It's history time! Yay!...right?
But first, I'll take a second to describe one of the most "peculiar" side of Seoul. The coffee culture. Coffee? In Korea? yes. When i started working for a Korean Coffee chain in Shanghai I was like...why? But after visiting Seoul all made much more sense. Cafes are everywhere in Seoul. Everywhere. Small café, chains, anything. At every corner. I don't think It's an exaggeration saying that it's easier to get a coffee in Seoul than in Rome, or New York if you prefer.
It's out of control.
Anyway, I started my third day in one of the most famous book shops in Seoul, Kyobo, where I bought some books and DVDs.
A expecially reccomend this book to everybody. It's the real story of a North Korean guy, he was born in a "North Korean Gulag" and he managed to escape to South Korea. He was forced to see his mother being hanged when he was just 13. And that's not the most incredible moment of his life.
Then I started moving torwards Gyeongbokgung, the equivalent of the Forbidden city in Korea. In my opinion, much better.
Here's some old style houses
For the chinese turists...
An old map of the place...
After that, I went into another lovely book store/café. It felt so cozy, I just loved the place. I stayed there for a cup of coffee.
Some directions in case you get lost
Then I visited another Royal palace, Changdeokgung, and it's lovely secret garden, a world heritage treasure. Not like in China, Korean actually take good care of their historical treasures.
This is the oldest stone bridge in all of Korea
In these rooms, a Korean queen was murdered by a Japanese assassin. So ninja did exist, after all!
She is the lovely guide that took us around the secret garden. it was not possible to walk around by yourself.
Old korean houses used a very clever way to heat up during winter. An underground "steam system" would propagate hot steam under the floor on every room. So clever, this system is still used in modern Korean houses.
This was the prince library. The rooftop was expecially designed so that the sunlight would not ruin the books.
No idea about that little "tower" under the tree...
The characters were carved into the stone (1690) by the prince itself. It translates into
" The stream flows away endlessly and the waterfall plummets down from te sky. These reminds me of a white rainbow, thunder and light flooding the valleys "
Back to the subway, the clever monitor tells you where the train is. I still have to find a faster subway system than the Shanghai one tho.
I ended my day at a colleague's house for dinner.
SO YUMMY
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