Changdeokgung Palace in Seoul

Hul~...I'm nearing the end of my Seoul trip posts. I did a lot on my last Sunday there so I've broken it into separate posts. This is a continuation of my day after visiting all of those K-pop entertainment headquarters. I met up with a friend in Jongno or "Bell Street." I liked this area of Seoul because it's rather traditional looking, with small, quaint streets and has a lot of traditional architecture as well as Buchon Hanok Village 북촌한옥마을 (traditional Korean houses). I was a little disappointed I didn't get to visit Buchon (too much time spent visiting K-pop headquarters) but I did visit Changdeokgung Palace 창덕궁.

First stop though was food! Of course I'd been in the mood for KBBQ, especially Samgyupsal 삼겹살, which is basically thick slices of Korean pork belly (like bacon).

Admittedly it may not look very impressive in this picture, but it tastes so good! I especially love wrapping it in sesame leaves with garlic and ssamjang 쌈장. Yummm...the only down side is that eating it too much and too often will give me a pork belly, haha.

It was a really beautiful day as spring was finally just arriving in Seoul. We took a nice walk to the palace. I'll spare you too much of the palace's history and details and just leave you with tons of pictures, keke.

The palace had lots of cherry blossom trees!

Architecture-wise, I feel once you've seen one Korean (or Asian) palace, you've pretty much seen them all. Palaces remind me of historical K-dramas, as well as history books and to a lesser extent, art books (and coffee table books). I still do like the colorful and detailed tiling though.

This palace had rather extensive grounds. It was very widespread and some spots really feel like a huge park.

I love, love, love the lake.

Further along the lake, we found these cute, cute, cute girls drawing and coloring pictures of the lake. So cute!

More cherry blossoms. ♥

Looking back, I do see my winter weight. I guess I was chunky afterall! haha

I brought along my Instax and snapped a few shots.

It was a very long but fun day so I will continue in my next post! =)