Hey Hive!
If you missed the last few posts, I've been 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! It's also our first time experiencing Fall so we were double excited!
Last week, we had lunch at the Seoul Station food court before we continued our hop-on hop-off bus tour by visiting the famous Gwangjang Market!
The market was packed with stalls selling all sorts of products from dried food to fabrics, traditional goods and more.
Of course the most crowded section was the area with food stalls aplenty. But we were surprised to see there was only two main types of food stalls - those selling mungbean pancakes like these:
And the other selling handmade dumpling noodle soup like the one lady's stall that was featured on a Netflix special:
We ended up trying said dumpling noodles which tbh weren't that great to me. The soup could've been more flavourful but the dumplings were good. Not really worth queuing up for almost half an hour though.
After all that food including lunch, we took the bus back to the train station. There's still a little left of this day so let's finish this off!
13 Nov 2022. Sunday.
We arrived back where we started at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza where we first boarded the bus in the morning. The building itself is pretty noticeable since it looks like a spaceship!
There was a very risque looking statue right beside the bus drop-off so we finally had the time to grab a picture.
It was close to dinner time but we were still stuffed from all the food so we decided to go explore for a bit and see what this spaceship had.
There was a gallery with a photography exhibition on display in one of the rooms. I thought we would have to pay to enter but thankfully it was free!
This exhibition was about fashion at this very building! The board talks about showing fashion photos set against the backdrop of DDP with Vogue Korea. They even mention the spaceship-like architecture and contrast between Korean clothing and futuristic architecture!
So I guess the building is intended to look like a spaceship! And it is really cool to see how they contrast fashion and architecture. I think what would be cooler was to bring back retro styles and see that vast contrast with this futuristic aesthetic though.
After looking around at the exhibition we went through the exit and saw what looked to be a library of sorts on the other side. There was also a very cute doggo on the bench outside!
She looked at me as I got closer and I wanted to pet her so bad. She was really well behaved though and didn't make a sound as we walked past.
We weren't sure if this was really a library but it did seem like it as we entered. There were lots of seats around with people reading and working too.
It seemed like a good working space other than the fact that there was no ventilation. It felt like there wasn't any air in the place at all; everything was so still. So we promptly left before we started perspiring.
We passed by a little kids area with some colourful dinosaurs but we didn't really see any bookshelves so I still wasn't sure if it was a library.
We came across this super huge store that looked like they sold products made by local designers.
There was one section with this funny-looking fox character that looked quite funny. It also reminded me of a fellow streamer I know who uses a red fox avatar as well.
There were some cute cat products as well that had some goofy anime looks.
It was cool to see so many people interested in locally designed products.
Singapore also had an exhibition like this but the products were really expensive just like these were too. We saw the same brand of products from the other store in COEX with the minimalist looking dogs and cats.
There were some kiddy looking animals and dinosaurs as well. I guess that's the trend now; simple, goofy-looking characters.
The store was really huge and had all sorts of lifestyle products from tableware to plushies and stationery.
We didn't buy anything though although I was sorely tempted to buy the dog file again. But since we don't really use files anymore (other than digital ones) it didn't really seem worth it.
There were some cool and colourful artworks with lighted up displays alongside the windows in the study areas.
There were a lot of them actually, and the "flowers" overhead even had some words on them too!
We finally found some bookshelves but I'm not sure if people actually use them or if they were just for show.
It's still a really cool-looking place with a nice contrast between nature and industrial aesthetic. The colours actually reminded me of the game, Portal with the space rock surfaces.
Speaking of space, there was actually a space with some light exhibition going on. It looked like they were trying to mimic TeamLabs and similar displays with all the projectors.
After that we were pretty much done seeing all there was to see in DDP. There might've been other exhibitions on but we were pretty tired from walking already.
We headed outside and saw lots of lights on the ground and more light-up statues. It reflected off of the bottom of the spaceship is quite a nice way. I feel like these were supposed to emulate the famous Beatles cover art.
We walked outside and now that it was dark and it was lighted up it really did look like a spaceship.
We started to head off back towards the main road and I was still captivated by this building.
The staircase we took a photo with the heart was nicely lighted up as well. It was quite blinding actually.
We headed off to the night market to get some fruits for dessert and passed by this adorable doggo!
We also saw these cursed-looking Pepe plushies on the way which looked kinda suspicious to me.
But that's all for this day, hope you enjoyed a look inside this awe-inspiring building. 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 #247 (Seoul): A Culinary Journey in Famous Gwangjang Market 😋
