Dalgi Dalgi Dalgi!

We hung around Hongdae all day today! Hongdae is still one of my favourite places in Korea because of the diversity of people and especially its Indie scene. It's young and hip.. much unlike Insadong's traditional and aged crowd.

The main reason why I wanted to go to Hongdae today was because of their Free Market near Hongik University that's only open on Saturday. I believe there's a Hope Market on Sundays. It's the tiniest flea market where students sell their handmade crafts and goods!
I think Hongdae and Apgujeong are the 2 best places to people watch. There are a few cafes that have giant floor to ceiling windows. We escaped the heat (I believe it was around 30 degrees today) at one of them. The one we went into was quite nice -- everything was ivory coloured and we got to sit on roomy, long couches that had bolsters and pillows. Unfortunately, you pay for your atmosphere when you order - their drink menu was quite expensive at approxiately 7,000won each.

There are tons of restaurants in Hongdae to fit any sort of budget. You can get some typical Korean food such as bibimbap for only $3CAD or pay over $45CAD for a plate of sashimi. We decided on having samgeopsal (pork belly) + dweji galbi (marinated pork w/ bone) BBQ for dinner. BBQ here is quite a bit cheaper than in Vancouver so we "stock up" haha These lower end BBQ restaurants use coal to cook the food. When we sit down, a metal bucket of hot coal passes our shoulders (just inches away!) and is plopped into the table and then this grate/strainer is placed on top. I love eating BBQ outside!
There's a good donkatsu restaurant just half a block away from our hostel! My cold soba noodle set - very refreshing.
We went to a DVD bang for the first time! Just like how you go to a noraebang to sing karaoke or a PC bang to use super fast internet and play games, you go to a DVD bang to rent DVDs and watch them on a large screen. Bang is Korean for "room". What is so special about a DVD bang is that you can watch them privately in a room that's equipped with a "couch", a TV, and a roll of toilet paper (you know, in case the movie is a tear jerker).
You can find DVD bangs by just looking out for the neon signs on the 2nd or 3rd floor of a building. The way up the flights of stairs can be a bit sketchy looking at first, but it surprisingly turns out to be a very decent place. There are a great variety of movies to choose from - both Western and Korean (and some Japanese). The room was very small and intimate - we sat on comfortable leather sofa-bed type things and had to look up to watch the movie. There's apparently a certain connotation that goes with these rooms, but I might save that for another day.
So, for 13,000won (price depends on length of movie), we watched a funny semi-romantic comedy Korean movie with English subtitles. The movie was great! I'll definitely be returning to a DVD bang soon!

Yesterday, we walked around Edae (Ewha Women's University) and stumbled upon this cute waffle place.

For less than $3CAD, you can get some mini waffle desserts! There are quite a few waffle places around universities. Kim Yuna (world champion figure skater) now has her own drink at Smoothie King.

be white. YUNA SMOOTHIE. (what?!)

She even has her own cup if you should select her drink that has her autograph on it!

I dub Haagen-Dazs as the best ice cream brand in the world.
Hyori Lee for Ocean Park (ad in subway).

At night in Hongdae, a couple of carnival games are set up for boyfriends to "win" huge stuffed animals for their girlfriends. This girlfriend pouted and made her boyfriend win her a Hello Kitty.

Goodnight~

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!