Day Two

We woke up early for our city tour today. The city tour is set up by our agency and I was a little worried because our tour guide was a little late. When he arrived, he was very apologetic and said that none of the taxis could find our hotel. Which although it hadn't happened to us yet, it had happened to another family that is staying here.

Our new tradition of the morning photo

We started our tour by going to the Gyeonbokgung Palace. It was amazing! The palace was originally built in 1394 and the name means "Palace of Shining Happiness." The palace is in the process of 40 restoration after being nearly destroyed by the Japanese government.

The changing of the guard ceremony

The detail was amazing

Sundial

This was the Gyeonghoeru Paviolion. It was used for special banquets during the Joseon Dynasty

With our tour guide, Tae-Jun

Our tour guide was great. He volunteers with Holt to give the city tours in hopes of practicing and improving his English. He is also studying Chinese and Japanese.

After touring the palace, we went shopping in Insadong. It was very busy, probably because of today being Buddha's birthday. We found lots of gifts for our families. Tae-Jun really helped us to find all of the things that we wanted. We got wedding ducks for our home and Jax.

One of Steve's wishes for this trip was to have traditional Korean bbq, so after we were done shopping, Tae-Jun took us to one of his favorite restaurants. This restaurant was off the beaten path and in a part of Seoul that we had not been to before. The bbq was so good! The side dishes squid and pickled fish were a little different and to be honest, I didn't try them. The kimchi was very spicy, so I didn't have very much. We were also served a traditional Korean soup.

Jet lag is still kicking our butts. We wake up at around 4 every morning. Then by 4 in the afternoon we are exhausted, so we take a little nap, but the last two days our little naps have been between 4-5 hours. Then we don't go to bed until late. It's becoming a vicious cycle. Now it's 1:20am here and I'm going to try and get some sleep! Until tomorrow....