This weekend was a 3-day weekend for me because of Korea's Independence Day on Monday, the 15th. It commemorates the freedom from decades of Japanese occupation and the formation of the South Korean republic. So to celebrate, I thought I'd go into Seoul with my friend, Sarah, on Saturday for a day of sightseeing. It was pretty awesome! Seoul is about a 45 minute bus ride from my apartment. It's really not that bad considering I can take a nice little nap before and after. ha.
My first reaction getting off the bus in Seoul, was "ahhh, I'm in love". Seoul is lot like NYC. There are vendors everywhere, massive amounts of people and don't even get me started on the shopping.We first walked down a random street to find many vendors selling various sculptures that I would love to go back in purchase. We then happened to pass by a vendor making court cake. It's basically honey, cornstarch, chocolate and nuts. It's really amazing! Here's a video on how they make it:
After, we headed over to Changdeokgung Palace. It means ‘The Palace of Prospering Virtue’. It is reported that Changdeokgung was the favored palace among the many kings of the Joseon Dynasty and has since retained many traditional Korean elements dating from the Three Kingdoms Era – elements that were not taken into account during the construction of the neighboring buildings of Gyeongbokgung.
It's really cheap to visit places like these. Unlike in the U.S. where they'll charge you an arm and a leg to get in, and another body part just for some water. This Palace was truly a sight to see. The colors and architecture were all very intricate. I'm so blessed to be able to be here and experiencing this.
On Sunday, we left for Boryeong beach for a 2-day music festival called, The Green Groove Festival. Boryeong is about a 2 hour bus ride from Seoul. We got there around 2pm and checked into our hotel. Unfortunately the language barrier made it hard for us to communicate with the lady at check-in. This just made me realize how much I need to start learning more Korean besides, "Hello, Thank You and Goodbye" haha.
There were a lot of people at the beach vacationing for holiday. I didn't make it into the water, but it was really nice to just sit and soak my feet in the Sea. Also, the beach wasn't quite like my East coast beaches of VB, but it was still relaxing. A random note...apparently Koreans can't swim well, so everyone wears a life vest in the water. It's pretty comical!
The concert was awesome! Apl.de.Ap. of the Black Eyed Peas was DJing, along with Afrojack and lots of others. There weren't as many people as I had thought to be attending, but it was fun nonetheless.
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