Unmindful of our only four-hour sleep, I and Ahne woke up at about 6:00 to a chilly but sunny Seoul morning.
Here’s the funny thing however: We actually had no idea where to go at that time! Sure, we had a list of places where we wanted to go to but what we had in our hands were only an (un)detailed map of Seoul and our painfully poor sense of direction. Kita niyo na kung gaano kalakas ang loob namin? But despite this, I strongly felt that we were guided for the whole duration of our trip. Maybe Papa God was thinking, “Sige na nga, sa kakulitan ng dalawang ito, lulubos-lubusin ko na nga.”
The first anecdote of the day was, while walking towards our yet again, assumed direction of Bukchon Hanok Village, we decided to just ask a policeman to shorten our agony. Imagine us opening a very humungous Seoul map in the middle of the sidewalk while the locals passed by us---we looked like lost, big versions of Dora! So, upon asking a policeman, he told us to just cross the street and we will be finding the village. Imagine, the village is just right across the street from where we were standing! But I didn’t lose hope for Ahne and I---we still had two days by that time, surely there was still hope that our map reading skills might improve.
Upon reaching the opening of the street which says, “Bukchon Hanok Village”, we were quite disappointed when what we saw were just scattered houses with mixed traditional and modern Korean designs. We just kept mum while we continued walking in the unfamiliar streets. We walked for about 15 minutes or so, and just when we were about to decide to just leave the area and proceed to Gyeongbukgong Palace, we turned into another block and what greeted us was a whole stretch of street, lined with authentic traditional Korean houses called hanok. Newly learned lesson: Huwag tumigil sa paglalakad!
From there on, the koreanovela addict in me replaced my normally rational self (Rational? Talaga lang ha? Ahahaha!). Forgive my next ramblings. Just remember, on normal days, I am not altogether like this. Ahahaha! Okay, from what I was telling, the moment we saw the whole stretch of street, I was catatonic for about several seconds. Imagine? This was the very same street where several scenes from different Korean dramas and movies were shot, including one that starred Lee Min Ho. Again, let me reiterate, that’s including a drama series that starred my first great love, The Lee Min Ho!
I have to switch to my normal self or else, I’ll be ending this post sounding like a love-struck 12-year old.
The Bukchon Hanok Village is found near the Changdeokgung Palace and the Gyeongbukgong Palace. More than a hundred traditional Korean houses built during Korea’s Joseon Era (about 600 years ago) are still preserved in this area. This was once a place for the people who were affluent in the society, including noblemen and those which were in close association with the royal family. “Hanok” means traditional house and “Bukchon” means located at the north, as this area is found in the north of the central point of Seoul. At the moment, the hanoks are turned into guesthouses, restaurants, and cultural museums.
After taking a lot (As in a lot of pictures!), off we went to our next destination!
P.S. In my next posts about our Korean trip, forgive me if I would forget momentarily the rules of writing or that I was once committed into developmental journalism. I don’t care if these posts about the trip would sound mushy or too high schoolish---because that’s exactly what I want them to sound, a personal account of the trip. I would really want to look at this many years from now and laugh or cringe from all the funny and embarrassing anecdotes and ideas that I had on the whole duration of the trip. I don’t want these posts to appear objective and measured or overly thought of and edited. Plus, bear with the fact that this blog will be flooding with my face again. I may sound rationalizing my seeming narcissism, but I just want to remember that I was that happy on this trip (A dream come true!).
But I assure you, it wasn’t all about picture-taking galore. I had moments of silence, solitude, and oneness with the place during the trip---and I will be writing about it soon. :)
From there on, the koreanovela addict in me replaced my normally rational self (Rational? Talaga lang ha? Ahahaha!). Forgive my next ramblings. Just remember, on normal days, I am not altogether like this. Ahahaha! Okay, from what I was telling, the moment we saw the whole stretch of street, I was catatonic for about several seconds. Imagine? This was the very same street where several scenes from different Korean dramas and movies were shot, including one that starred Lee Min Ho. Again, let me reiterate, that’s including a drama series that starred my first great love, The Lee Min Ho!
The Bukchon Hanok Village is found near the Changdeokgung Palace and the Gyeongbukgong Palace. More than a hundred traditional Korean houses built during Korea’s Joseon Era (about 600 years ago) are still preserved in this area. This was once a place for the people who were affluent in the society, including noblemen and those which were in close association with the royal family. “Hanok” means traditional house and “Bukchon” means located at the north, as this area is found in the north of the central point of Seoul. At the moment, the hanoks are turned into guesthouses, restaurants, and cultural museums.
After taking a lot (As in a lot of pictures!), off we went to our next destination!
But I assure you, it wasn’t all about picture-taking galore. I had moments of silence, solitude, and oneness with the place during the trip---and I will be writing about it soon. :)
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