Dongdaemun East Gate
FIRST MEAL IN SEOUL
When we woke up, we remembered that we haven’t eaten anything since we got there, so we walked around and remembered that our hotel is near a McDonald’s. And guess what our first meal in Seoul was?
Bulgogi burger!
I also learned (and assumed) that all fast-food places and the people there practice Claygo (Clean as You Go). They clean up their tables after eating. It is SO COOL. They’re all disciplined. I love it.
(Above photo by Kizia - this was taken around 5 PM. Crazy right?)
As I mentioned in Day 1 Part 1, we didn’t really have anything planned that day so we walked around Jonggak and we intentionally got lost somehow.
TOURIST INFORMATION CENTERS.
I don’t have a picture, but in Seoul, you will find several Information Centers scattered everywhere to help tourists like us! We got several brochures but we kept the map, HOPING to get LOST because we want to explore the area on our own.
ARTBOX = HEAVEN.
We stumbled upon an Artbox branch and spent an hour or so browsing through cute stuff! We bought stickers and stickers and notebooks and stuff.
CHEONGGYECHEON STREAM.
After Artbox, we started walking again, hoping to find a good place for dinner. All the while, we were just walking alongside Cheonggyecheon stream! It was a very pretty sight. We wanted to go down to see it up close but we got scared because there are only a few people down there. Back here in the Philippines, we were so used to avoiding places where there are less/no people, afraid that something might happen to you.
We later learned that it is safer in Seoul, as you can leave your bags on the table and order food and you can expect it to be there safe and sound when you get back.
SEMI-DINNER and AFTER-DINNER.
So we took some more pictures and decided to grab something to eat. Where?:) Along Jonggak street of course!
Fried Kimchi (Kimchi Jeon) for me
Odeng for Kizia
Ajhumma was really nice to us. Even though she couldn’t speak English well, and we couldn’t talk to her in Korean also, she was nice enough to entertain our questions (about the other food she is selling). I also bought Mandu so we can feast on it when we get back to the Hotel (but the feast didn’t happen).
We decided to look for a coffee shop to ‘gather’ our thoughts and ‘make plans’ for the following day. But we had another pitstop at DAISO, and found this:
Eatyourkimchi did a review on this and it was really funny. When we saw this we were like “Oh this is eatyourkimchi’s WTF of the day!” Watch Simon and Martina’s video/review on this.
We also bought other items such as: facial masks (we’ll get into that later) and some socks for my friend’s….. hands.
Because it’s really really really cold and her hands are getting numb. :))
After Daiso, we finally found our coffee shop! It’s along Jonggak (near 70 Jonggak if I’m not mistaken, hehe obviously because of the sign at the back of the above photo). Welcome to Cafe Mare/Mare Coffee.
The cafe is located at the second floor so you have to go up the stairs and witness these cool drawings:
Aren’t they pretty? :))
The cafe is really nice and cozy. It’s got smoking and non-smoking areas too. During our stay there, sometimes it feels like I’m in a gypsy/hippie place because of the beads and lights.
We were supposed to plan for the following day:
But instead browsed through our newly bought stickers and pencil case and and and..
We finished our nice warm cup of coffee and headed to Dongdaemun to have a look and experience the night shopping there. We bought our T-Money Card at the Jonggak station!
We had to ask the nice person at the office how we can get one of these. No matter how hard we try to blend in, we keep failing. Haha!
So Dongdaemun. Dongdaemun.
It’s sorta like the Rustan’s here in the Philippines. The malls are HUGE and OMG, they’re huge. We didn’t buy anything. :)) YET.
Since it was already around 12mn or 1 (I think), while looking for a cab (we assumed the subway will be closed when we get there) we took the moment to have our TOURIST SHOT in front of the Dongdaemun East Gate or Heunginjimun.
We were supposed to take the bus but we didn’t know how. Teehee.
When we got back to the hotel, we were so dead tired we thought of a beauty regimen to make us feel better: OUR FACIAL MASKS FROM DAISO.
I won’t post our faces here with facial masks. You will hate me. Haha! But! We ended the night really good with these facial masks. Haha! OH what a girly thing to do in Korea.
Day 2 coming up!
