In planning our trip, we knew there were several palaces that we needed to see, but being that we knew nothing about any of them, (we weren't researching palaces, pre-trip, we were watching k-drama and learning the Hangul alphabet!) we didn't know one palace from the other. So when we took the subway over to Gyeongbokung Palace early one morning, we were seriously shocked upon exiting the subway to see the enormity of the property. (The subway lets you off just inside the palace gate! Soooo convenient!) We were so ignorant, in fact, that we had no idea that it was like a FREAKING compound, with not just one huge building, but like 15 of them that would take almost half a day to get through.
Teppy got us over to the ticket window where we purchased our very inexpensive tickets (I want to say they were $3.00 a piece, but I could be wrong. I saved my ticket stub but am too lazy to go get it. If it wasn't 3, then it wasn't much more) She also bought an English guidebook to the palace. I'm glad she did, because we actually used it as we made our way through the property that day.
Because we made sure to carry camera equipment with us everywhere we went in Korea, we took a lot of great photos at the palace. I am going to post them below. During one of our mini selfie photo sessions, we noticed a photographer taking a picture of us! He was shooting with a camera 5D mark 3, so I knew the guy was serious about his photography. (His camera cost what my entire trip cost me, so I was extremely jealous since I was just carrying around a measely 7D...great for sports but considered the junior varsity of of the Canon team). You may be wondering how I knew what camera he had...it's because most Canon owners use the strap that Canon provides with the purchase of each camera. The strap has the camera model listed on it. Canon shooters can identify other Canon shooters in 1 of two way, usually. They either use the strap to identify the model (and thus do a self-comparison size- up with the shooter to know their place in the pecking order) or they spot the L-series lense....identified by the red ring around the rim of the lense if it's a black lense or an obnoxious white lense also sporting the red rim around the rim. Not all Canon shooters use an L series lense though, so the strap is mainly how we self-identify. It's kind of like BMW owners....they all own a kick ass car, but there is an big difference between the 1 series and the 7 series. When I see someone with a Rebel, I feel kind of bad ass walking around with my 7D. But when the 5D or 1D walks in front of me, I slinker behind a pole. So, after sizing myself up to this fella and realizing he had better equipment than me, I tried to avoid him. He wasn't having it and marched right over to us and thanked us for being his models. We learned he was from Switzerland and his name was Dan. He was out photographing the palace on his own. I have to give him credit. Going and doing anything in Seoul alone must be overwhelming. It is such a big place that I imagine one would get lonely. After talking about perspective, (he insisted I zoom in to get just Teppy and me on the stairs whereas I insisted on getting the entire scene in the picture to include the beautiful palace thus making us the size of peas), we agreed to disagree. I know the value of both views, but I wasn't gonna have 5D control my picture! We finally said our friendly goodbyes and went on our way.
Because we were both hungry, Teppy and I headed over to the Korean Folk Museum, a uniquely shaped building on the palace grounds. I am going to stop right here and tell you that if you ever go to Gyeongbokgung Palace, you need to go over to the Folk Museum and eat in their cafe. The food was amazing, the staff was friendly and spoke English, and, there is a great, shaded, outside terrace for your eating enjoyment. On top of that, even though it was seriously crowded outside the museum, the cafe was practically empty. We set up our tripod and took a selfie at the cafe!
After eating what was probably one of the best meals on our trip, we continued on our tour. We were utterly amazed at the size of the place. It was so breathtakingly beautiful and the mountain behind the palace painted a picture as if we were in a scene from Moon Embracing the Sun! A few other tourists must have used the "spot another Canon shooter maneuver", because while at this little hexagonal building out in the middle of a pond that we were photographing, 2 other Canon shooters approached us to take their photos. Canon is actually pretty smart with their identity strap thing. Since Canon shooters can locate other Canon shooters from far away, it makes it easy to find people to take our picture if we don't have a tripod with us. We know they won't screw up our picture since they understand our equipment. True in this case too. We of course nailed their photos. The one couple was from the Thai embassy and the other girl was from Germany. Funny enough...I never had a Nikon shooter ask me to photograph them. iPhone shooters, yes.
Teppy and I covered the entire palace, but it did take us a good part of the day. After having a cool down drink at a cafe by the king's party pavillion on the west side of the property, we headed out to our next adventure.
Our overall impression of this place: If you go to any palace in Seoul, go to this one. We went to another one on another day, but this was by far the biggest. The changing of the guards outside the gate was pretty cool to watch too. The poor guards were baking in the heat and person after person was posing for photos with them. I saw the one guy wearing read below close his eyes several times for long periods....like he was in a meditation of some sort. My guess is he was either praying to Buddha, God, or some other divine entity begging for the strength to not collapse. I don't know how they don't pass out. I just wanted to give them a bottle of water and tell them thanks for their service, but they weren't allowed to talk to us, so they couldn't have taken the water. I hope they were well paid for their services. It had to suck standing in the heat in full costume.