Day 72 – Seoul
Today we started the day at the Seoul City Hall, which is a very cool looking building. We could hear a lot of commotion close by, so we walked around the building and stubbled upon the 5th Seoul Kim Chi Festival (where else!). The festival was decorated nicely using cabbages and had a massive area set up for making Kim Chi.
Seoul City Hall 
On the other side of the road, there was a political protest surrounded by police. The protest was right in front of the Deoksugung Palace, so we walked through it to buy our tickets. Inside the Palace, a student guide took us around. She had driven 4 hours, just to do the tours as part of a uni group she volunteers at.
The Palace was very cool. According to our guide, the emperor liked western culture, which is why there is a western styled building in amongst all the beautiful Korean styled buildings. It was amazing that the buildings were built in 1900’s and had under floor heating. That been said, this feature made the buildings prone to burning down!
Temporary exhibition on clothing of the emperor. It was funny to watch our guides face as J asked for a photo, and then told her to turn around!
We then walked around the street of Myeongdong, which has several streets full of various shops with a very cool vibe. We walked around in circles looking for the Myeongdong Catholic Church, which is a massive structure, but it is overshadowed by all the surrounding buildings.
The streets of Seoul are awesome, with most major roads leading to the Seoul Tower, so it is always in the background. There is also dedicated bus lanes in the middle of the road, that is packed…absolutely packed with buses.
From the Myeongdong area, we walked to the Namsangol Hanok Village, which is a traditional Korean Village. The village has a handful of ancient buildings which are nice to wonder around. If you go earlier in the day, I believe there are also traditional activities to do. There was a film festival on the day of our visit, so the ground was full of souvenir and food stalls. A massive screen was set up with some curious films. It was after a while, we realised that it was a Food Film Festival, as in all the films were centred around food!
For me the best part of the Hanok Village was the extensive grounds. The autumn colours were in full force around the grounds making it look amazing. Within the grounds, there is also a time capsule placed by the citizens of Seoul.
Another amazing day in Seoul 🙂