After visiting You Are Here Cafe, we went around to explore the area around Hongdae. It's the place in Seoul pretty known to have a younger crowd because of the universities nearby. It's also the place to hang out if you like to go to bars and clubs. Nightlife is very energetic in the area.
We knew this day will mostly involve walking (as we have specific places in mind to visit) so it was heaven-sent that we came across this store selling sneakers for only ₩10,000!
Our feet were already hurting because we were wearing boots for the past days. We decided to buy the sneakers. Actually most of the locals wear one, as these kind of shoes are really comfortable. You'll know a person is a tourist if he/she has boots on. Haha!
goodbye boots! |
I only had the GPS as guide so we just walked along the streets of Hongdae.
Hongik University
We walked up to the front of Hongik University! If only we could enter the campus, I would have loved to explore the area also.
Hongik University is one of South Korea's top universities for fine arts students. |
Hongdae Playground
We also came across Hongdae's iconic playground, which is a common venue for street performances. It's also a famous filming location for Korean dramas.
clips from Love Rain (left) and Gentleman's Dignity (right) shot at the Hongdae playground |
another scene from Love Rain at the playground |
Hongdae Free Market
And then there's the Free Market event at the Hongdae playground, wherein students and street artists put their works on sale.
There were lots of cute stuff on sale! |
There are a lot of wall arts to be found around Hongdae (which are the works of the fine arts students I'm assuming) which can be picture-worthy for tourists and locals alike.
"Eat Your Kimchi" Alleyway
We were actually searching for the famous "wall painting street" at Hongdae, but failed to find it. But we saw this nice alleyway instead!
I felt this area looked familiar. When we got home, my thoughts were confirmed as this is the same alleyway in one of Eat Your Kimchi's videos!
They also featured in the above video the wallpainting street that we were looking for (and also the Hongdae playground!), so I guess it was really just within the area. Too bad we were not able to find it. (o_ _)o
Four Seasons House
Next in our itinerary at Hongdae was to visit the Four Seasons House, which is the shooting location of most scenes in Love Rain, a Korean drama, among others.
screenshots from Love Rain at the Four Seasons House |
It was walking distance from where we were. We even passed along Vinyl Liquor shop, which we planned to go to also, but it was closed during that time.
We saw this street sign and we knew we were at the right path.
There it is!!
However as we got nearer, we saw the sign Sorry - We are Closed. Apparently the place is under construction. I didn't see this update on the blogs that I visited. *sigh*
Why is everything closed at Hongdae??!! \(-___________-;)/
Anyway we couldn't do anything about it so we just took photos of the house.
Authentic Samgyeopsal Experience
We were already hungry so we searched for a resto to have lunch. My sister wanted to try authentic Korean dishes so we went to this one restaurant. We were the only customers! Looks like Hongdae really is more alive at night. I was not able to take photos inside the restaurant (coz I find it awkward). An ahjumma and ahjusshi took our orders. Language barrier was felt the most during this moment because we cannot understand each other! Good thing I knew a little Korean and know how to read Hangul, and I saw in their menu that they have samgyeopsal. I think ahjusshi thought we were foreign students in the area so we must know Korean somehow. Thank heavens we were able to settle our orders a few minutes afterwards.
our samgyeopsal meal! yey! |
Since we were the only customers, they were extra paying attention to us. Ahjusshi even approached us and taught us how to properly eat samgyeopsal to enjoy it the most. He was (well I assumed) telling us that we should mix the kimchi and the mongo sprouts(?) on the lettuce together with the samgyeopsal. Hahaha!
It's one of the best meat for samgyeopsal that I have tasted!
Now fully-nourished, we went aboard the subway train again to go to a long trip to Daehwa where Kintex is located.
Can you guess what we are going to see there? o(≧∇≦o)
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