Now rain today ... it makes a change. First the coffee cafe. Suitably charged, we wandered around the arty area of Insa-dong and had the pleasure meeting some chatty young artists who were looking after their shows. The final year students' ceramic works were especially interesting since the pieces blended traditional technique with modern designs. A very interesting exhibition of traditional fabric works gave the Mem time to talk to one of the artists, a delightful woman who spoke excellent English. So much to see ... some many good pieces of work.
A few more steps took us to a narrow lane which has many eateries. We chose one that served tasty steamed dumplings and the same but sort-of squashed and fried on both sides. A pleasant lunch is a noisy little cafe.
Wandering further took us to both the
National Folk Museum of Korea and the
Gyeongbokgung Palace.
The
Gyeongbokgung Palace is an extensive site with confusion of buildings. The place was founded in 1395 and has a bewildering history of destruction and rebuilding. We spent a few hours in-and-out, in-and-out and yet more in-and-out of this building and another. Each one spectacular ...
Eventually we heard music and what sounded like a dramatic performance ... it, naturally, was in Korean so we had no idea what was going on. It turned out to be a reenactment of the Palace Guard Inspection Ceremony which takes place in October every year. Very colourful. We just caught the last 15 mins.
Dogs were beginning to bark so that we knew it was time to find more coffee. Refreshed we went on to look at more art shows. Inevitably wandering back to the hotel brought us to some sort of folk performance; drumming and "dancing". Colourful and noisy would not do the performance justice.
Dinner was a delicious meal, unsullied by mouth scorching chili;
bibimbap and
bulgogi with a meso-like soup. We recommend this if you visit Korea and can't take lashings of chili. We've found that the best of chili cooling drinks is that old favorite ... beer.
