A few months ago (read like 6 maybe 7 months ago), I found out that my friends hadn't been properly introduced to Hongdae in Seoul. For anyone who has ever read anything about Seoul, Hongdae is mentioned A LOT. Hongdae is known as one of the places to go to party. There are many great places to go to party in Seoul, but if you want a crowded place with a lot of English speakers and other foreigners (that's not Itaewon) then Hongdae is for you. I took it upon myself to properly introduce them to Hongdae.... By properly, I do mean I took them to exactly the same places that my predecessors at work showed me.
We stayed at a great hostel that we have stayed at a few times since then. It was close enough that it was maybe a 5 minute walk to the main street. But far enough off to the side that the noise and drunk people didn't effect us. The owners are really nice and the beds are comfortable. Also, they have kpop posters on the wall and usually some band is singing on the TV. The showers are always warm (see previous post). We stayed in a 6 bed dorm for all girls. (Family House Tel Hongdae shout out).
First, I took them down the main street in Hongdae to look at a few of the murals and explore the shops. There are lots of street vendors and places to get cheap clothes and accessories. You could spend hours walking up and down the streets shopping and eating. A trip to Hongdae isn't complete without stopping to watch the street dancers. There is usually a few groups of competing street dancers. They are usually promoting something but they speak too fast and I can't understand them. However, I have gotten free coffee a few times while standing there. They are usually there from late afternoon and then leave to the clubs at maybe 10ish. There are also singers and magicians. Depending on your Korean level, you may or may not like the magicians. But most of them are really funny and entertaining to watch (magic is it's own language).
In the middle of shopping we stopped to try the latest rage here, Light Bulb Drinks. They are ades but they put them into light bulb shaped cups and the straws have lights. We went to one of the vendors with the longest line because there was a whole ritual the vendor had while making it. (You can see a video on my instagram). They don't taste any better than a normal drink and are actually quite small for their price. To be honest, it's just an experience to have. We enjoyed watching it being made and taking pictures with our cups (we did it for the gram) (see gram photo below).
This street is packed and sweaty as the depths of hell in summer (which is when we were there). But you can dip in and out of shops and cafes all day. You can see the sweaty sheen in all the photos (aka that glow life). We had to take quite a few showers over the course of the weekend.
Anywho, once you hit dinner time, there is a plethora of restaurants to choose from. You can get anything your heart desires. But as anyone who has lived in Korea for more than a few months will tell you, LOOK UP! There are so many restaurants and cafes on the second and third floors of buildings. You are cheating yourself if you don't look up and try the restaurants above eye level. Word to the wise, don't try to eat dinner too late, you won't have many options. I have mentioned before that most drinking places also serve food. But this is not proper dinner food, it is usually snack foods. If you want a proper meal, you need to go out at dinner time.
Speaking of drinking places, there are tons where you can sit and drink for hours with friends and meet new people. However, if you are a foreigner or want to meet foreigners, there is a place known for it's abundance, The Park. Do I know the name of this park.... no.... but I know how to walk there(hashtag foreigner life). But, honestly, I have not met anyone who has been to Hongdae more than once that doesn't know what you mean when you say The Park. Since it was my friends first time, I had to take them there. Now, let me paint a picture for you. There is a graffiti covered park with trash stacked up all around the sides. In this big open place, there are tons of people standing around with soju, beer or maeggoli(spelling is hard) bottles, just drinking. There is usually a group having a rap battle in one corner and maybe a few singers performing off to the side. You will see lots of foreigners just getting tanked. Soju is really cheap from the convenience store, so this is a cheap place to go that you don't have to buy food to drink there.
