niori_1709

After graduating high school, I had to take a year off to recover from surgery. For a very long time before that, I was determined to get out of my small hometown as soon as I could. The year off only made me want it even more, and also made me want to get as far away as I could. I didn’t take it that far, but after that year was up, I did relocate to Alberta, clear across the country. ( Alberta was quite different than the New Brunswick I grew up with. )

In Seoul there are five royal palaces that stand, even after all this time. Three are grand, one is small and barely restored, and I’ve covered those four over my years writing these travel guides. It’s time to cover the last one, called Changgyeonggung. Changgyeonggung is somewhere in the middle of those two descriptions- unlike the three biggest palaces, there’s not a big section that makes it stand out, but it’s still in better and grander shape than the smallest palace. I’d say, as palaces go, Changgyeonggung is the simplest. However, don’t take that to mean you should skip it. ( There’s still plenty to see at the last of Seoul’s royal palaces. )

We were getting to the end of our Jeju vacation, with only a day and a half left before we got back on the ferry to head back to the mainland. Our travel plans, by this point, had slowed down a bit- instead of hopping to a few different places for a few hours each, we were going to spend the whole day at one place. ( That place was called Hallim Park. )

Day two of my trip began nice and early, because we had some traveling to do. Our first destination on the first full day of vacation was a couple hours away by bus, and we wanted to get there before it got to the heat of the day (we failed), because we were going to do one of the most popular activities in Jeju- hiking.
( There are many hiking trails across Jeju, some easy and others hard. The man area to hike is Hallasan, a mountain which stands tall in the middle of the island (on a clear day, you can see the peak from all parts of the island). )

Happy Halloween my friends!

It's officially my favourite time of year, full of ghosts and goblins. It's a time to be scared, to shier in the dark while you look in the shadows for even more menacing things, be they supernatural or a far more natural danger. It's a time to embrace the darkness of the things that go bump in the night. ( It's the perfect time of year for a ghost time. )

A few thousand years ago, Korea was not the unified place it is today (well...sort of unified). Instead, the peninsula was ruled by three different kingdoms- the Silla kingdom, the Goguryeo kingdom, and the Baekje kingdom. This period, appropriately enough, is refereed to as the Three Kingdoms Period. While both Silla and Goguryeo are fascinating and historically important, it's going to be the Baekje kingdom we're going to be focusing on this travel guide. Why, you may ask? It all harkens back to last month's guide. If you were to take a quick glance through it, you may have seen a mention or two about the history of Olympic Park that goes past just the '88 Olympics. ( If you were wondering what I meant, here's your answer. )

If there's one thing Korea, and Seoul in particular, does well, it's themed cafes. They are EVERYWHERE in Seoul, from big ones to small ones, very themey or not. Some are simple, like the hundreds of dog and cat cafes in the most random places scattered throughout the city (and while I'm not writing about any of them, I HIGHLY recommend finding one if possible and going there when you're feeling sad. Cuddly puppies and kitties equals instant happy). There are board game (so much fun) and study cafes, for those who like some quiet pastimes or just a quiet places to read. Then there are the more out there ideas, like the Hello Kitty or Lego cafes (which I will get to at some point). The one I want to inform you all about is The Princess Diary Cafe. Fun fact- I love fairy tales and princesses, the whole shebang. So clearly, after being told it existed, I was so at a cafe where you could dress up like a princess. ( Yes, you heard me right- dress up like a princess. )

Last month, I gave you all a pretty extensive review of Gyeongbokgung Palace, and one of the things I mentioned was that it took a very, very long time to take a tour of the place. I said straight up that it felt impossible to do it all in one afternoon, and I completely hold to that. There was, however, another reason that I found it hard to see the whole palace. That reason was that Gyeongbokgung isn't the only thing to see near the palace, and I had to take some time to see (rush through) them as well. One of those things is a quick look from across the street, and the other two are museums. ( It's a LOT to do in one day, but it is possible to see the palace, the house, and the two museums in one day...just be prepared to be exhausted by the time you're heading home. )

I'm a very, very organized person. I plan most things down to the tiny details, especially when it comes to any sort of writing. My travel guides are the same. I have the order already planned, so I could tell you exactly what I'll be covering a year from now. I can go off schedule if I need/want to, but I usually try to stick to it. Yet every once and awhile, something comes up that you see a reason to go off script. The world gives you a perfect opening to a topic, and you have to take it. This is one of those times. I don't know if it's reached the Canadian media, but Korea has been in the news lately, and not for a good reason. There have been massive protests in Seoul, with huge crowds from a number of diverse groups protesting in Seoul (and being put down with a great degree of violence). The people are angry for a number of reasons, many of which are just too extensive to put into one travel guide. One of those reasons is the government imposing a new, universal textbook to be used in all Korean schools. While I haven't read the book myself, most of the teachers and educational professionals have panned it, saying it downplays the terrible things that happened during the military dictatorship (that went until the 80s), villainized the pro-democracy movement, and made a lot of excuses for the politicians who were quite pro-Japanese. The government has claimed the historical revision is because the current way of teaching doesn't make Korean students proud of Korea/their history (always a red flag), and while reading/watching the news of all this, I was reminded of a place that I visited in Seoul. While it's not as dramatic a place as protests at city hall, there's a remnant of the history they're talking about there. ( This is the perfect time to talk about it...so I give you the Seodaemun Prison History Hall and Independence Park. )

Once upon a time, I spend a few months living in the city of Incheon. Still connected to Seoul by public transport, Incheon is Korea's main port city, where large container ships dot the seascape and most international travellers pass through (Incheon International Airport is the main airport into the country). Not only is it incredibly important to trade, but historically, Incheon is a pretty big deal. This is where the famous Incheon Landing in the Korean War, where the Americans joined the fight against the North happened, and that's one of the reasons that eventually the North was beaten back. For all that it's economically and historically important, and I'm going to have to give Incheon a bit of the short straw when it comes to 'interesting things to do'. There really aren't that many things for me to recommend in general, because there really wasn't all that much to do. Shopping and eating yes, but when it came to just going out and doing something fun for the day? Not so much. That said, there are still a few things I can suggest. ( Two of those things are, rather continently, in the same spot. Those two places are Chinatown and Jayu Park. )