Namdaemun, City Hall and Deoksugung in Seoul.

This was the second day in Seoul. I was nervous but yet excited to be able to have the chance to explore Seoul. The fact that I am in Korea still has not sunken in and it became a surreal experience to be walking around the street of Seoul. With a fresh start to the day and a cool temperature, Alyssa and I headed out from our hostel towards the subway station and decided where to go spontaneously. 

In the subway, we realized one thing. 
“Korean advertisements are a form of comic relief, so much dancing and weird things.” - extracted from my diary. 

I swear to god, they weird things they do in commercials are honestly hilarious and totally random. It makes me laugh and smile every time I enter the train. It's not a form of mockery but if you do get a chance to take a look at their commercials, you will understand why or maybe judge me twisted form of humor. 

Back to talking about places.
As I said in the previous post, we stayed in Hong dae and from there we travelled to places. It is important for me to remind you that most attractions lie along line 2 of the subway system. So I suggest looking for accommodation along these lines and don't stray far to make things more convenient.
Our first stop was of course the "City Hall station" considering it should be the point where most attractions gather. Around this stop with a little bit more walking and a good map (could be found in the train station itself - near the exit), you can go to Namdaemun, Deoksugung, Cheongyecheon, Ganghwamun square, Jongmyo Royal Shrine, and even Myeong dong. Based on the Map below, you can decide on your own itinerary or you could just follow mine. Alyssa and I preferred walking over talking the subway for a mere one or two stops and as we walked further and further, we would just commute back to the hostel from the final location.

Our first location when we stopped at the "City Hall station" was Namdaemun. Instead of going to Namdaemun like us, you could stop by City hall and Deoksugung first.
One the way there, we noticed some interesting structures and took some pictures although I was pretty sure it was really nothing much but office buildings.

It was amazing how the Namdaemun gate now symbolizes the start of our journey in Korea. The funny thing about this gate is that, in order to get to it, we had to walk an entire circle around the gate to get to the entrance. Isn’t it weird? It’s just a bunch of junctions at a certain point and while waiting for the traffic light, this is when we found the Namdaemun market. However, we only decided to go to it after since shopping isn’t really our interest and our forte. 
In Namdaemun, we walked towards the gate and we were amazed by how beautiful the gate actually is.

This is something we will never get in Malaysia. They have incorporated the gate into the infrastructure of the city and made it a part of the city. It is now part of a gigantic round-a-bout

The walls of the gate, the colors are beautiful.

As we decided to leave the gate, a cathedral captured our attention and we walked towards the church like nobody's business. Soon, we found out that it was the Namdaemun cathedral that no tourist maps would ever list down. Even so, we entered and explored the place. Although it may not be of interest to most people but for those who are interested in architecture, this pretty good place to visit and to just relax for a little bit before heading out again as the place is accompanied by a small park. It was in the park that we met a famous person (at least we were told that he was famous). I took a picture of him in it and he requested me to delete the picture but since I showed him that the picture was harmless and his face could barely be seen, he agreed to let me keep the picture. 

The picture of the famous one.  

Beside the cathedral was a building that displayed interesting artworks that captured our attention and stalled us for another 15-30 minutes. This building is called Seoul Square Mall. There was honestly really nothing much inside. We went in and only bought a drink or two.

The inside of the building. 

One of the most ridiculous drinks that i have ever seen in my life. But sure, i will not judge those who are buys them or are interested in buying. 

And this is an introduction of my favourite soft drink, Demi Soda. SO GOOOOD. Especially this peach flavoured one. 

After that we headed towards the Namdaemun market, I stumbled across a street vendor that sold spices on the street. I was intrigued by the way the spices were displayed and what they were. Yes, this was my first time seeing people sell spices on the street.

I love those lil' wooden boxes

 As we entered the 'god knows which' entrance, it was surprisingly empty and we actually thought that we were lost. Seriously, that place...is huge.

