Our first full day in Seoul was full of visiting a ton of amazing places throughout the city. We started our day off by visiting the Gyeongbokgung Palace. The Gyeonbokgung Palace was the main royal palace of the Joseon Dynasty. When we first arrived, we watched a changing of the guard ceremony and that was very fascinating. There were tons of music being played as people marched around during the ceremony.
After the ceremony we toured around the entire palace. We got to see the throne room for the king as well as the building where he would hold events for foreign leaders. We walked around the entirety of the palace and got to see the homes of where the king and queen would live. The homes were built in a way that nature would help with heating, cooling, and amount of sunlight in the home.
After we were done at the Gyeongbokgung Palace we went to get lunch. The restaurant we ate at had us take our shoes off before we entered the room we were going to eat. Lunch consisted of a beef stew, rice, and other sides including squid. It was all delicious, however, it felt a little odd eating at a restaurant without shoes on.
After lunch, we headed to the Jogyesa Temple. The temple had tons of lanterns of all colors outside the temple. Inside the temple, there were statues of Buddha, as we got to walk around inside and see people pray.
Once we were finished at the Jogyesa, we went to the Bukchon Hanok Village. The Bukchon Hanok Village is a traditional village which has turned into a combination of stores and houses where people still live. It was very interesting walking around and seeing that there were tons of tourists walking around as locals were just living their lives.
Later on in the day we went to the Namdaemun Market. The market was tons of streets that were full of shops everywhere you looked. A ton of the shops were full of bootleg luxury brand clothes, with fake Supreme gear almost everywhere you looked. The market also had a ton of food vendors where I got to try a ton of amazing Korean street food. The first full day was very busy and I am looking forward to continue to explore the city.
