Day 2 in Seoul: Ewha Women's University, Sinchon, N Seoul Tower & Dongdaemun Market

Street outside Ewha Women's University Station

Day 2's Activities

• Shopping at Ewha Women's University area
• Walked down to Sinchon
• Briefly explored the Hyundai Department Store (Nothing much of interest. Air-conditioning was turned off in the building because of the cool weather outside, but it was extremely stuffy and warm inside so we left as quickly as we arrived at the Hyundai Department Store)
• Explored Hapjeong station and the newest mall there, known as the Mecenatpolis 메세나폴리스 (pronounced mae-seh-na-pol-ri-seu)
• Namsangol Hanok Village - Scrapped this as we were too tired to explore this cultural area
• Namsan Seoul Tower
• Isaac Toast (A must-try food!)
• Dongdaemun Market (Doota, Migliore)
• Cheonggyecheon Stream

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First Morning in Seoul + Breakfast

 Wearing a relaxed button-down romper for today's activities.

 Checking out the rooftop garden!

Best kimbap 김밥 we had during the trip. We even returned and bought takeout of these yummy vegetable kimbap and salad kimbap so that we could bring it to Everland on Day 4!

This hot bowl of kimchi ramen was incredibly comforting in the chilly morning. Although my pictures look really sunny, the presence of strong chilly winds make it necessary to wear a thick jacket.

Some kind of market where people were buying produce. Had really odd-looking gourds and foodstuff but it was really interesting to peep in. We didn't enter because there was an ajumma crowd inside (all in hiking gear hahaha) and we were afraid to interrupt their intense produce-shopping. Haha.

Street art/graffiti outside Hongdae Station. 

Ewha Women's University Station 이대역 (pronounced ee-dae-yeok)

Ediya Coffee - These are everywhere in Seoul. Almost every street corner has one! Has quality-coffee at standard Starbucks Singapore pricing (about S$5.50-$8 per regular cup). Don't spend too much on coffee here. They're really yummy but you'll realise that a lot of your money is disappearing fast due to pricey drinks. Haha.

Aww, these look like public housing in Singapore (i.e. HDB flats). Not sure if they are student housing, but they look really neat and organised with no clothes hung out on poles unlike Singapore. Haha. Looks almost uninhabited.

 Such a pretty university neighbourhood!

Despite being a much-raved-about area by friends and other travel bloggers, Ewha's shopping street was quite meh for us. Ewha's shopping area stocked a lot of "cute" things but was quite lacking in fashion-forward, radical or cool items. A lot of the items sold were pretty expensive even if they looked quite ordinary (i.e. nothing special). Key items which were affordable were the socks (max S$2 for a pair of nice printed socks) and some bags (less than S$15 per item). 

From my observation, shoes in Seoul tend to be quite expensive (they are nice and good quality). They are definitely above S$20 and up to S$80 for the normal non-branded shoe stores. Though slightly pricey, they have really hip designs and even carry some very legitimate-looking Grade AA(?) inspired branded shoes. Haha. 

Beans Bins Coffee 빈스빈스커피

A specialty coffee and waffles chain, Beans Bins is a relaxing cafe and can be found all over Seoul. This cafe is a little less affordable than others but a definite must-try! The waffles have a slightly different texture to the ones we're used to in Singapore, but they're still very yummy. This waffles combo (above) with raspberry and blueberry-topped waffles with vanilla ice cream and banana slices cost us about 14,000 won, which comes up to about S$17.00! So if you're feeling a bit indulgent, be sure to pop by a Beans Bins cafe. 

Favourite characteristic of Seoul is that their cafes (mainstream or obscure) are NEVER full house, which means you can pop in any cafe and always have a seat, and never have to queue for seats. Best. Thing. Ever. 

Ewha's Street Food - Some Delicious Sausage

I have no idea what these sausages are made of, but it tastes really good with the mustard! A hater of mustard, even I have to say this sausage tastes really good (especially with mustard). The shopkeeper is also really friendly. This street food stall is located on the Ewha Shopping Street towards the University building. Quite easily spotted since there aren't many street food stalls along the road.

