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Korea 2025: Coffee and Flowers
posted : Saturday, May 31, 2025
Day 2!
I kind of find it amazing that this being my third time in Seoul, there’s still places that I’ve not been to. Partly because the first time round it was too cold to explore much, the second time was spent exploring the more mainstream tourist spots and revisiting them (Cheongyecheon stream ahem, this time round I didn’t even make it there). But at the same time I also had enough time that I can spend hours chilling in a cafe posting my IG stories and catching up on my very backdated posts oops. So I really liked that kind of balance and serenity that solo travel brings about. Or with a like minded individual probably. But I digress. After the exertions of the past couple of days I surprisingly didn’t manage to sleep in, and by 930am I was ready to head out to my first spot. Wasn’t about to revisit Gwangjang Market, instead Mangwon Market had gotten really viral and trendy online so that’s where I was headed to, a short 10min bus ride from my place. Though I had to make a trip to the subway station to buy and reload the Climate card for transit purposes, and really it was such a steal for the price they are offering as compared to regular T-money.  Entering the market  Less exciting part selling daily necessities and textiles  Trendy to buy comforters from Korea for some reason…especially amongst Taiwanese  Food! Starting with this cheese croquette  Colorful traditional cakes  How cheap are these strawberries? This big box for about $5 only  Nipped outside for a look, recce first before deciding what else to eat  Ended up getting a thirst quencher first, saving caffeine quota for later  Korean fried chicken bites in cups are all the rage here and they come in very interesting flavors  This stuffed green pepper is also very famous but I didn’t try Route planning to my next stop took a while because I couldn’t decipher if the place is opened or not but in the end managed to confirm that the closed branch was not the one that I wanted to go, so went ahead to the neighborhood which is close to Itaewon. Digress again, I considered long and hard about giving Itaewon a second chance and dedicating a night of nightlife to it but I still remember the vibes from the last time I was briefly there and decided to stay true to myself hahha coz I really wasn’t the nightlife type. So just pass by only.  Ooh hilly landscape  VERY hilly. Even 30kph is not achievable..  First cafe of the trip!  Not sure it’s coz it’s a Monday afternoon but place is quite quiet, and this is supposed to be a viral place. Not complaining coz I get to snap photos.  Black sesame cloud latte was fantastic. Earl grey honey passion fruit cake was good too!  Artificial rain adds to the mood 2pm and I felt I was ready for a meal (whichever meal that was, since the practice was always to eat at odd hours to avoid queues since places I earmarked are usually popular spots). Off for food and to explore the Hannam-dong neighborhood which is in the vicinity!  On the way to Hannam-dong  Place is in one of the streets, had to make a reservation on spot but got in soon enough  Sol-sot. Had the sea bream set which is quite good, flavours came together nicely. Also liked that small probiotic drink that came with it  Plenty of street art in the neighborhood  Another street  Trying out something at Blue Elephant. Side note, it’s actually warm enough to walk around in two layers already, whereas 20 hours ago it was -1deg.  Viennese coffee, my love. And this place had a very good rendition of it, pity it was popular so it’s hard to get a seat so took away  Back to the main street of Hannam-dong  Stopped by Musinsa Standard and caved in to a jacket Leaving in time to try to be at Hanggang River for sunset and planned cherry blossom viewings at the Yeouido section of the river which I hadn’t been to previously. Unfortunately weather gods this year have a different plan and it was still cold in early April (it even snowed the week after I left Korea btw) which meant that full bloom was very much delayed in Seoul which was the northern region in South Korea (wow I had to tread this line very carefully). So this is when my plan sort of came into handy coz I separated my Seoul trip into two blocks (spoiler alert, it did get better during my second block). But back to Yeouido, usually there will be a cherry blossom festival here and it did happen eventually, couple of days after I left lol.  The first tree at the entrance  Erm yea I think the flowers are not happening yet  Looking out to Han gang River  One of the bridges, not sure which one  Ohhh but I think these are plum? Went back to hotel to drop off shopping items and actually by this time I wasn’t 100% sigh. Heaty, nose slightly blocked and throat was feeling funny, all signs pointing to something brewing. Rested a bit and since I wasn’t super hungry, I thought I’d just get a quick bite from the bustling Hongdae streets downstairs, and because I took quite long to come to this decision (I contemplated ordering food delivery lol) the place was almost closed by the time I went in (they are still open for takeouts but not dine in).  Hongdae streets at night  Seafood pancake is a recent favorite of mine And called it a day! Simple packing and that was the end of the first leg of Seoul actually. Off to Busan next, hopefully in one piece and the zombies don’t get to me. |
