Since we stayed in the Gangnam district of Seoul, it was only fitting to go to the Gangnam statue and do the dance. I was originally going to just film Grant doing the dance, but a family from Malaysia offered to film the both of us. We didn’t realize until our last night that they have a stand that actually plays the song with the music video. 

We were conveniently right next to a mall so we headed in to try and find me some extra layers. Since we didn’t have to keep our weight under 15kg for our checked bags anymore, I was willing to buy a sweatshirt or something to be warm. We ended up finding a National Geographic store and grabbed a sweatshirt from there. We had learned during our Patagonia trek from a Korean we met that National Geographic is a big clothing brand in Korea, and we saw this first hand! We also realized the Discovery Channel is also a clothing brand here in Korea. After our mall pit stop, we grabbed some McDonald’s for a quick bite before we went and explored some palaces. We were shocked when we picked up our food at the counter and had our drinks in actual glassware. When people were done with their food/drinks, they would toss the liquid in the garbage and stack the glasses to get washed. 

We didn’t realize until getting to Gyeongbokgung Palace that most of the palaces in Seoul were closed on Mondays. Thankfully this one was opened for us to explore! There were so many tourists in the traditional palace gear and Grant said that they let you in for free if you wear it. (As we walked around through the nearby neighborhood I saw so many rental places. The rental fee, even for just a few hours, was more than the admission to the palace, so people were just doing it for fun!). When we arrived at the palace, I noticed an area in the middle was roped off and people were starting to congregate. Luckily for us, we came just in time to witness the changing of the guard. 

The palace was reportedly the main royal palace during the Joseon dynasty during the 15th century. Admittedly history is not my strongest subject and I hardly remember most of what I learned in school so most of any Asian history is lost on me, but still fascinating to read. However, the more we read throughout the palace grounds, the more we realized the tumultuous history Korea has had with Japan. Several of the buildings were burned down during the Japanese inquisition and were just recently rebuilt and renovated during the last 50 years. Walking through seeing all the ancient decor had us singing Mulan songs. Yes, I know wrong country but the decor and architecture is very similar! 

After exploring all of the palace grounds, we headed through Bukchon Hanok Village. We thought it was going  to be old village houses, but turned out to be a normal neighborhood with the occasional tea house you could walk through. So we headed down to the Myeongdong night market. We thought it was going to be like the night market we went through on the first night, but we were surprised when it was more of a shopping alley. There were still vendors on the streets selling food (we grabbed some sweet and sour chicken) but the main interest were the stores to stop in and shop. We found an MLB store and walked in. Turned out they really only cared about the Yankees, Dodgers, and Red Sox, but there were hats, shoes and even purses for people to buy. It still amazes me how much American culture has an influence on the rest of the world! 

Tired and cold from walking all day, we asked one of the tourist volunteers where the best place to grab a drink was – they had people wearing red vests that were literally just volunteers that would talk to tourists and answer any questions. She gave us a couple of options and we chose a drunken rabbit themed bar. We ended up being the only customers at the time, but it felt nice to warm up and relax. We decided to end the night visiting the North Seoul Tower since we were so close. After a short walk up to the cable car entrance, we were at the base of the tower. Since we couldn’t yet get in to go up the tower, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at one of the nearby restaurants. Once finished, our ticket number was up and it was time to enjoy the sights at the top. Like Dubai, the city of Seoul is massive and seeing it from above just makes you realize how little we actually explored it. We snagged some photos of the view and then headed back to the metro for the ride back home.