From there, many people (I think... maybe.... so I've heard) go to one of the millions of clubs in Hongdae. I decided to take my friends to one of the most popular (or was one of the most popular.... I may not be "with it"). NB2 is a hip hop club. Usually clubs in Korea play EDM music, but NB1 and NB2 both play hip hop. NB2 is a giant club but it's always packed to the point of sardines. The line stretches way out to the street. (Pro tip: go to NB1 first, they will give you a wrist band for both clubs and leave your stuff at this much smaller club across the street. Then you can skip the line head into NB2 and by head in I mean try to push into the pit of people). Summer time in this club is stinky and death. The moment you step in, you are in a sauna of sweat and there is no relief. (Note: Winter time it's a nice warm place to dance). If you go onto the stage, there is an air conditioner and there is a back way onto the stage by circling the outer corners of the club buttttttttt the stage is still hot and packed. That being said, we still danced for hours and it's always a blast even through the uncomfortableness.
The next day we went to Sinchon. This is actually one stop over from Hongdae. There is every makevup brand you can imagine on this street. For any make up lover, this is the place to go. There is lots of shopping, cafes and food places as well. On the back streets there are a lot of drinking places for later at night. There is also usually some sort of singing or dancing exhibition going on. We happened to go on the day the Summer Water Festival was happening. There were blow up water slides and blow up pools with floaties. It looked like a lot of fun but unfortunately we were not dressed appropriately to play in the water. We took a few pictures and then went to a cafe to cool off. One of the best parts of summer in Korea is bingsu. Bingsu is a bowl of ice flakes filled with fruit and other sweet things. It is a great way to cool off on a hot day.
After lunch and desert we headed to Ewha Women's University. Also just one stop away from Sinchon. Ewha has great outdoor shopping in all of the latest styles in Korea. The clothes are really cheap but the quality isn't great. However, it is good shopping if you want to keep up with Korean fashion without breaking the bank. You can buy a whole new wardrobe without being too broke to buy food for the next month. I could write a whole "How-To" post about shopping in Korea. But I digress.....
After our millionth shower, we went back out that night and did it all over again. We called it an early night because we had to go back to Cheonan the next morning. My friends said that it was a great introduction to that area of the city and we got to do all of our favorite things. I can't speak for all the foreigners (duh) but from what I've read and heard (and learned from predecessors) this is a pretty normal introduction to Hongdae.
DB Story is a cafe in Hongdae, Seoul. It's a small cafe that you can find on google maps but could easily miss if you don't look up (ALWAYS LOOK UP). You walk up some sketchy stairs to the smallest room known to man. For us, it was packed and we couldn't really move around. You can't just sit down, you have to go up to the front and put your name on a waiting list for a seat (a mistake we made by trying to sit down first... whoops). Seating is very limited and it can take awhile to get a table. But, they give you a tray to start picking out what you want on your phone and this could take forever as well. So the time balances out. They have lots of styles of phone cases to choose from but if you have an uncommon phone, you should probably bring your own phone case (my friend has a Sol, the shittyest phone on Earth and there are no phone cases for it). I have an I-phone and there were lots of options for that phone case.
After you have picked out all the decorations you need and don't need. You go up to the front counter to pay. All my decorations, black glue, and phone case cost around 15 dollars. (none of us actually ended up ordering coffee, so I cannot tell you if the coffee is good. We were too excited for making the phone case). They provide tweezers and you can pick out a nozel for your glue, depending on how you want the glue to turn out.
We stayed at a great hostel that we have stayed at a few times since then. It was close enough that it was maybe a 5 minute walk to the main street. But far enough off to the side that the noise and drunk people didn't effect us. The owners are really nice and the beds are comfortable. Also, they have kpop posters on the wall and usually some band is singing on the TV. The showers are always warm (see previous post). We stayed in a 6 bed dorm for all girls. (Family House Tel Hongdae shout out).
First, I took them down the main street in Hongdae to look at a few of the murals and explore the shops. There are lots of street vendors and places to get cheap clothes and accessories. You could spend hours walking up and down the streets shopping and eating. A trip to Hongdae isn't complete without stopping to watch the street dancers. There is usually a few groups of competing street dancers. They are usually promoting something but they speak too fast and I can't understand them. However, I have gotten free coffee a few times while standing there. They are usually there from late afternoon and then leave to the clubs at maybe 10ish. There are also singers and magicians. Depending on your Korean level, you may or may not like the magicians. But most of them are really funny and entertaining to watch (magic is it's own language).
