Domenic Abroad: Sightseeing around Seoul

Well I did post pictures on Facebook, but I did want to put

up some more pictures and add some captions

as well for those that are interested.

Brittany and I went on our own little adventure today, the first place we went to was Changdeokgung Palace. In Seoul itself there are six palaces and this is a very nice one.

Here a girl looks into a sundial bowl that still works to this day. The sundial bowl is accurate and even tells what season it is.
It only works when it's sunny.(I guess I didn't have to mention that)

wood railing design

Hey, it's me!

A stone decoration in the garden.

This is a bronze pot with water in it. There were four bronze pots on the terrace. The Koreans believed that the water in the pots would scare away the fire ghosts. You see the fire ghosts were nasty and ugly looking and this was before the epidemic of cosmetic surgery in Korea. Well when the fire ghosts flew over the pots they would see their reflection and fly away and not set the building on fire.

I am not tall, the doorway is short.

Here is actually a chimney that went under the ground. The chimneys were placed like this to prevent fires from occurring in the buildings. The fireplaces were in the basement of the buildings and would heat the floors of the buildings. Most people would sleep on the floors in the palace because they were toasty warm.

Here is one of the meeting halls that the King had. This building was built in 1920. It had to be rebuilt because of massive fires in 1917. The furniture is from France and there was even electric in the building when it was built.

Yes there was a King of Korea until his death in 1926, but for most of his reign he had no power. He did have a car though and he did have a bed to sleep in as opposed to the floor.

Actually his wife lived until 1966, she lived on the palace grounds in another house until her death.

Only the palace and royal buildings could have such brightly colored paint on them. Other Koreans, even if they were rich, could not paint their dwellings so brightly.

Here is a selfie of Brittany and I.

This is the inside of the palace, It was built about 200 years ago, after you guess it.... a fire...

Fires kept destroying many buildings because they were all interconnected with walkways so the King and Queen never had to walk outdoors to get from building to building. Well the walkways helped the fires spread.

Look at this kid's cute outfit.

Ok we left that palace and went into the neighborhood.

cabbages growing

What do you want grab?

We ended up going to a house that was wear an artist had done artwork in the 1920's and 1930's. Well the house was going to be torn down and demolished a few years ago. Many people were sad about this and they fought to save the house. The house was in very bad shape and had to be almost completely rebuilt and restored.
The house just opened up to the public last year in November.

Here is the artist's bed. notice the wood neck pillow. Is that why some Korean's are grumpy on the subway? Could be....

The artist's studio

Some artwork

The courtyard of the house

A house in the neighborhood.

A cool door on a house. It's new, but neat.

Notice how this house combines the old style with the modern style.

Then we headed to another palace called Unhyeongung. At this palace you can actually rent Hanboks(traditional Korean Dress) and take pictures in it. It was quite inexpensive, maybe 5 dollars.