Touristy Things (Part 2)

안녕하세요!

(Fun fact, I've apparently always had the capability to type in Korean, but just never realized it until maybe yesterday...)

So we've covered Namdaemum/Sungnye-Mun and Gyeongbok-Gung in my previous post entitled Touristy Things (Part 1). Let's continue with the rest of the weekend, shall we?

The National Folk Museum of Korea is located up a little hill on the same site as Gyeongbok-Gung, so it only made sense that we ended up there next. As soon as we got into the museum, we saw that there was some kind of something happening in an auditorium, so of course we snuck in. (As you will see, this was the weekend for sneaking into places...). Turns out we were in the middle of this really fantastic musical performance which I just loved! This woman had such a wonderful voice, and the entire audience was swaying and clapping and completely into it.



And then this thing popped out... It kind of looked like a sheepdog and had eye tassels?



Fun times were had. After the performance ended we wandered around the museum for maybe an hour, and I got a souvenir Korean cookbook written in English. Score! Fair warning for all you people in the States, once I obtain a "clean, heavy stone" to weigh down my Kimchi, I will be spending the next eleven months perfecting my recipe, and you will be trying it at some point!

End of sightseeing day #1. On to day #2.

We ended up having some time to kill in Seoul, so we wandered around in the rain until we stumbled upon the Seoul Museum of Art. Well we stumbled upon a sign telling us there was an art museum nearby and it took quite a lot of effort to actually find the thing, but we persevered and after a lot of turnarounds found it. So we walked in, and there were people wandering around so we assumed it would be fine for us to wander around too, right? False. Turns out it was a press-only event for a new exhibit they had opening up the next day. Luckily, since a) the museum was closing in an hour and b) we were foreigners (which means they'll let us get away with almost anything), they let us in and we got to wander around the new exhibit pretending to be press. Yet another reason I love Korea!

Now, I love love love modern art, I really do, but some of the exhibits were just plain weird. Like things you would think of if you were a crazy person. These are just a few of the ridiculous pieces we saw, but pictures just can't even do justice to how mind-bogglingly weird they really were...





Very strange stuff, but very fun nonetheless. Apparently there's a set of five or six art museums right in this little part of Seoul, so we will definitely be revisiting this area in the future.

In short, that was my weekend of fiiiiiiinally sightseeing around Seoul. Finishee!

- Christine -