Hongdae 홍대

We were supposed to go up the Namsan Seoul Tower after school today, but the weather wasn't cooperating so we decided to meet up with Gina and have dinner in Hongdae. This is my second time in Hongdae, but this time, I actually got to look around. The district actually houses Hongik University (a private university in central Seoul) so it's called Hongdae for short ("Hong" as part of the university's name, and "dae" meaning "university" or "big").

Hongdae is my new favourite area of Seoul!! You can find tons of great restaurants, chic and vintage boutiques, the hottest clubs, bars, bakeries, quaint and cozy tea houses, some street vendors, and noraebangs! And the whole place has an eclectic indie vibe to it.

We first went to a French restaurant out in what seemed to be the outskirts of Hongdae. The restaurant was tiny and had so many cute details all over.
No Reisling so no wine for me hahaSheena's mushroom soupMy pan-fried salmon (cooked to perfection -- I miss salmon!) with basil cream sauce and fettuccine. Surprisingly excellent food!It wasn't a cheap restaurant as that plate was 19,000won... and a 10% service charge was added on to the total! (Tipping is not customary in Korea.)

Then we got to shop! I definitely have to come back by myself or with just one other person to do some serious shopping as I felt bad to make the others wait so long. I didn't end up buying any clothing (actually, I've only so far bought 3 items of clothes since I've arrived! Amazing, no?)... but I definitely will next time.
The shops here are a bit more expensive than Myeong-dong and Dongdaemun, but there's so much more variety. I particularly like the modern-vintage shops. "Miroo 1" was just 2 shops away.Skirts, sweaters, and dresses that are displayed outside of the store are 15,000won or less. They sell some of the same items as in Ewha for a few thousand won more.The crowd that Hongdae draws is different from Myeong-dong's trendy teen/young adult crowd, Ewha's more casual, female-dominant crowd, and Apgujeong's affluent and well-dressed crowd.
This tiny shoe shop sold very good quality leather shoes! The shoes were all around 90,000-145,000won, though... but so cute!
Aren't they cute!?Like mommy like daughter.
Noraebang means "singing room" in Korean. It's basically a karaoke bar. I have plans to go within the next couple of weeks.
This one is called "Luxury" and it has an open concept (people can watch you dance and sing). Gina told us of this one time she had a bit too much fun and drew a decent-sized audience haha
It reminds me of a doll house as there was floral wallpaper and a balcony in every room!
Restaurants
Don't know why this picture turned out to be so small... we were waiting for Gina @ The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.
Vendors -- don't know if you can read the sign, but it says "Mr. Wow". The shops here are kind of random. These vendor-shacks are next to pricey restaurants and those 200,000won-dress shops!
Having rows of posters taped onto the sidewalk is a popular way of advertisement in Seoul. I think it's highly effective, too! This poster caught my eye because Wheesung's Insomnia song (I have the YouTube clip on the right hand side of this blog.. Oh, and also check out Super Junior's latest song, Sorry Sorry! Such an addictive song!) is one of the hottest songs in Korea at the moment and for him to do a club tour... FUN! I'd love to go if he's going to be there... it's tomorrow night at Club Vera.
I think it's really neat how each district in Seoul is uniquely different - they emit this feeling that's distinctly theirs. Even when you take the taxi (as I did today from Hongdae to the KU campus), you can tell that you're driven through different areas of Seoul!