Day 6: Wandering Insadong + shopping
They’d put Leena and her friend Maikki in my room for one night until their room’s spaces got cleared out, so that was nice :D we got to hang out a little bit and then this morning as I was planning to head out to Gwanghwamun Square they asked if they could tag along so yeah, that’s where we headed off too first.
Gwanghwamun Square is the open plaza where the statue of King Sejong is, and the entrance to Gyeongbokgung Palace. While it’s usually a really gorgeous view from one end to the other, there was a lot of fog today which sort of shrouded everything.
Still, even though I’d been there before it was sort of comforting to see again, since it’s such an iconic landmark. There was an exhibit on the life of King Sejong in under the plaza and I’m kicking myself for not going down and checking it out; I think I might have to go back for that one.
Instead we decided to simply wander down and see where it might lead us; we didn’t know the surrounding area all that well, but I did know that SOMEWHERE within walking distance was a café I was really interested in rediscovering… however I didn’t remember the name, only what it looked like, with a vague recollection that it was in that area. Good, huh?
At Leena’s suggestion we headed vaguely in the direction of Insadong because Insadong’s your pretty typical collection of cafes and shops. I spotted a lot of places I could buy interesting souveniers, so I may have to go back there. We stopped in at De Chocolat Coffee for coffee and WAFFLEEEES.
Oh man did I miss the waffles here.
Looping around after a fair while of wandering Insadong we began to head back towards Gwanghwamun Square--when abruptly I realised I had found the café I’d been looking for, that we’d been to in 2010. I remembered that it was only a tiny front because the entire café was underground, and now I remember where it is!
We had already had coffee/waffles so we didn’t go inside, but I am filing that knowledge away for later.
When we got back to the plaza we headed into the gigantic Kyobo building beside it to go down to the book store beneath it. This book store is gigantic by the way, it’s the building’s entire B1 level and is supported by several cafes because honestly, you could wander the shelves for hours and still not have seen all the books and magazines. I bought a book I’d heard recommended before; Escape From Camp 14, and in the CD store I picked up a movie I love, Midnight FM, plus the new B.A.P album and the B.A.P calendar/diary set.
Decent haul, yes.
Armed with our new purchases, we decided to walk down to City Hall station and head back to Hongdae. It was still a relatively early time but Leena and Maikki were going out that evening and we still wanted to grab dinner beforehand. After thoroughly exploring our shiny new things we grabbed pizza hut and BAM, end of our evening.
Now I’m going to go to bed, because tomorrow we’re going to attempt Music Core, and… SHINee are attending, so it might get a bit crazy :I so we have to turn up stupidly early, blaaargh.
Wish me luck, aaahhhh.
Gwanghwamun Square is the open plaza where the statue of King Sejong is, and the entrance to Gyeongbokgung Palace. While it’s usually a really gorgeous view from one end to the other, there was a lot of fog today which sort of shrouded everything.
Still, even though I’d been there before it was sort of comforting to see again, since it’s such an iconic landmark. There was an exhibit on the life of King Sejong in under the plaza and I’m kicking myself for not going down and checking it out; I think I might have to go back for that one.
Instead we decided to simply wander down and see where it might lead us; we didn’t know the surrounding area all that well, but I did know that SOMEWHERE within walking distance was a café I was really interested in rediscovering… however I didn’t remember the name, only what it looked like, with a vague recollection that it was in that area. Good, huh?
At Leena’s suggestion we headed vaguely in the direction of Insadong because Insadong’s your pretty typical collection of cafes and shops. I spotted a lot of places I could buy interesting souveniers, so I may have to go back there. We stopped in at De Chocolat Coffee for coffee and WAFFLEEEES.
Oh man did I miss the waffles here.
Looping around after a fair while of wandering Insadong we began to head back towards Gwanghwamun Square--when abruptly I realised I had found the café I’d been looking for, that we’d been to in 2010. I remembered that it was only a tiny front because the entire café was underground, and now I remember where it is!
We had already had coffee/waffles so we didn’t go inside, but I am filing that knowledge away for later.
When we got back to the plaza we headed into the gigantic Kyobo building beside it to go down to the book store beneath it. This book store is gigantic by the way, it’s the building’s entire B1 level and is supported by several cafes because honestly, you could wander the shelves for hours and still not have seen all the books and magazines. I bought a book I’d heard recommended before; Escape From Camp 14, and in the CD store I picked up a movie I love, Midnight FM, plus the new B.A.P album and the B.A.P calendar/diary set.
Decent haul, yes.
Armed with our new purchases, we decided to walk down to City Hall station and head back to Hongdae. It was still a relatively early time but Leena and Maikki were going out that evening and we still wanted to grab dinner beforehand. After thoroughly exploring our shiny new things we grabbed pizza hut and BAM, end of our evening.
Now I’m going to go to bed, because tomorrow we’re going to attempt Music Core, and… SHINee are attending, so it might get a bit crazy :I so we have to turn up stupidly early, blaaargh.
Wish me luck, aaahhhh.