A Day In Korean Culture, Gyeongbokgung Palace

This morning we had the pleasure of experiencing the exquisite Gyeonnokgung Palace after a short visit at a museam focusing on the history of the Korean writen language. Just as we arrived at the wall surrounding the primary residence of the Joseon Dynasty, the palace guards were doing some sort of a ceremony. The head guard called upon some of the other soldiers and they yelled all kinds of stuff in Korean. It was a pretty impressive display.
Just as we got in line to buy entry tickets, we all decided we’d rather have lunch first. Now all day Nick had been craving dumplings, earning him the esteemed title “Dumpling Dictator.” We set out in search of these Chinese treats but couldn’t find a restaurant specializing in just what we wanted. The family settled on a little place on a side street near the palace. The meal was filling and we were all full on our walk back to Gyeongbokgung.
By noon the sun was beating down as we crossed the large court yards boarding the decorated structures. It was a little hard to concentrate on anything just because it was so hot. After peeking our heads into everything and walking up and down the dusty paths we unanimously agreed to retreat to air conditioning.
The National Folk Museam of Korea had all the AC we needed. We spent a good few hours learning about about salt mining (“All this information is a-salting”- Dad), ancient Korean lifestyle, Kimchi, old style housing, ceremonies and more.
On the way back to the hotel we found the much anticipated dumplings. There was a little place off of the in-sadong and we took 2 orders to go.
We’ve learned a lot today and after a good rest hope to explore Namdaemun Market, the oldest and largest market in Korea tomorrow.