Of palaces and markets in the rain...

Saturday's agenda:

1. Buy an umbrella

It's embarrassing that I've spent two years in Seattle without ever needing an umbrella and my very first weekend in Seoul, I break down and get one. Ah well. It's true though that monsoon thunderstorms here are a tiny bit stronger than Seattle's diamond-drop rain (that's light rain that you can walk in without really getting wet - it leaves diamonds in your hair). Still, it felt somehow like "giving in" to buy an umbrella. I guess I might need it in Tokyo too (hopefully NOT) but I don't see myself ever using it in Seattle.

Anyway, and from that paragraph, it's obvious that it was a SOGGY day in Seoul! Still, it was a Saturday and one of only two Saturdays I get in this country so I wasn't about to waste it indoors. Specially after arming myself with a brand new brolly.

Decided to go explore Namdaemun market first - that's the totally markety market market (if that makes any sense) where you get authentic Korean stuff. It's INSANE. Crowded like wow, in spite of the rain, and absolutely full of completely unusual stuff. I took tons of pictures and I think I spent half my time going "No way!!" and "Oh my god!!" It was literally overpowering - they had food stalls lining the sides of the street, people selling clothes and toys and handicrafts and wierd stuff and live eels (yeah, live eels - I actually spent about 5 minutes staring at a wok full of live baby eels - in a seafood stall). And there were women pushing wheelbarrows through the street at a mad speed with just raw chunks of meat on them - you had to get out of their way really really fast! And there was a store that sold kimchi chocolate (I didn't try it). It was crazy!! It was amazing!!! I didn't know which way to look!

I didn't buy very much coz I simply had no idea what everything was - I did get some small souvenirs from the arts and handicrafts section of the market, but I wasn't brave enough to try anything from the food stores - this guy at one store called me in and pointed to some packets of green leaves going "Good present! You buy!!" and I was like "Tea??" and he goes "No tea, seaweed!" and I'm like "Oodeah!" And then he pulled open a bag and handed me a square of the weed and insisted I try it. And I was like "Just like that? Just eat it???" I did try it - he'd already put it in my hand anyway and it would have been kinda rude to refuse. I took a tiny nibble. It was .... umm.... let's just say I thanked him very nicely and walked away very fast.

I do wish though that I'd had someone Korean with me to tell me what everything was at all the food stalls - some of the stuff actually looked rather interesting but I wasn't sure what was safe to try and what wasn't - I've already fallen ill once this trip and I don't have ANY medication with me (if you're reading this, ma, don't worry - I'm fine) so I'd rather not risk trying unidentified stuff from streetside vendors. Still, it was tons of fun to look at!

After a few hours at Namdaemun, I decided to go check out the Gyeongbokgung Palace - they have a "Changing of the Guards" ceremony there that I'd been told to go see. It's an absolutely beautiful palace, covers a pretty large area and it was the main royal palace during the reign of the Joseon dynasty (~1400 to ~1900). There's multiple buildings, each one absolutely spectacular! My favourite one was in the middle of a little lake, and gazing at it across the water, with mountains in the background and lightning in the sky was just absolutely amazing.

I'm sure the palaces are absolutely gorgeous on a sunny day, but I kinda liked them in the rain - there were very few people around, so it was completely easy to believe that I actually was walking in a 14th century world and I almost expected to see brilliantly dressed women rustling quietly through the palace hallways. I'm glad I got to see this place without the mad rush of a million other tourists. Some places are just better appreciated with their serenity intact.

On my way back to the hotel, I got stopped at the subway station by two Korean girls who were volunteer missionaries for a church and they wanted to give me some pamphlets - when I told them I wasn't even religious, they were very intrigued and wanted to know more about how I thought. That led to us spending more than an hour at a nearby Burger King and talking about all sorts of things from religion to history to war and terrorism and politics and the future and genetics and evolution and Darwin and space travel and multiple universes and families and parents and culture and oh my god, tons of stuff. It was REALLY really interesting and they were just so nice - they've offered to show me around Seattle sometime later this week if I want to meet up again. It was nice to just sit and talk - I guess I miss my friends and it's a tiny bit lonely being in a strange country all by yourself.

Anyway.

I'm going to go see if there's anything good on TV. I watched a Chinese movie yesterday with Korean subtitles. I'm learning the alphabet - I know how to write my name in Korean now. Yay.

More tomorrow - hopefully it should be a nice day (Forecast: scattered clouds). If it is, I'm going to go check out the Korean Folk Village.