Escape to Seoul Day 6 (Part 2 of 2)

Read day 6 Part 1 here

Next stop: Hongdae! Not the Night Hongdae. The Day Hongdae for the Trick Eye Museum in Santorini Seoul!

Just to give you a warning, finding the place is a bit tricky. I wish I took a video of how we got there. From what I remember, we got off at the right stop but we walked towards the wrong direction. We didn’t see signs  leading to the place. It’s one of those artsy and secluded area. Just the right atmosphere for such an awesome place.

We took the subway Line 2 and got off at Hongik University station exit 9. Then we got a bit lost. Haha! Don’t be deceived by the small streets around you. They’re actually the right ones. Check out their website at http://trickeye.co.kr/

Directions: From Exit #9 of Hongdae Station (Subway Line 2), walk straight for 200m towards the Starbucks coffee shop.

Address: Seoul-si Mapo-gu Seogyo-dong, 357-1 Seogyo Plaza B02-01

We were so lucky that day – we just stumbled upon it while we were getting lost. Trick Eye Museum’s location is like of Cafe Drama’s. You’ll find stairs leading down to the museum, like an underground world waiting for tourists/people and make them happy there.

Based on its name, Santorini Seoul is based on the real Santorini, a beautiful island in Greece. And if you look closely, the place is a mix of Greek and Korean art style. I don’t know if these artworks exist in the real Santorini but they are beautiful. The pictures aren’t even close enough to giving justice to how they really look like.

They are cool, hip, new (to me at least) but without showing too much. I’m no art critic but I see them somewhere between conservative and modern with a play of different medium.

On our way to the ticket booth, we saw this wall with a lot of post its with writings. But we can’t read them since most of them are in Korean. I read somewhere that this wall resembles a church or some building in the real Santorini but I don’t know why people stick post its to it. Help?

I also love this quirky map of the place. I like to have something like this on my future house’ wall.

Entrance to another exhibit inside Santorini:

We also saw this amazing miniature version of Santorini, Greece. I love the structured but quirky look of the piece.

Inside Santorini Seoul, you can also grab something to eat before or after your tour. Believe me, Trick Eye Museum alone can tire you.

Even the café place blends well with the rest of the place. Look at the effort on those pillars! I also love the warm colors painted on the walls.

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TRICK EYE MUSEUM

Don’t be confused, like we were, but basically, Trick Eye Museum is inside Santorini. It is a big gallery that is a part of the exhibit. You can check out the guide above for reference. Aside from Trick Eye, I remember seeing a door leading to a gallery full of cat illustrations, paintings etc. So again, Trick Eye Museum or Trompe L’oeil Museum is INSIDE Santorini Seoul.

And so we went inside and bought tickets for 10,000won each.

Heh! Hilarious. Obviously, I am enjoying this.

HAHAHA.

You won’t regret buying your 10,000won ticket. Because you will enjoy EVERYTHING. Like how I enjoyed this:

And how Kizia enjoyed this:

We love to pout, yeah we do.

My camera’s memory got full (I forgot to dump my files) and driventolive’s camera became a mobile phone (it vibrates when you take a picture) so I can’t take pictures aimlessly. But anyway, here are some:

GIANT SUSHI.

I don’t always shop but when I do, I make sure I buy a lot of bags…

with Kizia’s money.

And yeah, well, my money too.

TIP: It’s best to have a tripod with you when going to Santorini and Trick Eye Museum. So you and your friends/family can share the picture together. Although there are some staff around the place, they are not enough to accommodate everyone. They’re often near the most interesting portraits/pictures. And besides, you couldn’t just ask them to follow you around, right?

After Santorini, we walked around Hongdae and passed by the Coffee Prince café. Unfortunately, I haven’t watched this drama yet so I wasn’t that interested in getting inside. But I would love to go back there. The place seemed nice and cozy.

We also passed by Hello Kitty Cafe, again, by accident.

We didn’t bother getting inside because we heard it’s expensive. But the little pink café is a bit hard to resist, right?

That afternoon, we were looking for the Bau House, hoping to have a good time with the dogs for the sake of our friend, Jana, who super duper loves dogs. But instead, this is what we found:

Condomania is located near the main gates of Hongik University. It’s not allowed to take pictures but Kizia managed to get a few shots inside before the staff stopped us.

If only I have lots of money then, I would have bought some for my friends. The shop is teasing a lot of teenagers, I tell you.

After visiting this little shop, we realized we want to go back to Myeongdong for last-minute shopping! But we can’t go shopping with an empty stomach right?

