Last day of SiteSeeing in Seoul

(Posted a few days late, during "me" time while daddy plays with Baby J. This is really written after we are home, but I will write as if these events occurred today.)

Today is the day we receive J forever, but that is this afternoon and will be a separate post. In the morning, mom, C and I took the subway to Insadong for some last minute shopping. Unfortunately we hit the metro right at rush hour, and each car was litterally crammed with people. We were all packed in there like sardines. That was one thing about Korea that I have learned- people have no personal space. Good thing I was used to it by now.

I can't decide which was my favorite shopping area. Namdaemun had some great bargains, but was crowded. Itaewon was good, but was too international. Insadong was less crowded and seemed to be more along the lines of traditional Seoul street shopping, but the prices were slightly higher. I guess they all have their good and not so good aspects. I managed to purchase something different at every one of them though!
Here is a picture looking down the street of Insadong:


Around noon, we had a yummy yummy lunch at a Mandu restaurant up on the second floor of a building, overlooking the street. Then my mom left to go back to Eastern to pick up her gifts for children at one of the orphanages. She spent the afternoon traveling to Pyongtaek (spelling) and then meeting with the children there. She had previously known about two girls there and wanted to specifically see them again.

After Mom left, C and I headed over to the Changdeokgung which is one of 5 palaces still remaining in Seoul from the days of the king dynastys. It is the best preserved and was classified as a World Heritage site. This is also the palace that has the Forbidden Garden in the rear which takes up much of the palace grounds. We caught one of the 3 daily English tours and learned a lot. This is probably terrible of me, but I found it humoous when our tour guide was embarased while trying to explain how the king slept somewhere different every night, depending on which concubine, or the queen, he chose to "have relations" with that evening. Kings have done that everywhere, but Korean culture is much more modest about certain things I guess. The buildings sure were beautiful. In the garden section, which actually also had buildings, there were a few reflecting pools that we both got some good pictures of.
After our tour, we returned to Eastern to get ready to become a Forever Family.