Transportation to the airport aside, I had amazing time exploring Seoul! Seoul is such a beautiful city, especially as the leaves began to turn colors for autumn. Below are a few highlights from my trip! meerkat cafe
Imagine a petting zoo with really cute, small animals. Now imagine that petting zoo inside of a cafe setting. That's essentially what the Meerkat cafe in Hongdae was like. When I first heard about it, and about animal cafes in general, I pictured them being regular cafes with a few animals roaming around that you could pet. While the Meerkat Cafe lived up to the animal end of my expectations, they didn't really serve any food or drinks beyond bottled beverages. There are a lot of different animal cafes in Korea; we chose to visit the Meerkat Cafe because we thought that it was more unique than the usual dog or cat cafe. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. They had the cutest racoon that did tricks and would climb on top of visitors for treats. They also had adorable wallabies that they let us feed. Of course there were meerkats, as in the cafes name, but they were far less cute than I expected. While they look sweet from afar, they can be pretty vicious! More often, they simply don't care much about people. I would recommend visiting an animal cafe in Korea (or other parts of Asia, as they're popular in Japan as well) at least once. If nothing else, you'll get some great pictures out of it!
museums
The National Museum of Korea contains artifacts from Pre-historic times through the early 1900s . If you want to learn about the history of the Korean Pennisula then the museum is a must-see. Admission is free, as are guided tours! I highly recommend a guided tour, as the museum was really overwhelming without one. We were able to join an English tour and it really added to our experience at the museum. The docent showed us pieces he felt were most significant to Korea's history and told us about the stories behind them. I felt like I learned a lot more on the tour than I would have on my own because the plaques in the museum don't explain much about the background of many pieces. The museum has many artifacts that are considered to be "national treasures", including the Pensive Bodhisattva, Full Moon Jar, and Silla Gold Crown.
I think that anyone who enjoys art will enjoy this museum. You can't take pictures of the pieces, which was actually a nice change because it forces you to focus more on the actual pieces than on getting a good photo of them. If you want to learn more about the history or meaning behind pieces, you can rent a Samsung device that acts as a guided tour. gyeongbokgung palace
You can't visit Seoul without visiting Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace was built in 1395, during the Joseon Dynasty. However, the palace that you get to visit today was actually reconstructed in the late 20th-early 21st century after being destroyed by the Japanese twice. What surprised me most about the palace was how huge it is! There were tons of buildings, each with their own purpose, along with walled villages within the palace grounds. We only spent a few hours here, but you could easily spend an entire day traversing through the palace. There are other palaces within walking distance of Gyongbokgung as well as an old Hanok village. If you dress up in a hanbok, which you can rent from multiple shops outside the palaces, you get your admission fees waived! I would recommend dressing up because it makes the experience even more fun. It really feels like you've gone back in time. A lot of people asked us to take photos with them because we were some of the only westerners in hanboks. I think visiting the palaces was probably my favorite part of the trip!
Historical sites
Jongmyo Shrine is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site, and for good reason. You can only enter through guided tours on weekdays and Sundays, but are allowed to peruse the grounds on your own on Saturdays. I really enjoyed the guided tour because I learned a lot about the Confucian influence in Korea and about the purpose of the shrine. The shrine is used to honor the deceased kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty. The spirit tablets of the deceased rulers are housed in the shrine, only brought out during the annual Royal Ancestral Rite. Like the palace, the shrine was built in the late 14th century but destroyed by the Japanese in the 16th century. It was rebuilt less than a century later. Although the shrine was relatively plain compared to the palaces, it was amazing to see how well preserved the buildings were and how you could feel that it was a sacred place.
food finds
yonsei
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Emily BallBorn and raised in Aiea, HI, traveling to Hong Kong to study Human Resource Administration. Archives
January 2019
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