Hey Hive!
If you missed the previous post, I started sharing about our first trip to Seoul back in Nov 2022! We were waiting post-covid for everyone to go on their holidays before taking a big one and we finally decided to go on our honeymoon!
Last week, we started our journey in Changi Airport and it was our first time visiting the airport lounge! Sean's credit card affords him access to different lounges in the airport so we went to check out the Marhaba lounge and enjoyed some yummy food before our flight.
After a safe arrival in Seoul, we found our way to the hotel and dropped off our luggage since it was before check-in time. We were staying in this hotel called ibis styles in Myeongdong, which is right in the heart of Seoul. Since we had some downtime we decided to hit the streets and explore!
9 Nov 2022. Wednesday.
This was our first time in Seoul, and first time experiencing Autumn as well. So we were fascinated by the trees turning red since I've only ever seen it in movies and TV shows.
There was a shopping district a short walk away from our hotel so we went there first to check it out. I think it was where the night market was going to be but since it was still early in the morning only the regular shops were open.
But it was nice to finally experience a whole new country for the first time! After all that time spent cooped up because of covid, it felt good to get out there and experience new places.
Unfortunately it was still really early in the morning, barely past 9 am by the time we were there so most of the shops were still closed. We decided to go get a snack at this cafe we came across!
They had some very cute mascots outside and the shop itself looked really cool too! If I hadn't seen the mascots I would've thought it was a gadget store of some kind.
But on the inside it was a pretty huge cafe! It actually looked like a co-working space as well. It had a futuristic vibe which matched the space theme I got from the entrance and it was quite minimalist with lots of white and neutral-coloured furnishings.
The reason why it felt like a co-working space to me was because of these rounded bar tables in front of a lit screen right in the middle of the cafe. They reminded me of conference tables and it actually looked really cool since they showed some sights from Seoul on the tables.
They did have lots of cute character mascots around though, and the walls even had digital paintings of the characters made to look like famous paintings which I thought was hilarious.
The cafe was surprisingly big with a few different corners for people to sit and hang out. It was also really spacious given how many seats there were.
On the right side of the entrance was a whole wall of merchandise based on their character mascots!
I guess they're called Shinhan friends and I think they're mascots for the Shinhan bank as well, so they must've opened up a cafe franchise using the characters. Pretty smart actually. I think this cafe was right beside one of their bank outlets as well which explains it.
They are really cute characters to be fair and they have so much merchandise already! They sure know how to appeal to the masses.
I thought the colourful rounded furniture really added a nice touch and gave some spaceship vibes.
In the middle of the cafe was the counter of course, where you could order and pick up your drinks and snacks. They had quite a selection of hot and cold drinks, from coffees to smoothies and various cakes as well.
We weren't too hungry at the time so we just decided to get something light before it was lunchtime.
After we placed an order, we went to find some seats and thankfully there was a booth free near the back.
I just couldn't get over how cute the characters were! And the whole aesthetic of the cafe was really pleasing as well.
I thought these "photos" were super cute! We wanted to get a nice photo with the 3D poster beside us but unfortunately that seat was taken.
The Shinhan friends reminded me of LINE Friends, which is another group of mascots from Japan associated with the phone app LINE. They also have quite a merch shop and cafes as well, so we guessed that Shinhan wanted to copy their concept.
After a few minutes, our order was ready! I would've liked a warm drink since it was a cold morning but they only had coffee which neither of us drink so Sean wanted to try Elder Flower Ade. He also bought a chocolate chip walnut cookie and a Madeleine.
I think we had to order a minimum amount per person which is why we ordered two baked goods. The cookie actually looked really big, and I wasn't that hungry so I'm glad we just ordered these.
The Elder Flower Ale was really pretty though! We spent some time admiring it and were reluctant to stir it too much to ruin the beautiful ombre colour. The drink itself was nice, although a bit too cold and gassy for me. It wasn't too sweet and reminded me of the Elderflower-flavoured Ricola lozenge but lighter in flavour.
The snacks weren't warm but the Madeleine was actually still had a crisp edge on the outside. The inside was a little dry and a little dense but it was still good. It definitely would've paired better with a hot chocolate.
The cookie was actually surprisingly better than I thought! It was quite thick and had a crispy outside but the inside was soft and chewy.
Overall, it was a nice snack although I would've loved a warm drink other than coffee. We sat there for a while sorting things out and finding out bearings before we left to go explore more!
So back out into the street we go! The morning sun was out now so it was just a tad warmer which helped.
We came across these bright red trees along the pathway and were so fascinated by them I think the locals probably thought we were so sheltered.😅
It was so pretty though! The leaves were bright red and shaped just like maple leaves!
We walked on after getting a few shots and found our way to a huge Lotte department store!
I only know Lotte as the chocolate biscuit brand so it was cool to see a whole department store. The entrance was this alley called Star Avenue with plaques of the handprints of famous celebrities!
I don't follow KPOP groups but there were some names even I recognised like these from TWICE and some from Super Junior as well.
The actual inside of the department store wasn't as big as we thought. The main floors had cosmetics and other ladies' accessories.
Nothing that interesting for us in these first few floors tbh so we checked out the directory to see what else there was.
We found our way to the basement floor where the Food Avenue was, which was where most of the people were too.
There was a lot more stuff to see over here; so many glass cases of fresh or packaged food.
There was even a whole stall just selling kimchi which looked really red but also fresh. We're not really kimchi fans but we figured we'd probably eat it here since Koreans eat kimchi with every meal.
There was also a bakery with some pastries called Mimi which is made from rice? It smelled really good and was tempting if we hadn't eaten those pastries earlier.
There was also a food court with different food stalls where a lot of people were gathered eating lunch.
There were noodles stalls, and even a conveyor belt sushi stall and there were so many people around. I guess most of them were office workers here for lunch.
The prices weren't the most affordable but it was still pretty acceptable for a department store food court.
After we walked around, we went through the hotel attached to the mall and there were some nice Christmas decorations up.
It looked like a fancy business hotel and I felt kinda out of place but we were just passing through anyway.
The hotel looked really fancy with these European style pillars and crown moulding.
We ended up back on another street and it looks like we were on the more trendy side of the neighbourhood, whereas the department store was more upscale and full of luxury goods.
We just enjoyed a nice stroll with no set destination trying to avoid the crowd of business people. I guess because Myeongdong is also a business district there were a lot of office people around.
But it was so cool that we could see mountains in the distance from right here in the middle of the city too!
There was a cool-looking European building across the road called the Seoul Hall of Urbanism and Architecture. I'm not sure what its purpose was or whether we could enter it though.
There was a booth outside with some people talking through a megaphone quite loudly so we wanted to get out of there before we got caught in some political rally.
There's actually a palace right in Myeongdong called Deoksugung Palace which we wanted to check out since we had the time, but unfortunately it was under renovation at the time. We did see some people dressed in hanbok coming out of it though.
I think you could've still entered but you needed some special pass or something and it wasn't even full access at the time so we didn't bother. There were other palaces we would be going to anyway.
So we walked on through this street behind the palace and through a nice park where there were more beautiful fall trees!
It was really quite a sight. There were a lot of people walking through here I guess this was a convenient park to go from one side of the city to the other.
We tried to take some photos but it was difficult with so many people around.
We reached the other side of the park and arrived at what looks to be the main square.
We wanted to get a picture with the huge Seoul sign across the road to commemorate our visit!
It was a little difficult with people around but I think we managed to get some good shots.
But I think that's gonna be it for today! Join us next week for more of our Seoul adventure!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #226 (Seoul): Lounging around before our Honeymoon Journey begins! 🛫