Seoul Day 2: Gyeongbokgung Palace and Naksan Park

One of the main things the girls wanted to do on this trip was to rent hanbok and visit Gyeonbokgung Palace, so we made sure to do that today. We took the subway over to the neighborhood around the palace and looked for a hanbok rental place. We first tried one that we had found on Instagram but it was very busy and chaotic. So we went next door to another place that was slightly less chaotic, though it was still overwhelming. The hanbok rental included a free handbag and hairstyle, so we took advantage of that, as well. All told, we were in the rental store for over an hour, and the girls got pretty antsy, but it was worth it! Then we walked to the palace, which visitors can get into for free if they are wearing hanbok. The palace itself was beautiful, but wearing hanbok added an extra layer of fun!

The architecture was simply stunning!

The girls looked so adorable that I couldn't stop taking pictures! 

Here is part of the palace where BTS performed one of their music videos. We rewatched it when we got home. 😁

Here is where the king would have done his work with his advisors, sort of like his "office" space.

We stuck around for the changing of the guard, which was really neat to see. The drum was so loud and reverberating. The video does not do it justice.

In the evening, after a rest at the apartment, we went for a walk at Naksan Park, which is located very close to our apartment. We had to climb a long flight of stairs to get there, but the views were well worth it! Apparently, the wall that we walked along was the old city wall. It was a lovely, quiet park with almost no other tourists, and we enjoyed being in nature for a bit.

Then we walked about ten minutes to a caricature place that I had been hoping to visit. It was so cute, and makes the perfect souvenir!

We finished out our night by ordering some Korean fried chicken!