Seoul Train

Today is Sunday and so I was planning to go to a church that I had seen on my walk yesterday. I asked the house person about it and he said that they went to that church and that we should go together.

(Side note about my apartment, to get in you type in a number and so the couple that I stayed with the first night come in to this place several times a day any time they please to do laundry or check up on me or some times I don't know, I just assume it's part of Korean culture) (Stock photo)

So we did, it seated probably about 3000+ people and it was almost full. Thankfully they has a translator so I could understand it. Also of note an old lady in front of us passed out or worse and was piggy backed out in quite a hurry. Architecturally it was fascinating because the seating only started on the fifth floor, the bottom four floors were just wide open stairs.

After church it was home for lunch and then I decided to check out the subway and head towards Seoul. I read about a Palace called Gyeingbokgung which was right off of the subway line that I took and so I got off at the stop and looked for it. On the way I passed a sign that said free tours from the youth corps and so I stopped and asked about it. Sure enough it was not to good to be true and Da Yea agree to be my tour guide.

She was great, she told me all about the different buildings at the palace, what they were used for and what the different colours and statues meant. This made it ten thousand times more interesting than if I would have to walk around by myself guessing the purpose of the different areas. (this is something I would have loved to have in Middle East as I often found myself unknowledgable to much of what I was looking at)

It was fascinating as the original buildings were built in 1395, this was the main location of government for all of Korea. It was mostly burned down in the 15th century and then again later, then when it was rebuilt for the last time it almost bankrupt the government. We caught the changing of the guard and then I made my way back to Ilsan. If you are ever in the area I highly recommend it, to get here take subway Line 3, the free tours take place from 10:00-4:00 every 15 minutes or so. Entrance to the Palace is 3000 won.

I found a grocery store and bought some bananas and oranges and then headed home for a quiet evening at the apartment.