Seoul Palaces

Then I went into the station and a kind old man helped me load money onto my transportation card. I still struggled trying to get through the barriers, however, because the light turns red when your pass is approved but naturally I thought that meant it hadn’t worked. But the technology now thought I was “tapped in” so I had to flag down a lady to buzz me in. Then I was reading the map on the wall to figure out which line to take when a nice older woman came over to help me, so I finally made it onto the right line and to the palace!

The Changdeokgung Palace is absolutely stunning, huge and so unique - I particularly loved the painted designs on each building. After wondering around for about an hour, I stopped by water and to buy souvenirs from the cafe. I took a walk to peek at the other palace (definitely closed :/) and explored the Insadong neighborhood and the Bukchon Hanbok Village. Then I returned to the original palace for a tour of the secret garden. Then I met up with Hallie at Cheongsudang cafe - we walked more around the village while we waited for our table - and we got yummy juice ( I got sparkling tangerine and Hallie got sparkling prickly pear/cactus?). We grabbed some dinner at a nearby restaurant and enjoyed some cold noodles and kimchi pizza before hopping on the metro to Namsan Tower to overlook the city. Then we headed back to Hallie’s - grabbing gelato from Kiki.’s of course. I tried matcha for the first time, and as no surprise to anyone, I did not enjoy it - too grassy.