So it's been forever since I was able to make the effort of putting up a post. Bear with me, there's a lot to catch you up with!

Our last few days at Seoul for the Chuseok vacation was spent bumming around castles.

We visited the really big palace, Gyeongbokgung Palace. 

 It's been used as the background of several dramas.

It was really busy, but not crowded.

There were so many cute kids in their hanboks!

Garden guardian!

This building is surrounded by water and was used by the royalty for parties, otherwise no one but the king was allowed in. 

It was really beautiful.

Outside the palace walls is a large park area between two seriously busy streets. This statue is one of the great generals of King Sejong. He was the king that made the Korean language as it is today.

Down the street and across the road is the Cheongeychong river.

It's such a nice place to visit!

It is where a light festival is held every year. We went it was freezing, and it hailed on us! Also the lanterns were very beautiful

We visited Itewon, and Roland found a Jesters.  When we visit Itewon he always wants to buy a pie.

Saw the graffiti, had to get a picture!

We also saw the Namsan Tower. We took the cable car to the top in the evening. It was about 4 hours of being in a line. A line for the cable car ticket. Then a line for the cable car.  Next we move into a line for tickets to the top. After that a line for the elevator. Then  we walked around for a bit, and jumped back into line for the elevator down then the line for the cable car down, then a line for a taxi home.  It was nuts!

But I got to leave a note in the sign in book!

We Went back to Andong to watch the end of the mask festival.

Christmas time!

We did a lot of traveling for Christmas.

We traveled to Busan for an overnight trip. 

Roland's parents both came to enjoy the Korean food and us of course.

Busan was really pretty, and a lot less cold than Andong.

We really went for my health check for Australian Immigration  We hope to be called for interviews this summer and going to Australia by fall/spring

I worked all December except for the Christmas Day, so we did some local tourist stuff as well.

This was our trip to Haohoe Village, it's a World Heritage site, and is a living working old style village.

(except all the fancy cars)

All the fancy bottles of Soju!

Beautiful snowy mountain facing the river.

They have several traditional restaurants.

 

It was really peaceful walking around.

 The snow buffered most sounds, and you felt alone, even though it was a little busy.

This big dog was really happy in the snow.

It was beautiful.

We spent Christmas together on Skype with our missing family members.

We went out to dinner at a really nice restaurant.

Annie didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

For New Years we went back to Seoul and stayed at a pretty fancy hotel in Itewon. 

 Our room was super awesome.

It was so nice to feel a little pampered. I don't think I have ever worked as hard for as long in my life.  

Best part was the bath tub! I haven't seen one in a year! It was heaven. 

The next day we took Roland's parents to the palace.

We were lucky to have arrived there the same time as the changing of the guard.

It was really interesting to watch them exchange keys.

Very colorful too.

You can see it too, thanks to Bethany.

We toured the museum for a while and saw some interesting things and read up on some Korean history.

After we went out into the palace.

It looked so different being covered in snow and ice.

We found the Queens garden this time. It looked so lovely.

The water was frozen over, and it looked so peaceful.

The contrast of looking past the palace walls into the city was so interesting.

The kings garden ices over.

We were all frozen! 

We caught a taxi and went to Insadong to a small tea shop we knew from before.

It was a lovely break and warm too!

Very unique and very old shop.

This is why our hotel was awesome! After a wonderful New Years Eve dinner we got home to find this out our hotel window!

Then Roland's parents went back home, it was sad.

We went to the Andong cultural Museum for Lunar New Years.

It's next to the Moonlight bridge

 After this Bethany went back to America, my work schedule changed, and hopefully I will have more energy to keep up on my blog.