Today marks the hump day of our entire year. We are halfway through. We don’t have a return flight booked yet so it might end up being a bit longer or shorter, but feels like a milestone nonetheless. I will write a separate post of data and reflections to commemorate the occasion.

Today was a great day. We ate breakfast at the apartment and took our time getting ready. We headed out and walked to the subway. We struggled a bit getting tickets but figured it oit eventually. We rode to central Seoul and got off at the Gyeongbokbung Palace stop. Millie wouldn’t let us leave until she finished the drawing she started on the train.

The palace itself was reminiscent of the palaces in Beijing. It had beautifully painted ornate ceilings and gates and then more gates leading to additional buildings.

About a quarter of the guests were in traditional Hanbok clothing. When we bought our tickets we saw the sign saying that Hanbok wearers got in free. I thought this was fun and it led to great people watching. So many older white men in the outfits, deeply cringey.

We walked around for a while and went to the folk museum that is on the property. It showed various cultural Korean artifacts and was very well done.

We rushed back to the entrance at 2pm to watch the changing of the guards ceremony. It was packed so we saw very little. I was once again stuck behind someone in a giant traditional hat, but at least this time it was a little transparent.

From here we walked to a nearby village. On our way we passed the contemporary art museum and thought “why not?”. We spent about an hour walking around looking at work from Korean artists.

Nick made me laugh when we saw this one. He said “every contemporary art museum must have the obligatory pile of trash piece”. It’s so true, every museum has something like this, often made from car parts.

We then went to the village in search of a late lunch. It didn’t have a single cafe, but the scenery was pretty.

We walked further yet to the “riverwalk” of Seoul. We had San Antonio on the mind and figured there would surely be a good restaurant down there, but alas, just a river to walk near.

So we walked more, and eventually came upon Gwangjang market. We entered in the fabric section where everyone was packing up for the day. We thought we had missed everything but a kind woman pointed us towards the food area.

This section was bustling and almost every stand was busy. It was hard to know where to stop. So instead of making the decision we stopped at a few.

First we had mung bean pancakes (excellent) and tried rice wine (not my favorite).

Then we bought some gimbap, which is Korean veggie sushi. It came with a wasabi sauce. Loved it.

Then we got dumplings and spicy noodles. We got two flavors of dumplings, pork and kimchi. Millie ate the pork ones and we had the kimchi. The spicy noodles weren’t too spicy and were served cold, with big chunks of ice in them. We demolished everything.

We agreed that Korea might be in the lead for best food so far. Do I say this about every country? I might. But I do really love Korean food. It’s perfectly balanced, fresh, and diverse. Tomorrow we are going to find Korean barbecue.

We ended our culinary adventure with some freeze dried strawberries and giant grapes for dessert.

We took the subway back again. It was very packed because it was rush hour. Millie’s first rush hour on mass transit experience.