Gyeongbokgung palace

On Saturday we went out with everyone to Gyeongbokgung palace. It's a reconstructed palace from the Joseon Dynasty. It was destroyed during the Korean war, but the original dates back to 1395. It was insanely beautiful and intricately detailed. I've seen European architecture, which is also beautiful, but this palace was beautiful in a different way completely.  

It's strange that such a place exists smack dab in the middle of Seoul, with all it's enormous skyscrapers and busy city streets.

We arrived in time to see a little bit of the changing of the guard and we got to see some traditional Korean costmes.

I can't say much that you can't see in the pictures. This place was truly beautiful.

This is the group of girls we traveled with :

And the boys:

And my boy:

I spent some time practicing my Asian poses.

And Lance practiced some too.

We couldn't resist taking a quick picture of how cute these little girls were.

At the middle of the palace is a folk museum and also this really beautiful Zodiac garden. We each took turns taking pictures with our Zodiac. Here's lance with Mr. Snake.

 

And I posed with the best sign of them all: The    Dragon! 

We didn't get very much time in the museum, but the things we did get to see were pretty amazing. This is a funeral casket cover. We also saw real silk and pages after pages of preserved writings. 

I couldn't resist taking a picture with a traditional Jeju Statue since on Sunday we were flying to Jeju to make it our new home.

They had a pretty eye-catching way of advertising this museum. Notice how they used the trees?

Here's what's left over of some of Seoul's original city gate. The juxtaposition of the old and new in this place is a little eerie. 

After we left the museum we all had the munchies and we headed to dinner! We found a really neat traditional restaurant nearby and we were led into our own little room to sit on the floor. It was cold outside and the floor was heated so it was heavenly to sit on a warm floor (we had little cushions). We all ordered something different. I had a pork dish, which was basically just spicy slabs of bacon and Lance had bulgogi, which is traditional Korean BBQ. Korean food is also served with a variety of side dishes which included tofu with a spicy sauce, seaweed served in a spicy marinade and (of course) Kimchi.

Here's a close-up of my yummy dinner:    

It was so cold during the week I snapped up the first pair of earmuffs I came upon in the streets. Lance says I look like Princess Leia, but I like them.