We were at Taco bell when we noticed that people leave their bags freely at their tables to grab their food. We are so amazed with the fact that OUR BAGS OUR SAFE HERE. Fast foods are also CLAYGO (clean as you go). Self service. NICE.

It was also our last night in Seoul, so what else is there to do than spend it with Seoul’s happy night life?

We freshened up, and went back to.. guess where?

There were a loooooot of people in Club Cocoon. A LOT. And it was MONDAY, for crying out loud. It is unbelievable and amusing at the same time. Night life is really alive!

And who do you think we saw on our last night who made a very nice comeback pick up line?

.

.

.

(drum roll)

Oppa to me: I like you.

Yihee, he now knows how to say it properly in English. Biggest turnoff: his friend gave him a bottle of beer (although he offered it to me) but he didn’t even give me one or went to the bar and buy us drinks.

What’s more interesting is that HE WAS THERE THAT NIGHT when HE WAS ALSO THERE TWO NIGHTS AGO. Oh how playful faith was that night/week.

We danced. We danced all night. Without even a decent exchange of information about us. It was nice, the dancing part, because I haven’t danced that long in a long while.

When we were leaving, Oppa asked for my number again (and now that I think about it, it was kind of dumb because it’s either a: he doesn’t remember me or b: he didn’t understand my sorry-i-only-have-an-international-number line). So that wraps up Day 6 in Seoul!

One more day!

Escape to Seoul Day 4 (Part 1 of 2)

Day 4 Itinerary:

• Namsan Tower
• Namdaemun Market
• Myeongdong
• Hongdae

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There is no question – we woke up late (AGAIN) on our 4th day. Our plan is to meet Mo, Kizia’s friend, in Namsan Tower. Before heading there, we grabbed lunch at a Korean Restaurant in Jong-ro area.

Almost lost my camera (ssshhh don’t tell BF, it was actually his’) but didn’t– it was in my pocket all along. But the good thing here is that I learned that most Koreans, no matter how scary they look (ajhumma is kind of masungit) are kind enough to help you out and flip our table to look for my supposedly lost camera.

Anyway….

I researched that to get to Namsan Tower, you must take the subway and then ride a bus to Namsan.

As it turns out, I think we got off at the wrong stop or took the wrong exit, because the bus that we’re supposed to take is nowhere to be found. In the end, we just hailed a cab and were dropped off at the cable car center/building/station.

I also learned that you can take the Namsan Ormi Elevator that can easily take you to the cable car station. Take Line 4 to Myeongdong Station and get out of Exit 4 to the memorial plaza of No. 3 Tunnel. Take the glass elevator and enjoy the view!

If you don’t want to take the cable car, you can always walk! Haha. Or take the bus.

From Exit 4 of Seoul Station on Line 1, take the 0014, 402 or 02 buses and get off at Namsan Library stop.

One way ticket is 6,000won. I forgot how much for the round trip tickets but we only took a one-way so we could ‘explore’ another route.

To be honest, this is my first time to ride a cable car. And I am glad my first time was in Korea. The view was spectacular.

It was very scary and exciting at the same time. From the outside, the cable car seems to be moving slow. But when you’re inside, the speed is similar to a bike ride. I bet it’s better if we went there during night-time.

After a few minutes and you get to the top:

Amazing. I love it.

N Seoul Tower was built in 1971 as a broadcasting tower. Tourists have enjoyed the scenery – a full view of Seoul – since 1980 when they extended the observation deck. Now, the tower houses a number of restaurants, cafes, and a wine bar.

You can also visit the Teddy Bear Museum where you’ll learn about Seoul’s development with the help of the cute teddy bears.

Namsan Park is also well-known for the “love locks” as what I’d like to call it, around the area. Couples, friends or family put up locks at the gates to symbolize their undying love or promise to each other.

If you want to put your locks there, search for the lock fences (like the picture above). They tend to take down the fences if they’re overloaded and make it into tree shapes.

Here's me in between the 'lock trees'

But you can put yours in the trees if you want.

With enough pictures, we decided to stroll around and look for Kizia’s friend, Mo. But instead of finding her, we both ended up buying a Namsan Tower Tumblr. I also bought several stickers in the souvenir shop. We looked for Mo while our pockets slowly being emptied. After an hour or so, we decided to go back to Myeongdong to shop (we gave up after, since we couldn’t really find her anywhere)!

We walked downhill towards the bus stop and devoured fresh air.

And we didn’t get lost, which is good news!

