SEOULful Trip, Day 2: 2nd Destination, Gyeongbukgong Palace

We originally planned to spend our second day in Seoul to have palace hopping. There are five grand palaces located in Seoul, but we narrowed down our destination into two----the Gyeongbukgong Palace and the Changdeokgung Palace.

After about several minutes of looking for the city subway and failed, our poor tired feet were screaming for surrender that we just decided to take a taxi going to the Gyeongbukgong Palace.The Gyeongbukgong Palace which is the biggest among the five palaces, means “A Palace Greatly Blessed By Heaven”.

When Japan invaded Korea in the 20th century, this walled palace was destroyed by fire but was later on restored in 1867. It took about 40 years to fully complete the restoration of the palace.

We arrived in the Palace at around 9:00, just in time for its opening. We decided to buy the integrated ticket which would allow us to enter into the 5 palaces. Here’s my Dora-epic-fail-story again: since I was the finance officer (In Filipino, tagahawak ng pera. Ahahaha!) during the trip, I immediately went into one of the ticket booths without reading the signages. All normal and rational people know that signages should be read for they are like guidelines most especially if one is in a foreign country. But I’ve long accepted the fact that there seems to be a misconnection in some specific neurons in my brain that makes me let’s just say, different . So after like a litany of my inquiries about the integrated ticket and some other essential questions a tourist would basically ask, the woman just stared at me weirdly with crossed eyebrows and was trying to tell me something. Pasalamat ako that I was a teacher in a Chinese school before and I recognized right away that she was speaking in Chinese. Then I looked up at the signage which says, “For Chinese Tourists”----and the assistance in English was just in the booth right beside me. Plus, what was embarrassing was that, the signage was not small, it was humungous! O ‘di ba, misconnections in the neurons, wouldn’t you agree?

Oh, think whatever you would like to think alright. Yes, you’re seeing it correctly. I am hugging the Gyeongbukgong Palace Gates. In one of my posts in this blog, I have mentioned how I went through a “Rooftop Prince” insanity period and I was smitten in love with its lead character played by Mickey Y oochun. In one of the scenes in the Korean Drama, the Joseon Prince (Played by my 2nd great love, next in line to Lee Min Ho. Ahahaha!) who was caught unaware that he time traveled to the future, knocked in the gates of the Gyeongbukgong Palace thinking that the royal family still exists. Since I couldn’t remember exactly if it was the middle or the side gates that Mickey knocked into in the drama, nilubos-lubos ko na ang pag-hug sa gates. I definitely looked like a half-crazed young lady to the other tourists while Ahne was taking this picture but that was all for the chance of being where Mickey’s fist was while shooting the knocking scene. And how many can actually live and tell the story that they were able to hug Gyeongbukgong Palace’s gates, huh? Ahahaha….

The Gyeongbukgong Palace is a well preserved 600 years worth of South Korean history but it is located in the middle of a buzzling, overly modernized city. For me, this is such an interesting contrast---the melding of the past and the present.

This is also known as the Geunjeongjeon Hall where the royal throne is located and where the king formally granted audience to his officials and gave declarations of national importance.

Happily waiting with Ahne, my travel buddy, for the start of the changing of guards by 10:00 am.

The changing of the royal guards started at exactly 10:00 am. The banging of a gong signified the start of the activity. In the midst of a sea of people and with the rhythmic beating of the gong while the royal guards marched in their measured steps, I was just too amazed with the realization that I am witnessing a 600 year-old, well-preserved Korean tradition.

I always had a soft spot for everything that is old----old traditions, old books, old friends, old places, old people. That’s the reason why the changing of the guards just melted my hopeless romantic heart and my old soul into slush.

Howd’ya sir? If I had just enough guts, I would have displayed my funny antics and would have clowned in front of these guards just to see them smile. As in, aral na aral talaga ang expression nila na mukha na tuloy silang magkakamukha lahat! But poor me----as much as I would have wanted to see a fragment of a smile from one of these guards, I still love my life so dearly. Baka bigla nalang sumigaw si kapitan (Another koreanovela vocabulary, ahahaha!): “Off with this young lady’s head!” In korean, of course.

This line of stones in the palace’s courtyard is called pumgyeseoks. There are two lines of these stones where the officials once stood beside each, according to their ranks. The backdrop of the palace is Mount Bugaksan.

The hall at my back is called the Gyeonghoeru. This was where official banquets were held back then.

We were too giddy like 8-year old kids who were handed with an ice cream on a summer afternoon when we tried their traditional costume called hanbok. Ahne kept on telling me that she felt like a Joseon era princess. As in automatic na lang na mapapabagal ka ng lakad at ingat na ingat ka sa pagkagalaw pagkasuot mo ng Hanbok. It’s as if the integrity of that piece of clothing has somehow affected our senses . If you notice in the pictures, my hands were demurely placed in front of the dress, that wasn’t a carefully studied pose. That was an automatic reaction upon wearing the hanbok. I am not kidding!