I've got Seoul

The hostel provides a free breakfast of toast and waffles with jams which is the best thing ever when it's free. After we had an elegant sufficiency we unwisely decided to walk to the centre of the city. We ended up getting the subway after nearly an hour. 

We first went to a little palace which we arrived at whilst there was a guards ceremony. It happens three times a day and they dress up in Korean guard uniforms, with swords and fake goatees, and parade round the entrance to the palace. The palace was nice but compared to the temples we saw in Japan, it wasn't very impressive. There were more colours though, greens and yellows mixed in with reds. 

Following the biggest street in Korea we arrived at another palace, this one was probably the biggest in Seoul. It had a grand entrance which made it look much more spectacular. Again, it was nice, with similar buildings to the first palace but it didn't have much grandeur. Maybe I'm just not impressed by much anymore. 

To the east of the palace was a hilly little town with many old Korean buildings which did look impressive against the high rises in the background. They were low houses with nicely tiled roofs making a snake like appearance moving through narrow streets, up and down roads. 

Next, we wanted to see a temple where Korean royalty used to go. They only did guided tours on week days so we waited ten minutes for the English speaking one. It was quite interesting learning about the spirits of Korean royalty and how the house them because they worship their descendants. One of the spirit buildings was also the largest wooden structure in the world. However, we were mainly entertained by a group of Hungarian tourists who kept complaining to the tour guide because she wasn't speaking in Hungarian. The tour guide couldn't speak Hungarian. Lots of drama. 

After walking through a big shopping area with massive department stores, we found a little river. I believe it's a man made river but it's beautiful. At the start of it there is a waterfall which then leads down to these laterns which cover the width of the river. There are also strange blown up statues which light up at night. The statues range from a girl riding an elephant to a guard holding a sword. Then there's a little boy and girl, each riding a bike. A real bike. And a large bird cage with lights inside it. The list goes on. We stayed until it got dark, sat on the stone edge, watching the lights come on. It was one of the best things I've seen so far. It was rather magical.