Our first official Palace visit in Seoul! And I’m glad we went there before later going to Changdeokgung because it was less impressive. Not to say it wasn’t interesting, in fact we had quite a unique experience. When we first arrived we were approached to have a volunteer tour guide walk us through the grounds. Sure, we’ll learn lots, get taken to the best spots, etc! Buuuuut, it turned out it was a “teen tour guide”, who was the sweetest little mouse of a thing, was 15, nervous, very shy (though she knew lots of cool facts and her English was great) plus, to top it off, it was her first day! So, she needed some polite prodding to get any information out of her!

The Palace is opposite City Hall, which seems to be the spot for protests/rallies (South Koreans love to protest!) so there was a huge amount of people outside, with loud speakers blasting angry-sounding Korean (anti-Moon, I think) and songs that oozed with NATIONAL PRIDE. This made it even harder for us to hear our little guide, so I had to pass some info onto Joel later.

Deoksugung is interesting in that is has Western style buildings within the Palace grounds also. One had an exhibition of the Emperor Gojong‘s clothing – official military-style uniforms and traditional outfits for special ceremonies.

We got to the awkward point where we told our guide she could go and after many, many bows she scurried off, looking thankful for it to be over. I just wanted to give her a hug and say don’t worry, you did great and it’ll get easier!!