Oops.

Turns out that time flies when you aren't paying attention. I have been fixated on the Jazz making the playoffs and forgot to update in almost a week. Sue me (please don't). The last note I left on was patriotic and kind of a downer. Time for a switchup. 

 The subway headed to the main palace in Seoul was all fancylike, so I took a picture. 

 The buildings behind the main courtyard.

 Looking toward the Blue House (Korea's version of the White House).

 Looking back at the Imperial Guard and the entrance.

 Ornately painted wood on the gate. 

 The guy in red is the boss. Jeferojo.

 This guy was also important somehow. 

 The courtyard leading into the main palace grounds.

 A really neat sculpture set on the corner of one of the gatehouses. It has a bunch of animals in a line. 

 Big courtyard surrounding the throneroom-type place. They didn't have a throne because people sit on the ground in this hemisphere. 

 The entire courtyard is paved with flagstones which are rough cut to keep glare at a minimum. 

 More carved animals on the banisters.

 I lied about the throne. They totally have one. 

 It doesn't look comfortable, but it is better than the floor. 

 I took a picture of some people taking a picture. This is a big reception hall up on stilts. 

 The king's living spaces.

 I don't really remember what this is a picture of, but here it is.

 The king's breakfast spread.

 It had started to rain at this point, so miraculously everyone had ponchos. 

 The mountains across the grounds.

 The palace is always shown with this mountain (hill?) in the background.

 A 5-tiered pagoda. 

 A bridge to another little pagoda. It was somewhere around here that the former queen was assassinated by the Japanese near the end of the rule of the royalty. 

 A whole building area was laid out with different types of pots. The different styles are indicative of different parts of Korea. They store a lot of things in earthenware pots (like kimchi). It was really rainy. 

 Lots of pots. Rhymed...unintentional. 

 A look across at the pagoda.

Interestingly, the palace buildings had heated floors. They would have little fires under the clay stones with the wood on top of the floors. The head would make the clay warm which would head the wood. Smart right? The problem was that it would create smoke. To alleviate this, they would channel it through to these chimneys set of a ways from the main buildings. They were decorated with a different style brick so you knew what was what. 

 They were announcing that there would be a changing of the guard coming. I looked at these guys getting ready, but in the end there was too much rain so they didn't change the guard. 

 He spotted me!

 I also took a trip down to the National Museum. I don't know what I was looking for, but I went. 

 It was still really rainy, but the grounds would be really nice if it weren't. 

Sometimes I think about the amount of history these artifacts have seen. I mean you think about it and they have been kicking around for hundreds of years. What would they say if they could talk?

 This shell has seen some terrible things...you can tell. 

The Korean equivalent of the samurai. Significantly less cool. Probably why Japan occupied them for so long. 

I was planning to spend more time at the museum, but I found it kind of boring after we got up to the age of enlightenment for the Koreans. Lots of calligraphy and paintings of kings and whatnot. I was pretty much done with the culturally significant things by the second floor. I breezed through the exhibits ad finally headed back to the hostel to get some peace and quiet during the end of the storm that was blowing through. That night I went to Nanta...but I will tell you about that next time.