7 November 2022
New bits
A short walk around the main Palace area
After the big effort of the hike earlier in the day, I really only wanted a short walk this evening. This got me to 40,000 steps for the day anyway, so that was good.
I remembered seeing on YouTube, source of all my knowledge of foreign places, that the main avenue and immediate surrounds of the Gyeongbokgung Palace had received a makeover, so that is where I headed.
It is an area with business towers also, so there are a lot of people finishing work finding dinner, this provided many options for someone like myself, it was very much like a business area of Tokyo as you shall see.
First I headed down to the sewer to have a look at an art installation. It will not be the only art installation photo this evening.
Next I sat in the sewer itself and took a long exposure photo. Came out pretty well.
Then I took a similarly long exposure of the new avenue leading to the Palace, complete with ghostly shadow figures that crossed through my frame while the shutter was open.
I think this entire little street is new, it reminds me of a Chinese city with the coloured light poles that do not really serve a purpose.
This is art, apparently. It is out the front of the opera house / some sort of theatre. Note the signs warning you not to walk on the fake grass.
I descended under an office tower and found a labyrinth of little restaurants for business people, photo copy centres, optometrists and dry cleaners. I had a strong flash back to a similar place on the quiet side of Shinjuku in Tokyo.
I got an almost vegetarian stir fry for my dinner. Well it had egg in it, and presumably kim chi too, but it was actually pretty good.
There is the palace itself at the end of the street.
This area is where everyone protests, and they can happen any night of the week for almost any reason. The police are always here ready to pepper spray a few hundred thousand people. So basically it is like peak Angry Dave / Cooker marches in Melbourne, but 10 times bigger and every night of the week. Melbourne is expected to have a few more shortly for the upcoming election in Victoria. Break out the rubber bullets.
My journey back to my hotel went down some laneways filled with restaurants that would turn me away. I refuse to hyphenate laneway.
The laneways also had many little shops like this, often selling just pottery, but sometimes a bit of everything.
And for the last shot of the evening, a bit of random neon. Tomorrow is NOT a hiking day, I do not know what I will do yet!