What else is there to do in Namsan Park? Check out this funny video from Simon and Martina (eatyourkimchi). 

I will skip the Myeongdong (part 2) story because we just burned our money there. But remember that you’ll never go wrong with Myeongdong (that’s funny).

We grabbed something to eat, freshened up (more of dressed up and got ready to party) and went to Hongdae to see how nightlife is in Seoul. I don’t have pictures but I sure do have stories! Stay tuned!

Escape to Seoul Day 3 (Part 3 of 3)

(Read Day 3 Part 2 here)

After Deoskugung Palace, it’s time for shopping! Day 3 is scheduled for a get-lost-in-Myeongdong trip. It’s Kizia’s turn to educate me in what stores to go to in Myeongdong. We immediately looked for our most researched ones: Every Sing and SPAO.

I love SPAO because Super Junior’s endorsing them. Haha! Look at how cute Heechul is here:

Don’t you just want to find a similar jacket because of that?????

Which I did eventually. I found a dark gray hoodie jacket. Too bad they only have it in Men’s size. But that didn’t stop me from buying one (for BF) and a light gray for me! Close enough! Yay!

After that, we went up to the third floor for Every Sing to look for Kpop merch. (SPAO and Every Sing are in the same building. They’re not hard to find.) We almost jumped and screamed out loud when we found the place.

But we’re on a budgeted shopping spree. Well, I am. Unfortunately, we didn’t find anything that made us go gaga over it.

So we explored Myeongdong instead. We got hungry…

ate corn dogs covered with fries…

and went shopping in Kosney! We were kind of ‘ended our friendship’ back here when we went separate ways and savored the cute stuff in Kosney. I swear. Get ready for an hour or so of cuteness overload!

They have accessories, clothes, shoes, art materials, stationaries, DVDs, magazines, CDs and a lot of stuff. Was tempted to buy a magazine (in Korean) with Jang Geun Suk as the cover and buy a set of You’re Beautiful Drama Series. I thought about them really hard, but I thought 1. I can’t read Hangul yet, and 2. I haven’t seen You’re Beautiful so I wouldn’t know if buying the set would be worth it. I also saw Kim Sam Soon and My Girl sets. Eeeep!

If you’ve got lots of money, and you happen to pass by Kosney, I say GO AND BUY THEM ALL, MY FRIEND.

Of course, I won’t let this wonderful opportunity pass with Jang Geun Suk:

… and because Kizia pushed me to do it. (Blaming it to others eh?)

Well, as you can see, I have a Uniqlo paper bag with me in the above photo. So this is to certify that we also went to Uniqlo that day.

We also passed by Forever 21, and believe it or not, it was Kizia’s first time to go inside one. Early last year (2011), a Forever 21 store opened in Megamall and Kizia hasn’t been in it before we went to Seoul. So to remember the moment:

When we were finally finished roaming around Myeongdong, we grabbed hot drinks and let our feet and legs rest at Cafe Benne (near the entrance to the train station).

It was our first time to see the vibrating thingy that will light up once your order is ready. No more shouting barista!

When we got back home and tried the new Holly’s Coffee near DLSU – Taft, they were also using this disk. And then Coffee Bean started using it. And then Coffee Prince, another café near DLSU is also using a disk. Oh, Seattle’s best in Greenbelt is also using them. Who knows, maybe Starbucks will start using them too.

Going back…

We were supposed to board the train after we had our hot drinks when we learned that there are underground shops in the area that sells clothes, shoes accessories etc. And there is one shop in between the clothing stores that sells DVDs, albums, posters, stickers, stationaries, stuffed toys and OMYGOODNESS KPOP AND KDRAMA MERCH. An underground store that serves semi-fan girls like us.

Aaaand another hour passed by while we searched for goodies and DVDs to take home. We have no proof that the shop existed BUT I am hoping it’s still there since the price is cheaper there compared to other shops “above.” And besides, our hands are already full of shopping bags and our mind’s very much overwhelmed with the rows and stacks of Kdramas and albums.

We were too tired to look for a place to eat dinner and besides, we already splurged a bit that day so we decided to just buy street food! We bought Mandu (again, and they’re still huuuuuge) and grabbed a cup of ramyun/bokki, some bread and chips from the nearby convenience store.

I got the cheese bboki while Kizia got Ramyun. And in Seoul, you can survive by just eating these. Or just buy street food. Or eat along the sidewalks (with the tents and all) – like a carinderia here in the Philippines. I was already full when I reached half of my bread, with my chips untouched.

Happy happy day 3! <3