A couple of weeks ago, I found myself running around Seoul
in the rain, trying to find a Royal Wedding ceremony (which was a strange turn
of events, since apart from contributing a plate to the excellent Plate Middleton site, I spent a decent amount of time trying to avoid all mention of
the UK Royal Wedding a couple of years ago – to the extent that I was en route
to Australia while vows were being said and bums were being admired).
But I digress. Twice a year at Unhyeongung
Palace in Seoul there is a re-enactment of the Royal Wedding ceremony of King
Gojong (the 26th king of the Joseon Dynasty) and the Queen Consort Myeongseong,
featuring actors in elaborate costumes, a Royal Procession, and all kind of
ceremonies (there’s more info on the whole ceremony here).
It sounded like an excellent way to spend a Saturday.
Unfortunately things didn’t quite go as planned – our friend was running late,
so we belted it to the palace, paid for our tickets and ran inside...only to
find we’d gone to the wrong palace. No problem: the right palace was just a few
blocks away, so we sprinted through the pelting rain, paid to get into the
second palace...and discovered that the re-enactment had been cancelled due to
said rain. Ho hum.
Anyway, we went back to the first palace (which just so
happened to be Changdeokgung Palace, one of the most famous palaces in Seoul),
and had a wander round and a tour of the secret garden, which was where the
Emperor and his household lived. Even in the rain, it was quite pretty. Here are some photies.
...And of course, no post would be complete without some socks - here are my Royal Wedding socks, which I wore specially for the (non-existant) occasion:
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