During our Seoul trip, we also made a trip to Hongdae and Hongik University area. These 2 parts of Seoul are renowned for loads of cafe and shops for youngsters, given its proximity to the education centers.
The street just outside Ehwa University is filled with street food stalls and clothing shops. The prices are pretty reasonable too, if you're not intending to buy the same style in bulk from Dongdaemun.
One of the street food that I've tried is this sweet and crispy pancake. The amusing part about it is how hygienic the seller is. He was very friendly but on top of that, despite manning the stall alone, he does not touch the money because he deals with food. Therefore, he puts a box at the front of the stall for the customers to put in the money after the get their pancake. That, is the epitome of trust in business, a rare sight indeed!
After walking around the streets outside, we visited Ehwa University which is just down the road.
Ehwa University is actually a private women's university founded by missionary.
You could still find a chapel within the university compound. The university, despite being located in central Seoul, is still fairly big. There were quite a lot of greenery as well.
From Ehwa University, we took a short to Hongik University area. Along the way, I spotted this residential area which promptly reminded me of Bangkok with all the messy cable.
Hongik University, which is at Mapo district, is also another private university. It is renowned for its Fine Arts and Architecture faculties.
Hongik area is definitely much more lively than Ehwa University area. In addition to street food and shopping choices, this whole area is like a huge cluster of cafes with various themes. If you're there on a weekend, you'll be sure to have street performance such as Mr J magic show to entertain you!
After walking about the university areas for a few hours, we decided to find a place to take shelter from the summer heat. We stumbled upon this vintage-themed cafe called Hoho Myoll.
If you do a Google search online, you'll be sure to find quite a number of reviews by travelers who have been to this cafe. Since it was summer, we had a good bowl of patbingsu and a really chocolatey cake. The cafe comes with free wifi as well. Trust me, the cafe owners put in a lot of effort in decorating this little store, and they even decorated the toilet with so many props!
With some time to spare before we join the students at a popular Korean BBQ joint, my friend brought us to a baseball batting center on the roof of a building at Hongik university area. It was my first experience having a go at baseball and boy, it wasn't easy at all!
We had a great time venturing around that evening, taking relaxing stroll and catching up over a bowl of thirst-quenching patbingsu with some light baseball exercise to follow. Good times indeed!
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