Someone damn pleased with his sausage buy.

Sinchon Station 신촌역

The prettiest streets in Sinchon. All the flowers along the streets are REAL! You can also find Krispy Kreme in this area, which is really cheap at about S$1.20 per piece (original) relative to Singapore's pricing.

Hapjeong Station 합정역

Checked out Homeplus+ at the newest mall in the area, the Mecenatpolis 메세나폴리스 (pronounced as mae-seh-na-pol-ri-seu), everything's so colourful! A great place to pop by to buy your korean-type snacks and instant noodles. Although it's really big and posh with high ceilings, much like the Giant stores in Singapore, I personally think E-Mart* 이마트 (pronounced ee-ma-teu) stocks better variety at cheaper prices!

*E-Mart is the oldest and largest discount store stain and functions like a hypermarket.

N Seoul Tower 

 On our way up Mt. Namsan!

Ridiculous 3-minute cable car ride in a metal cage packed like sardines which cost ~S$10 hahaha. We attempted to try the non-cable-car route but got lost, so we had no choice but to pay for this. Haha.

Because we scrapped Namsangol Hanok Village off our itinerary, we were here rather early at about 5pm, so the pictures aren't as ideal but the view is still fantastic! 

Another S$9 for the ticket to the Observatory! N Seoul Tower marks the highest point in Seoul and boasts a 360-degree view!

At "Locks of Love". You can hang a lock to symbolise eternal love between you and your partner! Haha it was really quite mushy and my hair was standing most of the time. But when in Rome, do as the Romans do!

Being 100% authentic Singaporean, we bought a big-ass lock just for the fun of it! I did a poor paint job and my "May 2014" font sure looks like some horror font, but this was pretty fun!

 Prettiest merchandise ever! Too bad I'm no longer an iPhone user.

4653.97km away from Singapore!

Hanging out waiting for the sun to set! (By 6pm, the windows of the observatory were completely packed so do come early if you want to catch the sunset! It set really late at about 8pm, so we waited a long, long time and got very bored and hungry. Haha.)

 Birthday present thrown at me at the highest point in Seoul. Haha.

Red lights to illuminate the trees, really pretty against the setting-sun sky.

In the metal cage of the N Seoul Tower cable car! The purple-blue-pink streaks in the skies were beautiful! After N Seoul Tower, with no dinner plans, we headed down to Myeongdong to grab Isaac Toast, which is seriously the best toast ever. A must-must-must-try! 

Isaac Toast

This is the BEST. We returned to have it on another day because it was so good.

Dongdaemun Market & Cheonggyecheon Stream

Breathtaking, right?

Here's Doota at the Dongdaemun Market area. Okay, so this was incredibly disappointing. ALL the stores along the streets were closed at 12am, and the streets were empty. The only place with some people walking about was the Doota/Migliore area. It is said that stores open from 10pm to 4am (with most starting at 12am) but there seriously wasn't anyone around even appearing to be setting any stores up. And no, we checked, it wasn't a national holiday. We explored Doota and Migliore though, and didn't buy much - I bought 2 skirts for cheap and that was it.

Spicy rice cakes 떡볶이 (pronounced as tteokbokki). Out of the 4 times we bought spicy rice cakes, these directly outside the Doota mall at Dongdaemun area were the best! It's 3,000 won (~$4.00) and decently soft. We had some bad ones at Gwangjang Market which were really tough! I really like spicy rice cakes and we bought it almost every day until we got really sick of it.

Cheonggyecheon Stream 청계천

Headed back on the last subway train! Cheonggyecheon Stream is really beautiful at night, and there were many couples having a stroll. Really romantic and quiet atmosphere despite the nearby busy roads. 

So that was Day 2 of my Seoul trip! I hope you enjoyed this post as much I enjoyed writing it. If you missed it, see Day 1's post HERE.