View of the Tower from below. There're still some Sakura left. Not much, but good enough for photos. But you can't "hanami" here of coz, lol.
We did not enter the Tower since we have to pay an admission fee to get to the observatory. And like any other touristy place in Korea, the place was packed with tourists.
So we just hung around outside snapping photos.
The locks and locks and locks. :/
seems like they have these in almost every country out there. Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Korea...bla bla bla...
View of the Tower at twillight, when the lights were lighted up.
The temperature got pretty low after sunset, so it's time to leave the place and look for good (hot) food.
some cold noodles (not fancy of this)
and more dumplings with noodles.
not a fan of the cold noodles, but the rest were ok.
A little walk in Myeongdong to burn up some calories after the food before we went back to our accom. And seriously, how many outlets of Innisfree or how many outlets of Nature Republic do they wanna open in Myeongdong alone?! Just a walk down one street alone, and there are 2 or 3 outlets of the same brand! Talk about monopolization....
And Oh, look what I found!
Meow~~
I would have went if I was alone....
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