SEOUL KOREA WINTER 2016- Day 2: Hongdae is love, Hongdae is life + Cheese ribs + Sang Sang Puppy Cafe + Gangnam Underground Shopping Mall
hongdae 10:01 |
| Your dog has never looked this good |
Cute gudetama toy catcher! I saw lots of toy catcher rooms, but I don't think they're as crazy as Taiwan where there's 20 of the machines crammed into one room.
The star of today's blogpost: Cheesy ribs! The restaurant simply said '芝士排骨' and you'll definitely see the huge sign if you walk to the main square in Hongdae. The dish was for a minimum of 2 people and was about 14,000 won each. Don't worry if you don't know how to cook the dish, the kind waitresses will help you.
The cheese melts quickly, which is good if you're hungry. I was waiting so impatiently and snapchatting everything.
This is how the waitress demonstrated it: lift a portion of the ribs with the tongs and dip it into the cheese sauce, then roll it around in the cheese. Lift up the cheesy goodness and cut the string with scissors! It was genuinely so good, the cheese melted in the mouth. Weirdly enough, I'm lactose intolerant but felt fine afterwards. I highly recommend it! The portion size was really generous and if you're up for a challenge, you can even have cheesy rice with it. The two of us couldn't finish it.
A beautifully decorated Korean BBQ restaurant in Hongdae~ The lamps make it look like a perfect date spot.
This candy floss seller had a candy floss dog to match. His candy floss was spun into interesting shapes. I feel like in Korea, no one spins candy floss into a normal shape because it's too basic.
Look at this magnificent white floof! There was a sign saying don't pet him.
Whilst looking for the Hongdae Market, I came to the crushing realisation that it only happened from March-November. In December, the playground square was completely empty. I literally walked around 4 times looking for the square before realising my mistake. All was not lost however! We came across a sign for Sang Sang puppy cafe and we were like yes. This is it. What we came to Korea for.
I saw a store filled with Adventure Time merch while wandering around looking for the puppy cafe and had to go in. I didn't know Koreans were such huge fans?! Jake really looks like a LINE character though, so I kind of understand the obsession.
Also there's a good place to nap and the staff don't care. I saw couples lying around as well. My mum decided to cuddle a giant Jake and drift off~
Gudetama gachapon!! The whole place was a massive gachapon centre and they were pretty serious about it too. There were literally huge buckets available for 500won coins and they had posters up declaring dates of availability for character gachapon. Lots of people were fully going for it and racking up the character goods. I went for a little light-up Gudetama myself >w< It wasn't just 500won though, it was 4 x 500won coins! This stuff is expensive.
Made it to Sang Sang puppy cafe! The map earlier seriously didn't help, but google maps managed to lead us the right way eventually. It was really cheap to enter and the drinks weren't bad either. We changed into slippers and sat in a separate waiting area to have our hot drinks. Really recommend the Citron tea :)
The dogs really love couples. Every couple I saw had a personal puppy! This is genuinely the perfect date spot, only I was here with my mum lol.
My mum appreciating the view. The cute guy had to keep hugging the big poodle because it was borking sadly for attention. We tried to give it all of our attention but nope, he only wanted the cute guy. Every time it barked all the dogs in the cafe would rush to it. Is it the leader??
Big poodle getting spoilt again by the staff. I wish my dog would become a backpack too!
This pupper has better hair than me. Look at those golden locks I'm so jealous?! The one dog who would let me pet her lol. I think for dog cafes, you have to be super patient because the dogs have their own personalities. My mum was literally trying to grab the dogs and they all ran way from her haha.
This girl was so popular with the dogs! They all came to her because she was the prettiest one in the cafe haha <3
The one dog who was literally scared of everyone. I totally understand though- if you're that small, everyone is a giant. She would approach people but if they tried to pet her, she would run away instantly. Be prave smol pupper!
The wall of fame for the dogs! The empty frame belongs to Sang Sang, I wonder why they took it out?! Sang Sang is a big basset hound and I saw him in a sleeping crate in the cafe. He looked old and majestic.
The pretty girl from earlier managed to pet smol pupper! Unfortunately she ran away immediately after this photo.
Everyone having an amazing time. The cafe is so pretty and cute ^^ I'm really envious of Hongik University students. I would literally come here with my reading and pet some pups. I had a really good time at Sang Sang puppy cafe and highly recommend it.
Hello Kitty cafe in the dark. A bunch of girls were also photographing the sign but none of us went in to try delicious Hello Kitty-themed snacks. Maybe one day I'll visit~ Not with my mother though, because she was facepalming the whole time.
I love underground shops. This one sold a lot of traditional cakes which looked amazing. My mum bought some and chatted with the shop owner who was actually from China. She told us that anyone who could speak Mandarin in Korea was most likely Chinese... Not 100% sure that's true, but might be likely. Chinese people are everywhere.
There's a lot of really cheap and cute jewellery in underground stations! I would buy some but I would lose it instantly. An example was my Christmas gift from Gyen- beautiful handmade pearl earrings. I wore it the next day and lost one.
Day 2 was awesome! I love love love Hongdae, it's so lively. Can't wait for Ewha tomorrow~
