Cool. But Cool.

November 12th 2016

06:42 — A rooftop somewhere in Itaewon, Seoul

My breath forms little clouds in front of my face, I'm listening to music and watch as Seoul slowly wakes from its sleep. Every now and then a street cleaner walks across the street below me, apart from that, there is no sign of human activity yet.
We arrived in Itaewon, the closest western equivalent of a 'Chinatown', near the main US Army base. Consequently, we find lots of Westerners, trendy bars and restaurants, very international food and drunk, snoring Australians in our dorm who make me escape to the rooftop terrace at half past six.
That's one problem you don't have if you sleep with earplugs *proud smiley*.

09:24 — Breakfast

Jan woke up a few minutes ago, I have, after visiting the roof, started writing this post, edited some photos, read in our guidebook and took a shower before everybody else — I had time, after all...

After breakfast in our hostel, we work through some historical sights today — starting at the Changdeokgung palace, residence of the king and his court in the Joseon era. The wooden buildings are beautifully painted in all colours of the rainbow and look very impressive. Especially now that the ubiquitous ginkgo and maple trees colour their leaves in vibrant yellows and reds, we notice that we missed the changing seasons on our journey so far.
While we are resting on the steps in front of the palace for a bit (in the sun, you might even take off one jacket), we are approached by two young Koreans who take a video with us for an English assignment, asking us what we are doing and how we like it here. And if you ask us questions, you'll most likely get a question back. In shy English, they choose and answer question number one: "When was the last time you did something for the first time?" — Today, she's never been to this place before.
Between the small buildings of the palace complex, we encounter many Koreans in traditional clothing (Hanbok) taking pictures in the historic setting — the illusion only destroyed by the omnipresent selfie-stick.
The palace grounds are quite large and the buildings, mostly flat and long, are more spread out than in your typical European palace — the free spaces are filled with large open spaces and gardens.
Next up is a tour through a neighbourhood of Seoul in which the streets are still mostly lined with Hanoks — small traditional wooden houses that are still being lived in today.
We enter one of the Hanoks that is open to the public and take a look at the wooden figurines displayed inside — old burial objects meant to guide the deceased's way to the other side. Some of the other houses are rented out to visitors — if you have the chance to stay here for a few nights, you should definitely consider it — the houses do look very beautiful and comfy.
Because one palace per day is not enough, we visit the nearby Gyeongbokgung palace as well where we end up meeting Jakob, born in Bornheim, Frankfurt, who now studies architecture at Beijing University and takes a look around the palace with us. And, of course, this almost-neighbour of mine also gets a question from our book: "Are you good at setting your own boundaries?" — Yes, he is.
Finally, we sneak a quick peek at the Blue House, the residence of the Korean government, where, to put it frankly, shit is hitting the fan right now - but more on that later.

Instead of yesterday's "We're not finding anything" kebab, we enjoy our first Korean Barbecue today: Meat grilled at the table with an uncountable amount of side dishes, about half of which we recognize. Very tasty!
There's so much great food here, if we had the budget... We cannot yet rule out a future fundraising campaign to finance fancy food...