A capital weekend

It must be the Canadian in me that is waiting for some form of meeting to confirm what exactly is happening to me and my job in my last 3 months in Korea. I can't help but feel that my unexpected month of holiday is somehow not real. But I think the few words I got out of my boss last Monday are probably all that I'm gonna get.

So in that spirit I'll accept my circumstance, believe it's happening and get back to my regular blogging. 

I went to Seoul last weekend to visit C and finally see some palaces. I caught an early morning KTX and discovered a new car of the high speed train: cinecar. For the price of a regular movie ticket I got a seat in the movie car where they showed "The Bank Job." I wouldn't have sprung for the extra entertainment but the rest of the econo tickets were sold out. 

Following in the tradition of my previous visits to the city it rained. It rained all day Saturday which is somewhat unusual for Korea where it usually pours and  then the sun comes out. 

The deep grey and stormy sky did serve as a phenomenal background to the fiery fall foliage surrounding Changdeokgung Palace in central Seoul. I thoroughly enjoyed the 1.5 h tour of the palace buildings and gardens. (Even if we had been forced to wait 30 mins in the rain for the English tour to start).

Afterwards we found warmth in a bowl of Korean porridge (a thick milky soup with rice, veg and tuna). The second palace we hit promptly shut its doors in our faces thus concluding the palace touring portion of my visit.

Not to worry, we were close to Insadong home of some awesome tea houses were we spent the rest of the rainy afternoon. 

We had a chill Saturday night with the exception of temporarily getting locked in a bank at 11:45 pm. Seriously how does that happen?

Sunday was a beautiful sunny fall day in which we traveled to the far reaches of the city bumping and pushing our way through ginormous Korean  crowds in the subway. There we found the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was good to get out of the city and see some open space and also get some culture. Busan is sorely lacking in the museum department so I appreciated the opportunity if not the tower of TVs that was offered up as art. 

Definitely a top notch weekend! Photos on Facebook.