Life in Korea. Day 14: Finally!! Namsan Tower!!! yay!!

Hi hi hi~ Korea is just fabulous for me! especially today hee~
And today's weather was really really nice ^^

This morning was not like the other morning that we start with Korean Language class but we went outside to a Studio and we learnt Taekwondo! HA!

So we went to a place called Seoul Seoksa Taekwondo where the athletes and people who love Taekwondo are exercising here everyday. In this place there are not only adult athletes but children who are willing to learn Taekwondo are also welcomed. So we saw lots of kids today, not the usual one, but the really good ones in Taekwondo hahaha.
We learnt Taekwondo for 2 hours. I was having so much fun!! ah!! I never knew that Taekwondo is this cool. Hee~ before, I was always hesitated to learn this sport even though it's from Korea. It's Korean thing. But I don't know, maybe I don't like to be seen "manly" or "sporty", I like to dress nicely and doing girls' thing like cooking, dancing, watching dramas and stuffs. But today, I found out that girl with Taekwondo are so cool and fresh. Yeah! I think I start to like it.
We were practicing basic movements of Taekwondo. Like ready-positions, punching, kicking, into doing high kick.

One of my friend from Malaysia who is a girl, has learnt Taekwondo for a long time,and she's got Black Belt. Oh! seeing her with her high-kick was so amazing!! XD. Some of my friends who displayed a really good movements were awarded a medal. Unfortunately I didn't get T.T. Anyway here are the medals :D

After all the exercise, we took a picture together with the teachers. Ah!! so cool!

Taekwondo Class! DONE!. And then we went back to our beloved AKS campus and having lunch together. Ooo~ we were so hungry hahaha!
잘 먹겠습니다 ^^

Next destination is!!! Gyeongbok Palace!! Kyaaah!! This is the place that I wanted to visit the most. And of course it was because a drama. hehehe. In the drama Princess Hours, Gyeongbokgung was the place where the Crown Prince and Crown Princess met. :) It's just so amazing to finally come here. The Gyeongbok Palace is so huge, like really really huge. After entering the main gate there are still many gates inside that you got to pass through before you can find the building where the King used to sit and do his work. It's an amazing place!

Inside the palace there is also a waterway which is used to arrange the water in inside the palace and the garden. And there is also lake which is really beautiful.

Once we go farther and farther we can see Bukhan Mountain becomes the background of Gyeongbok Palace. And there are more waterways and cool Palace Walls surrounding a garden in way back area of this palace.

After Gyeongbok Palace we walked outside through the main Gate called Gwanghwamun. These two place is actually located in the downtown Seoul. From Gwanghwamun we can walk across the street called Sejongdaero and we will see a huge statue of Korean most famous King because of his achievement in making Korean's alphabet Hangeul, he is King Sejong. This city square area is surrounded by Seoul high buildings and main streets of the city. Below the statue of King Sejong, there is a museum which displays all the achievements of King Sejong and the story of him.

Beside the statue of King Sejong and the museum, there is also statue of Admiral Yi Sun-shin who is very famous because of his braveness and his invention of the turtle ship. In this Gwanghwamun Square, in front of this statue there is water fountain where kids can play with the water. And we can TOO!! Ah~ really refreshing!

Done with playing water, with a 100 meters walk we can be at Cheonggyecheon. This place is a creek within the city that goes along into the Han river and is a very famous tourism place. The design that is very dynamic makes us able to have a nice relaxing time with friends and even play with the water itself. In the 70s this creek was covered with concrete of roads and a highway over it. This was because Korea at that time was in the middle of its development peek. But in 2003, Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor Lee Myung-bak initiated to remove the concrete and the highway to re-open the stream. Although there were many people against it at first but when it was opened in 2005 more and more people realize that it was a really good choice to reopen the stream and now the downtown of Seoul has an eco-friendly area. And since then, Cheonggyeecheon has become the place of various events, festival and there are many tourists enjoying leisure time here everyday.

Once we got tired playing with the streamwater and taking many pictures we went to restaurant to eat dinner. Yummy!!! Ddeokbokki and Kimbab!!! XD

Done with the eating, we're heading for the highlight of the day!! N Seoul Tower!!! Yohoo!!
This place is the symbol of Seoul. Once you see it, you'll think of Seoul. hehehe. And of course so many dramas have taken a scene here. And to go there we had to walk a long long way up to the mountain! tiring but fun!! But once I got there!! OH MY GOD!! I really was there! the most famous landmark of the city! Okay!! No need to talk anymore! Just check out the pictures!!

tada~ !!!

We got to get on a lift to go up to the tower. But before that we took a picture in the alley on the way there. The picture will be able to be purchased once we get into the observatory floor. And so we hopped on the lift and it took 30 seconds to go up!! yeah!!
This is Seoul night view from the Namsan Tower. :D

In the observatory floor there is gift shop that sells postcard plus stamp which we can directly send to wherever we want. And I bought one and write some words for my lovely little sister and brother in Indonesia. We can just put it inside the post box which will be sent by Korean Post. It says that it will arrived at the address abroad in about 2 weeks. :)

After observing night view and writing letter we went down again. But it wasn't like before when we went up. There was this line of people waiting for the elevator to go down. I guess because it was almost 9 pm and all the visitors wanted to go down. Ah! there was no choice! We just got to wait! haha~