Hiatus

Took a mini hiatus from blogging due to feeling sick for the past 2 weeks.

Am also busy with getting back to cooking on weekends, reading and my colouring.

In short just too many things to do during the weekend and even more tiring than workdays.

But it was fruitful.

I feel more recharged after the weekend and look forward to the activities filled one when it is drawing near.

Next wed will be report's day, I guess this is my way of trying to keep sane and not to dwell on the results too much.

Keep me in your prayers will ya?

Meanwhile I will continue with our Korea adventures posts.

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015 -Seoul - Ewha Women's Univ Shopping street (梨花女大商圈）

We decided to have BBQ pork at Sinchon for dinner and have at least 3 hours to kill before dinner. Contemplate to travel back to apartment to rest but decided otherwise since we basically did no shopping in Seoul.

Since City hall station is along Line 2 which is the same as Sinchon, we decided to travel along this line for convenience sake.

And so, we went to Ewha Women's Univ station where there is a shopping street leading right up to the university entrance.

During our previous time here, the tour guide brought us here and I managed to buy a bag and a pair of earrings here though the things were on the pricey side. Then again, I didn't haggle too as time were too stress.

 I was tired and hungry when we exited from the station and was craving for cheesecake. Ducked into a coffee bean for my coffee fix and ordered a piece of cheese cake.

Mr Love was commenting on my weird craving for food that we can get back home.

Tea break @ Coffeebean in Ewha

 We spent quite some time in the cafe observing a Korean teen waiting for her boyfriend to arrive while checking the mirror every minute.

No joke. She really look into her mirror and adjust herself every minute for 10s and repeat the steps again. We actually timed her. We only left when her boyfriend arrive.

Next is to check out the shopping street which caters more to the youngsters since a Women's uni is located here. Rows of skincare shop line up the street and shops selling various hip clothes and shoes were located at every turn.

But the designs were too young for us. So we went in search of the food street since Mr Love had yet to eat his snack.

Chicken skewers

Kimchi version

 We brought 1 chicken skewer to share but find it to not warm enough under this cold weather. The ajushhi actually did heat it up but we were not sure why it is not warm enough.

Shopping street

Happy man with his chicken skewer

 Went into one of the skincare shops to look around but didn't managed to buy anything as usual. Reason being, it is cheaper to order from Qoo even after taking into consideration the tax refund! Why buy here if it is so?

We then came across a tent selling all sorts of fried food and brought a cup of popcorn chicken to share. Perhaps it is winter time and we kept walking around, get hungry very easily.

Popcorn chicken

 The popcorn chicken was delicious and piping hot and it tastes heavenly while eating here on the cold, windy street.

The very same heel we took a pic in 2009

There are a lot of small shops selling very unique accessories in the small alley but none caught my attention.

It wasn't long that we decided to call it a day here and move on to Sinchon station where dinner would be.

Gong cha spotted

1 photo on Ewha street before moving off

Longest escalator in Seoul

Inner circle line map

Korea Late Winter Sonata 2015 -Seoul - Deoksugung Palace (德寿宫）

Since we had free time on hand it was decided that we catch the guard changing parade at Deoksugung which is located at City Hall station (Line 1,2) exit 2.

Had not planned to come here initially and therefore was a bit unfamiliar with the palace but since this is located on the same line as our accommodation, I figured that it would be great to come here and would not have to change to other subway line to get back to accommodation.

High rise buildings facing the entrance

This is the only palace that sits along side with other western style buildings at its surrounding. The East-West fusion is unique to this palace.

Big drum outside the palace

Entrance fee is KRW 1,000. Guard changong parade is scheduled at 11:00, 14:00 and 15:30. The palace is closed on every mon.

Main entrance -Daehanmum

With the guard

The palace orginally belonged to brother of King Seongjong of the Joseon Dynasty and it only became a proper palace when Gwanghaegun ascended to the throne. Since I am watching The King's face, Gwanghaegun rings a bell. Muhaha. Learnt history through TV serials.

Chunmyong-dang

The 1st impression of this palace is, it is huge! Perhaps because we live the ever compact Singapore, any place of such vast area is unseen in our country.

Actually I was pretty envy over countries who have such deep history. Always love checking these out when I am in the country. This is also why I would prefer Beijing to Shanghai since the former had more historic sites while Shanghai is a very well developed city.

The thing about the palace various halls are all empty. No furniture were inside the halls. No tables, no chairs, no cupboards, no tables, nothing.

Funny isn't it. I wonder where had all the artifacts went to.

Throne

There was only a throne left in 1 of the hall where the king hold audience with his subjects or visitors.

Ceiling decorations

Without the furnishings, the palace look kinda sad. It like big empty houses standing on vast land and nothing much to see except for the architectures which we were not very good at admiring. But since we had tons of time to kill before the guard changing parade, we toured the whole palace.

There was this parade square outside the audience hall where stone plates of different ranks of the officials are engraved on it and officials got to line up as per their rank. The smaller the rank, the further they are from the main hall.

Ranking stones

There are some display of olden time weapons at one of the gate. One of it that caught our attention is it was able to fire a whole lot of arrows( if I am not wrong) at one go on a cart like vehicle.

 

 

The we came across a hall which looks too modern to be in Joseon era. The decoration reminds us a bit like Malay architecture.

But in actual fact this hall which Emperor Gojong use to enjoy coffee with foreign diplomats is built by a Russian architect.

Jeonggwanheon

Random birds in the palace

We roamed around the palace to wait for time to pass for the guard changing parade. Went out to the main gate to stand a place for a good view of the parade.

View of City hall from the palace

Announcing the start of parade

The parade starts exactly at 2pm with a announcement in Korea, Chinese, English and Japanese language.

The Royal Guard changing ceremony here reenacts exactly as what it used to be held in the olden Joseon days with guards wearing traditional clothes and carrying traditional weapons and playing traditional instruments.

Official holding keys of the palace

It was a grand ceremony and no details were spared as there was an instructor there to guide the performers even as they stood there at ease during part of the ceremony.

Change of duty in charge

Adjusting position of the flag pole

At least we managed to catch one guard changing ceremony today which was our initial plan. It was great to have spend some time here to check Korean history but be warned about the lack of furnishing.

If you are interested in look at artifacts of Joseon Dynasty, you will get to see more at the National Museum than the palaces.