We ourselves looking into a maze of stalls and shops that confuse and baffles us. We found a store that sells Korean honey candy in which the honey is made into hair-like strands and used to wrap peanuts or any other fillings. It was totally amazing to watch how the guy do it. He was extremely friendly and speaks good English despite the strong Korean accent. At a certain point, he made Alyssa and I said “Oppa” and “Oppa, saranghaeyo”. I was fine with saying the Oppa (means boyfriend, older male friend or older brother) but saying the latter was extremely uncomfortable and I just laughed it off. SO AWKWARD. Was that guy hitting on us? Oh well. haha. We’ll never know. Anyways, we bought a pack and ate it all ourselves. It was so good.

Then, we headed into a jewellery store, bought some snacks and headed out. 

NEXT STOP! 

City Hall, Seoul

No matter where you are in Seoul, the city hall is a MUST to visit. This place is freakin' gorgeous! The architecture was totally amazeballs. It was a combination of both nature and man made strucutres, blended so well together that the word "wow" kept appearing in my head. 

From the outside. The brown building is the national library i think. I didn't get a chance to step in but i am pretty sure it is a library. 

A giant swing in front of City Hall with an aunty casually swinging on it. Ah, so much youth. HAHA

Second shot of the library. :D

The City Hall. SO BEAUTIFUL

My favourite shot of the inside of the building

At the lower floor there's places for people to sit and relax. There's a lot more exhibitions in the building. 

One of the exhibits. I think it was some art exhibit or something. 

Portrait exhibit. I stood here for quite a period of time looking at faces. D;

The lines is made entirely of strings! AND the result of it is amazing. 

This is the side view of it. 

One thing for sure, they are definitely creative. 

The final shot where all umbrellas gather. 

After visiting the City hall, we hurried over to Deoksugung afraid that it will close (we were extremely paranoid you see). It is just next to the city hall, across the road. If you are taking the subway straight to Deoksugung, you can get off at City Hall station and use exit 2 for line one. If you are taking line 2, use Exit 12. Deoksugung opens from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and are closed on Mondays. The amazing thing about Korea is that places like these often has free guided tours. For Deoksugung, it is 10.30 a.m. from Tuesday to Friday. The entrance fees were 1000 won for adults and 500 won for children. It's considered extremely cheap in my opinion and worth the visit!

This palace is different from the rest as it is the combination of both modern and ancient. The architecture here is amazing and I took so many pictures that I'm embarassed now. Anyways, here are some pictures. 

Two uncles came up to us and started talking to us. I’m pretty sure they’re just very nice people. One of them actually told me that my watch is a good watch. HAHAHAHA. I do not know how to react to that but okay! Haha. We said our farewells and continued taking pictures. 

Although the palaces are amazingly beautiful but if there is a lack of time, visitation of any one palaces would be enough because most palaces are pretty similar in terms of the architecture. But if I do get to go back once more, I would like to visit the bigger palaces like Gyeongbukgung. Definitely. 

Of course after hours and hours of walking and wondering around, our feet started to hurt like crazy. Thus, we hobbled over to Cheonggyecheon (man made river in the city). This place has quite a number of people but still enough space for you to choose where to sit, hang around and dip your feet into the water. The first time we put our feets in, we were amazed how Koreans can stand the cold. It was ICY COLD. I mean like your feet will get numb and probably even frostbite kind of wow-ing cold. Our feet were numb in just after a few minutes. Seriously, and this was in SUMMER. 

The river taken near sunset. 

I find it amusing that the mother and daughter were sitting down with their feet in the water, playing games. 

Despite the cold, our feet felt much better and after gaining enough rest, we got up and walked a bit more of the stream then went back to the hostel happy. We managed to feel like the day was extremely productive and went home satisfied.

So, I would suggest your first stop to be the City hall station and from there you expand your travels to different places by either walking or the subway. I would prefer walking because honestly, the destinations are not that far apart from one another. If you do ask for directions and the destination is one or two subway stations away, you can try walking. If people tell you that it is not possible to walk that far, sometimes you've got to trust the map and believe that it is not that far. It is by walking that we find more amazing things about the city and actually feel like we were learning every step of the way. 

Michelle