2017년1월28—29일
Seoul Pt II, Day 5:
The morning began quite naturally like a couple days ago, I didn’t have to be anywhere until 4:45 to meet up with my friend Aubri from university, so I left the hostel at around 1:00 pm. Since it was Lunar New Year’s Day, Hongdae was especially quiet. I scanned the surrounding restaurants to check what was open and many korean places obviously weren’t, so I settled for non-korean food at a döner kebab place ran by a Turkish immigrant.
Seoul Pt II, Day 5:
The morning began quite naturally like a couple days ago, I didn’t have to be anywhere until 4:45 to meet up with my friend Aubri from university, so I left the hostel at around 1:00 pm. Since it was Lunar New Year’s Day, Hongdae was especially quiet. I scanned the surrounding restaurants to check what was open and many korean places obviously weren’t, so I settled for non-korean food at a döner kebab place ran by a Turkish immigrant.
I would have preferred lavash but I guess Mexican flour tortillas are all you can get in Korea…?
Anyway, I decided earlier that day that I was gonna go visit Bukchon hanok village in the afternoon before I met up with Aubri, so I took the metro back to Anguk station and walked around aimlessly. The Bukchon hanok village (북촌한옥마을 bukchon hanok ma-eul) dates back to the Joseon Dynasty, I believe, back when Seoul was just getting populous, so the homes reflect the traditional yet compact nature of the residential areas during that time.
Anyway, I decided earlier that day that I was gonna go visit Bukchon hanok village in the afternoon before I met up with Aubri, so I took the metro back to Anguk station and walked around aimlessly. The Bukchon hanok village (북촌한옥마을 bukchon hanok ma-eul) dates back to the Joseon Dynasty, I believe, back when Seoul was just getting populous, so the homes reflect the traditional yet compact nature of the residential areas during that time.
It was really pretty, and obviously there were a lot of tourists walking around taking photos. I was able to find a low hanging roof across the street from a nice looking house so I leaned my phone up against the roof tiles and set the selfie camera timer to get a couple of shots.
Then I just walked around some more. I hadn’t realized previously how close the hanok village was to the tofu restaurant my friend and I went to the other night (교동두부 kyodong dubu), or Gyeongbokgung Palace that I went to on my first full day in Seoul.
I like thirty second videos of random things I come across alright bite me
I explored the surrounding area a little bit more before settling for chain coffee so that I could use their heat and wifi. Flex on the gram, snapchat, etc.
By 5:00 pm I had met up with Aubri in Hongdae so that we could go to a dog café! This one is called BauHouse near Hapjeong station on the Green Line (Line 2) and thankfully since it’s the off season, the dog-to-customer ratio was much more preferable to my last south korean dog café experience back in the summer of 2014.
By 5:00 pm I had met up with Aubri in Hongdae so that we could go to a dog café! This one is called BauHouse near Hapjeong station on the Green Line (Line 2) and thankfully since it’s the off season, the dog-to-customer ratio was much more preferable to my last south korean dog café experience back in the summer of 2014.
I love dog cafés, well, for the obvious reasons, but also because it enables dog owners and dog lovers in the city to spend time with their furry loved ones (not those "furry" loved ones okay ya nasty). This specific dog café also allowed people to bring their own dogs so that they may play with the café dogs and I thought that was nice. A good winter-time alternative to the dog park.
Some VERY LONG boys playfully attack Aubri (this specific breed are called borzois)
Many borks and floofs were jumping about, good boys and smol bois and l o n g b o y s . We mentally adopted a golden retriever but I forgot their name. I fell in love with this big Alaskan malamute named June but he didn’t care much for me. I just want my love to be reciprocated, is all.
After that we decided to eat dinner near Sinchon as we were gonna meet with Aubri’s friend for noraebang later. Aubri and I went to another soondubu restaurant but I’m not mad, I love soondubu. We talked for quite a while, as Aubri has been in Seoul for nearly two years, so it was nice being able to catch up over hot tofu stew. When it was time to meet up with Aubri’s friend Christina, we headed to the noraebang place, which was very reasonably priced at ₩5000 per person for 90 minutes. I sang similar songs to the ones I sang the other night simply because I have only memorized lyrics to a handful of Korean songs oops.
After noraebang, however, we decided to go out for drinks (see a pattern here?)
