Discovering Seoul ~ Wedding Re-enactment & Dongdaemun Mkt

October 14 ~ Saturday

We started the day pretty late on this day but we were greeted again with a beautiful autumn blue sky ^^.


We were suppose to continue on with our City Bus Tour but we decided postponed it again because the palace near our guesthouse, Unhyeongung Palace, will have the re-enactment of the Royal Wedding Ceremony of Emperor Gojong and Empress Myeongseong of Joseon Dynasty. This only happens twice a year and we were lucky enough that it coincided with our vacation.

In front of Unhyeongung Palace

But we have a dilemma. The program will start at 2pm and we still have a good 3 hrs to spend. But going anywhere not within the 200m radius of the palace might be impossible for us to watch anymore. So we decided instead to take an early lunch, go to the nearby bookstore in Anguk station and take more souvenir photos.

Honestly i'm kinda ashamed to post these photos but anyway i wanted to share it here. These men in uniform were part of the team guarding the Japanese Embassy near our guesthouse. Well, since we are tourists, my friends wanted to have a souvenir photo with them. First they hesitated but they were convinced by Leah and Nimfa and decided to posed with us. They're actually very nice and quite young. Some of them look like students. There is a bus just outside the embassy for them to sleep, rest, eat and cook. We see them every morning and night. I think they're guarding the embassy 24/7 due to the N. Korea thingy.

Anyway, the Anguk station exit near the Japanese Embassy i noticed is the only station exit that has guards.

While going around i took a photo of this autumn leaf.

We went inside Unhyeongung Palace gate early so that we can get good seats. The place was already half full of people and staff of the program were all busy doing their thing. I went around and had my photo taken with one of the palace guard.

I look so big in this photo =(

At exactly 2pm the program started. A trio performed using different kind drums and they were very very good. I love the sound of their performance.

A few minutes after the band's perfromance, the re-enactment of the wedding started. It's a very interesting show. I actually remembered "Goong" when i saw the young actor and actress acting as the Emperor and Empress.

The show lasted for 2 hrs. It included so many ceremonies like, the proposal for marriage, sending of ceremonial gifts, notifying the bride 's family, wedding ceremony.

Btw, there was a narration done in hangul and english. ^^

After the program we all went back to the guesthouse and waited for our filipina friend, Cathy Garcia, who works as a staff reporter/culture desk for The Korean Times. If i'm not mistaken she has covered Bi, Arashi and many more. Last week she wrote 'Captivating glimpse inside "Restless"'

Cathy arrived a few hours later. After some catching up we all went out and go to Dongdaemun Market.

At Anguk station with waiting for our train.
Cathy is the one in white beside me.

Here are some photos at Dongdaemun Market. Btw, it's another place where there are so many people even at night. There were stage shows in Miglore, dotta! and another department store that made the place so lively.

My friends were all craving for barbeque so we bought here.

Cathy brought us to the tent area and she helped us
order food from this ajumma's tent.

I love this fish cake soup. ^^

bb, take note what's in front of me. it's the bingore drink
(banana milk juice) thanks for recommending it.
i love it and missing it!

In front of dotta! department store there is this place that was made for picture taking. hee, so we took the opportunity to have one (",) just before we said our goodbyes to Cathy because she has to work on Sunday.

We stayed on for a while at Dongdeamun then headed back to the guesthouse. When we arrived at the guesthouse, all of us were craving for ice cream so we bought at the convenient store just in front of our place and ate at the entrance. There is this particular ice cream that i love, it has a fudge in the middle. Almost everyday i eat ice cream in Seoul when in fact i'm not an ice cream eater.