Seoul Food

I have some immediate observations about Seoul.  

• The city is huge and pretty dirty (sooty?).  And sometimes smells too.  There's a lot of trash in the  side streets.

• Everything is very colorful.  

Colorful Bus

• Korean attempts at English are slightly hilarious.  
  

Wrapper for a bath sponge

• Koreans do not sweat.  It is HOT here.  Nearly 90 and muggier than Cleveland on a hot July day.  Yet, I see people all the time in long sleeve shirts, pants, and business suits without any trouble.  Alan and I are drenched and these people aren't even breaking a sweat!

• I think Koreans are slightly obsessed with looking good.  There are ads for cosmetic surgery everywhere, and in the subway, there isn't anything but.  
  

Cosmetic surgery place.  

• We are definitely foreigners.  Even in a city as large as Seoul, I've seen very few non-Asians.  The good thing about this is that Alan is very easy to spot in a crowd if we get separated.  However,  I've already noticed the stares (some not so discreet) and even watched a Korean lady hesitate to sit next to Alan on the subway and then scootch as far away as she could after sitting down.  (Must be the beard.  :P)

• Everyone has a smart phone.  In the US, you still see a lot of people with flip phones and texting phones.  Not here.  All smart phones.  

We went to see the Gyeongbukgung Palace today.  It was built in 1395 during the Joseon Dynasty and has been burned down twice during the Japanese invasions of the 1500's and early 1900's.  It was a pretty fascinating place and we took a tour through it.

Throne room and the court yard

Inside the museum.  Panorama of the palace.  

Throne room.

You have to take your shoes off before entering the King or Queen's sleeping chambers.

Bukchon Village is a residential area not far from the Palace and features traditional Korean style housing.  We walked through there for a while.  

It's been a nice day of walking around and seeing Korean history.