The pattern stopped there, however (thank god) as the three of us split a pitcher of beer and two bottles of soju (thus enabling me to not get shitfaced drunk). We also ordered kimchi pancake (김치전 kimchi jeon) to eat with it as the bar we went to required us to order food with our drink (but I wasn’t complaining) and by the end of the night it only set each of us back $9000 which is decent for a night out.
After noraebang, however, we decided to go out for drinks (see a pattern here?)
The pattern stopped there, however (thank god) as the three of us split a pitcher of beer and two bottles of soju (thus enabling me to not get shitfaced drunk). We also ordered kimchi pancake (김치전 kimchi jeon) to eat with it as the bar we went to required us to order food with our drink (but I wasn’t complaining) and by the end of the night it only set each of us back $9000 which is decent for a night out.
I said something about not yet trying Korean street foods so we found a stall nearby Sinchon station and ate tempura (튀김 twigim) and sweet and spicy rice cakes (떡볶이 ddeokbokki) it was so dank. By the time we were finishing up it was about 1:30 am, but I was able to walk back to my hostel fine as I wasn’t a #hotmess like I was on Thursday. Walking home from Sinchon only took me like ten or fifteen minutes and I was able to be in bed by 2:00 so that was sweet.
Seoul Pt II, Day 6:
On this day all I really did was go back to Dongdaemun to try my luck at shopping again since I finally learned where I should've gone for cheap already made clothing (Pyeonghwa Fashion Market and not Dongdaemun Shopping Complex)
Well it was doing that annoying rain-snow thing that I came across in Tokyo so either for that reason or another (new years perhaps?) Pyeonghwa Fashion Market was closed for the day. I walked through a duty free mall called Doota but lmao the prices honey? oh my god? I picked up a cute jacket by a local korean designer and it was like ₩159000 or something ridiculous like that and I was like lol nah i'm good thanks tho. So I just headed back to Hyundai City Outlets where I KNEW FOR A FACT that there were a couple sweaters in varying shades of ~millennial pink~ that I had my eye on earlier this week, all for like, under ₩20000 (or $17-ish USD) which is like, decent.
Seoul Pt II, Day 6:
On this day all I really did was go back to Dongdaemun to try my luck at shopping again since I finally learned where I should've gone for cheap already made clothing (Pyeonghwa Fashion Market and not Dongdaemun Shopping Complex)
Well it was doing that annoying rain-snow thing that I came across in Tokyo so either for that reason or another (new years perhaps?) Pyeonghwa Fashion Market was closed for the day. I walked through a duty free mall called Doota but lmao the prices honey? oh my god? I picked up a cute jacket by a local korean designer and it was like ₩159000 or something ridiculous like that and I was like lol nah i'm good thanks tho. So I just headed back to Hyundai City Outlets where I KNEW FOR A FACT that there were a couple sweaters in varying shades of ~millennial pink~ that I had my eye on earlier this week, all for like, under ₩20000 (or $17-ish USD) which is like, decent.
I ended up getting a grey sweater tho bc I couldn't commit to a pink sweater lol (the color wasn't right! it was like either a nice faded dusty rose color but too dark, or light enough but the hue was too pastel).
After shopping, I went back to the hostel and formally introduced myself to a new hostel mate who checked in the previous night. A recent high school grad from Melbourne, my new friend was taking a gap year off to travel and she was gonna be in Korea for 12 days before going to Tokyo for two weeks. We discussed shitty recent news and politics over salad and boneless soy sauce chicken (간장순살 ganjang soon-sal) at Noo Nah Hol Dak (누나홀닭) in Hongdae.
We strolled around Hongdae for a bit after dinner in search of hotteok and cheap clothing, but it was too damn cold so we gave up and went back to the hostel bc #choices. I then took the rest of the night easy, working on drafts for my Seoul blog posts.
Catch my final update in Seoul, where I try pig’s feet with another old friend, and my new Korean friend takes me to MMCA Seoul (Natl. Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul) for a truly wonderful last 24 hours in Seoul.
Wondering if I'll ever commit to a sweater in millennial pink,
PK/和平
We strolled around Hongdae for a bit after dinner in search of hotteok and cheap clothing, but it was too damn cold so we gave up and went back to the hostel bc #choices. I then took the rest of the night easy, working on drafts for my Seoul blog posts.
Catch my final update in Seoul, where I try pig’s feet with another old friend, and my new Korean friend takes me to MMCA Seoul (Natl. Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul) for a truly wonderful last 24 hours in Seoul.
Wondering if I'll ever commit to a sweater in millennial pink,
PK/和平