So I'm home again now, but I haven't been blogging at all. Jet lag is just terrible once you're back home again. I used to go to bed early and wake up early. Now I can't fall asleep at all until after midnight, I don't sleep well, and then I don't wake up until my emergency alarm goes off. I say emergency, because it's the one I set obscenely late, just in case I don't wake up. Then I forgot on Fridays that I have to go in an hour early, so I need to set my alarm an hour earlier. Did I remember that part? Nope. Thank goodness I wasn't late.

So I'm going to keep on bloggin about my trip until you're all nice and caught up. Then I'll do a couple commentary-type posts. Here's the rest of the day after we saw Gyeongbok Palace.

We left the palace and got back on the subway. A couple stops later we got off at Chung Lo. This was the only place I really saw a lot of street vendors. I wanted to try some, but Hisung said, "no junk food." hahaha! Ok, so I just looked at the delicious looking fried and slathered yummies, and took a couple pics as we walked along.We walked around there for a while, trying to get pictures while walking, and without being too annoying. It would have been better if I had a longer zoom, so I wouldn't have to get up in people's faces to take pictures. That will be the next lens I buy for sure. Also, we were walking walking walking, and it's hard to get good pictures without stopping. So many of my pictures on the trip were taken in a hurry, because we had so many places to go and things to see. I think if I go back, I will have more time to stop and enjoy things without having such a whirlwind. Maybe then I'll get better pictures. I still have yet to edit these pictures, but I don't feel like it at the moment, being so exhausted and all.

So anyway! After Chung Lo, we went to this nice little stream that runs through the city called Cheong Gye Cheon. It was really pretty, and it was filled with couples! This couple was so cute, and I got a couple shots of them bein' all adorable.

They were the cute, unmarried, and totally in love couple. The couple that makes other couples sick with an overdose of adorableness. He was so sweet. He helped her down, helped her across, helped her up. Took adoring photos of her. They were just too too cute! Then there was this couple going across, with their shopping bags. Older, and married, probably on their way home from work, not so cute, and not so adorable. This is where that other couple will be in 10 years, if they're still together in 10 years. Did he help her up or down? Nope. Just made sure she could get up ok by herself. But hey, at least he's carrying the bags, right? Still a good man. lol!So then it was our turn to cross the rocks. Hisung helped me down and took pictures as we hopped along. I guess we're still in that adorableness stage...hahaha!
So we looked around some more on the other side and decided to cross again, but in a different spot. This is where things got tricky. You see, one of the rocks was very small, half of it was in the water, and was very slippery. Only one foot would fit on that rock. The jump between the rocks was also not that little. Why oh why did we have to choose this path across? I stood there and stood there, wondering what it would be like to fall in the water in front of oodles of strangers who are already transfixed on the giant white foreigner. Hisung couldn't resist, and took a picture of this couple watching to see what was going to happen to the poor foreigner in the slippery flip flops. Just look at them. The guy looks concerned for me, aww, how sweet....but the girl, she's just enjoying the show. hahaha!
I couldn't move for a long time. I just couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if I fell. It's not just falling in in front of dozens of staring strangers, it's being wet, for a long time, and walking around the city, all wet and embarrassed. What would happen once I got on the subway? Oh boy......I didn't even want to imagine. I finally decided, it was just time to do it. Time to take the leap and pray I could keep my inner clutz at bay. Just do it! 1...2........3........ok 3 and a half........GO! In the air I went, and down on the rock I landed...and wobbled...panic! But I caught myself, and all was well. phew! Trauma averted. Time to get out of there before I had another chance to make a fool of myself.

We walked down to Myeongdong, and there was this pretty little water feature and some nice grass.

Do you see that sign in the back? Tous Les Jous? They have the best vegetable croquettes on the planet, I am sure. Don't know what that is? I didn't either, but mmmm....It's like a doughnut, but not...It's slightly sweet, and crunchy on the outside, and inside is all doughy and like, really tiny vegetables all chopped up in like....creamy cheese or something. I have no idea...but they are so good, and I can't get them here....so sad...

Anyway! This guy was giving a little concert, which was pretty cool.

