Weekend Outing

This weekend we explored the streets of Hongdae and Gangnam. We spent our Friday exploring Hongdae with our friend Lucy who introduced us to her favorite restaurants, cafes, and stores and many other things. This time we visited Hongdae at night and boy does Hongdae come alive at night. Night time is definitely the best time to visit Hongdae, especially during the spring and summer ! It was so much fun we spent the whole day together and ended our outing at of course you guessed it, Karaoke a.k.a. noraebang!

Our friend Lucy took us to this restaurant so we could try Tteokboki and she also informed us that the restaurant's name is  Hongdae Gangsters!   

                         

This is the Tteokbokki from the Hongdae Gangsters and while it was spicy it was delicious. We also had pig stomach and pig intestines that are on the right. She was worried we wouldn't like it, but we informed her we ate this back home too. We also tried other dishes and overall the meal was delicious and we definitely plan to go back. 

Shopping in Hongdae is a dream. There are so many shops and most items are really cheap ! We stopped by Stylenanda a very popular online store. This one in Hongdae is there main one and we even had the opportunity to see the models!   The store has three floors, but there is not a lot of variety and everything that is sold here is one size and they only have certain items. The plus side is that the clothes is cheaper here than online especially for international buyers. The store was definitely an experience and we left with jackets we wear almost everyday. 

Our favorite part of the trip was the Hello Kitty Cafe ! Everything is pink and the whole place just looks amazing . While we loved what we saw the reason why we loved it the most can be explained by the picture below. THEY HAVE DR. PEPPER!! Dr. Pepper is rare in Korea! Lucy told us that this is because it is not very popular or well known in Korea. The only soft drinks you'll find are Coke, Sprite, and Mt. Dew. Some convenience stores carry Dr. Pepper, but only very fewand the other option is to travel a long distance to Costco. We were so happy to find it here. Also the dessert was delicious especially the frosting! 

Finally we ended up at a photo sticker shop! You'll find many of these throughout Korea, but they can be sort of expensive. A set of pictures will cost you around 6,000 to 8,000 won depending on the machine you choose.