I’ve been around many parts of Seoul already, and even outside of the main region since I began my studies here. However, I feel as if I haven’t done as much touristy stuff as I was hoping to do. For this reason, I finally forced some time after midterms were over! When visiting Korea, I think a staple attraction that people should experience are the historical and cultural attractions such as palaces, castles, and villages. At the moment, I was only able to squeeze in some palaces between classes!
One of these palaces that I recently visited was the Gyeongbukgong Palace. This specific palace was built in 1395 for the Joseon Dynasty family. An extension of Gyeongbukgong is the Jagyeongjeon chamber. I’m not sure if this held any significance for the palace, but it definitely is worth to walk through it because it’s such a nice area!
The other I also visited was Changgyeong Palace that was built in the mid-15th century by King Sejong. I think I prefer Changgyeong over Gyeongbukgong because it had a more outdoorsy feel to it. It had a large pond that looked pretty cool and everything looked as if it was being encased in beautiful flowers. Gyeongbukgong had its own unique features, but I wasn’t too excited about how much open space it had!
Despite being built ages ago, both structures were still in great shape and looked extremely nice. I’m usually not very interested in walking around and taking in scenery, but I found myself clicking away on my camera! Everything was very beautiful and it kind of made me feel like I was in a K-drama. Something I think is really fascinating about palaces in general is that you can rent or buy a traditional hanbok and go around for the day wearing it! Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to do this because it was a bit on the pricer side and being in a full hanbok in 80 degree weather is not an ideal situation!