Myeongdong has a lot of restaurants, and a lot of people. Not too many cars around, which is nice. It's a cool place to go for a stroll and people watch. We decided to grab some dinner before heading up to Seoul Tower again. Hisung orderd Sulungtang. It's like a light beef broth soup with thinly sliced beef and scallions in it. You put your rice in and eat it that way. You can also stick some radish kimchi in it to give it an extra lil kick. I had some of this later and took some pics for you all to see. It's delicious. But that night, I saw mandu on the menu, and I had never had mandu like these before, so I ordered up, and holy cow... They were HUGE! And yummy.....oh so yummy.
After dinner we headed up to Nam Mountain again, and we locked up our locks, and had some awesome Coldstone ice cream. That's right, Seoul Tower, has Coldstone. mmmm...... Since I've already posted all about Seoul Tower, including the locks, I'll just put up one pic, and close this bad boy.

I still have so much to catch you all up on. Hopefully I will be able to knock it all out soon, before I totally forget all those little details about it. :)

Ok, so picking up where I left off......again. Pictures of the palace! Easily the most beautiful thing in the whole enormous city. Ready? Here we go!

One of the many buildings inside the labrynth of the palace. You can get lost in this place for sure. I think this might have been one of the quarters for some of the lady's in waiting. Apparently each night there were over 700 people ready and waiting to serve the king and queen if they were requested. Over 600 ladies in waiting and over 100 eunuchs.

One of the many doors in the walls. Most of the hallways and building walls have doors like these ones.
This is Kyeonghoe-ru, the largest pavillion in the country and a ballroom of sorts. This is where the king would entertain foreign guests. It's just gorgeous.

Here's a view from the side, looking in.

And here's a close up of one of the sculptures on the walkway.

Here are a couple pics of me and of Hisung in front of it, enjoying the shade from the hot hot sun.
We also went into the king's resting room. Actually I forget what it's called, but it's where he spent most of the day. It's relaxing and quiet, and even in the hot still weather, somehow a lovely breeze floats through the room. It was easily the coldest place in the whole palace. We got to walk inside if we took our shoes off. It was really neat! The ceiling was amazing.

They also had a small couch set up and a place setting where the king would have eaten. Here's a couple pics of the room.

Here's a couple shots of the walkway. There's so much detail all over the place, I couldn't help but take some closeups.

I don't know how on Earth I got a shot of this walk empty. It's the path to the king and queen's rooms as well as the way back out, so it's always full of people. This was towards the end of the day, so I guess a lot of them cleared out by then. Another one of the beautiful buildings.

And another underside of a roof, I couldn't get enough of these.

A look down one of the corridors.

And one last image for you all.

Now I have to get ready and go eat breakfast with one of Hisung's cousins who's on leave from the army. More later peeps!

Ok, so a ton of time has passed since I last blogged. It couldn't be helped though. Last week I came down with....the sickness, oh the sickness. I haven't been so sick in a long time. It started Friday, but I didn't know it then. I was very tired all day, and felt just...off. Then Saturday morning I woke up feeling pretty bad. I thought I was just tired at first, but as the day went on I felt worse and worse. Before I knew it, my throat was really sore and swollen, my muscles ached, I was exhausted, and I had a fever. We were out in the city and it was too late to see a doctor, but Hisung's mom works for a medical clinic and she was able to bring me home 2 days worth of antibiotics. Thank goodness!

The palace was beautiful. Huge, and beautiful. All the buildings have this type of design under the roof. They're so gorgeous and full of detail. It's breathtaking.

Once we entered we joined a tour group led by a woman wearing a light cotton hanbok (a traditional Korean dress) who was very knowledgeable and quite funny! She told us how the walkway is separated in three parts, and that the middle part is only for the king to walk. If anyone even accidentally stepped on the king's path, they were spanked with a wooden instrument about 180 times. She said that now we're here as tourists, and we can walk on the king's path all we want, and no one will spank us. hahahaha!
This palace, along with other sites in the city, are really interesting to see. They're so old, unchanged by time (except for the renovations and such). They're quiet, save for the tourists, full of green scenery, and very still. Outside is a modern bustling concrete metropolis, noisy, and ever changing. It's so different to my western eyes, but very interesting.

I seriously took an obscene amount of pictures in this place. I could never hope to show you many of them here. It takes several minutes for each picture to upload on the blog. Plus, I took some panoramas, but I will have to wait until I get home to stitch them together. So I'll just show you a bunch of them, with only very small explanations, if any.

Here's the king's throne.

Ok, I'm sorry, I have to cut this post off prematurely. My pictures have stopped uploading to blogger for some reason. It's taking ten minutes for each one, and I've tried the same picture 4 times now and it still won't upload. I can't waste my day waiting for these babies. I'm sorry. I'll have to update more later. :( More is coming though, I promise!