Woo Travelogue: Winter

Showing posts with label Winter. Show all posts

Other than skin care products, K-pop and cosmetic surgery, Korea, especially Seoul, is also famous for their wide variety of cafe available. From animal cafe, to vintage, to nature concept, to good food, Seoul has it all! Most importantly of them all - INSTAGRAM-WORTHY!!

Let's look at some of the cafes that I have visited:

Nami Island is a must-go in our itinerary. What's winter in Korea without Nami Island, right? After all, Korea was made famous by Winter Sonata, which was filmed at Nami Island.

There's a few ways to go to Nami Island from Seoul - public transport, shuttle bus or tour package. Being the explorer kind of traveller, I chose public transport method. It's cheaper and I have better control of my time.

So I finally tried skiing (as well as seeing snow!) for the first time in my life. For someone being born and raise in a country whereby its 365 days of summer, winter is as good as a movie or picture for us.

Tour
English : 1100H, 1330H, 1530H (1 - 1.5hrs)
Start in front of Gyeongbokgung Info Counter inside Heungnyemun Gate

Information :
Closed on Tuesday
November to February : Closed at 1700H
March to May, September to October : Closed at 1800H
June to August : Closed at 1830H
Final admission is 1 hour before it closed
Admission cost: ₩3,000 (recommended to get the Integrated Palace Tickets if you're going to visit most of the palaces)

Website: http://www.royalpalace.go.kr/html/eng/main/main.jsp

Direction: Gyeongbokgung Palace Station, Exit 5
Go up the stairs and you will be in between National Palace Museum of Korea and Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Being the main royal palaces of the Joseon dynasty and the largest and grandest of all the main palaces, Gyeongbokgung seems to be the best choice if you can only choose one out of the many palaces in Korea to go to.

Built in 1394 by King Taejo, founder of Joseon Dynasty, the palace was named Gyeongbokgung which also means "Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven". Sadly, due to war, the original buildings were demolished. The buildings you see now are mainly the the efforts to reconstruct Gyeongbokgung Palace since 1990.

Guards can be seen standing outside the main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, like those you see at Buckingham Palace, except that those at Gyeongbokgung will be in Korean traditional royal guard uniform. (duh!)