kamNASIda

After our weekend in the nature it was time to go back to the metropolis again. Seoul was the next to be explored and I liked the feeling of being a tourist again instead of a resident.
Ursi and Fibi were, after some teaching lessons, pretty good in speaking Korean, or at least they tried. And "kamsamnida" (Thank you in Korean) sounds almost like "kamnasida" (Thank you in Ursi Korean).

But back to our citytour:
Palaces as well as temples are spread all over the country but the city Seoul as well en masse. Unfortunately most of them suffered damages during Japanese occupation and the Korean War, but after, still ongoing, restorations they are said to be as magnificent as they were before.
The Gyeongbokgung Palace (Palace of Shining Happiness), original build in 1395, destroyed by fire at the end of the 16th century and rebuild in the begining 20th century, is one of 5 palaces in Seoul and  is the main palace of the Joseon Dynasty as well as considered the grandest of all.

We spend half of the day to walk around the huge area with plenty of gates, pavilions, buildings and squares as well as the National Folk Museum.

Right in front of Gyeongbokgung is the Gwanghwamun square with the statues of Admiral Yi Sun-Shin (hero for fighting against the Japanese and famous for his inventive strategics and the use of the turtle ship, unfortunatley he died a heroic death beeing shot my a bullet during an important naval battle) and King Sejong the Great (4th and beloved king of the Joseon dynasty, creator of Hangul the native alphabet of the Korean language).Beneath the statues a Museum dedicated to those famous men elucidates their stories. 

And Fibi and Ursi learned how to write their names in Korean!

Seoul is quite a green city, it's pervaded by hills and mountains and shows a hign number of recreation spaces. Such as the Cheonggyecheon, a 6 km stream runs through downtown. We walked a while next to the stream to reach a shopping mecca. Later that week Fibi and I went there again to see a lasershow and we found plenty of people arranging lanterns for the upcoming lantern festival.

And finally we did a lot of shopping which is a wonderful thing to do in Seoul. They got markets for almost everything, food stalls satisfy hunger and bargaining is easy on the wallet. And the best thing is they have nightmarkets that close at 4.30am. That's women paradise!