10 things I love most about Korea - Day 7: The Cafe Culture

Day 7 is one of the best things ever, and something about which you should expect me to rave for the next few years if you ever ask me about my trip to Korea:

The cafe culture

If you're reading this blog, you probably know at least some of the extent to which Korea is obsessed with cafes. Everything here is a cafe. There are PC cafes, DVD cafes and then just your standard cafes, which are eeeeeeeeverywhere.

Inside a Tom 'n Toms in Sinchon. Tom 'n Toms is a common cafe in Seoul and there are usually around three in each suburb. This one is massive, with four different floors and many study rooms.

Cafes are not only high in number here, but each cafe also has its own quirk to it. Korea is obsessed with cuteness, couples and just aesthetics in general. So, every cafe is decked out with some mad decor, which makes it an awesome environment to be in! Actually, you can experience a little of what I'm talking about in a few different Korean cafes in Sydney. My favourite is My Sweet Memory, which is located at two separate spots in Sydney city - one near Haymarket and the other near Town Hall station. Tom 'n Toms is also right next to MSM (at both locations), but I prefer the vibe of the latter. Give them a visit! MSM is known for its trademark hot chocolates, especially during the winter! ^^

Inside MSM at Town Hall. I love cafes so I crave this.

Cute coffee-art at MSM.

Some of the delicious treats on offer at MSM. <3

I am a massive cafe-lover, so I crave this place. I go to cafes to chat, to study, to indulge in tasty beverages or even just to sit. There are many cafes on campus at my university and they are such a pleasure to sit in. The drinks are super tasty, so thankfully they are very cheap. These days, my daily schedule is not considered complete unless I have had a drink of some description from a nearby cafe.

My favourite cafes are literally twenty steps from my dorm! Other common cafes here are Starbucks, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Paris Baguette. These cafes are so common. There are at least three of each in every suburb, and streets often look the same as one another, because there are the same cafes/shops everywhere. All are equally delicious, but some are more expensive than others. Most cafes also do the coupon thing:

Because there are so many cafes in Seoul, you can sort of tell that there's a bit of competition to see who can reel in the customers. Cafe owners clearly try their hardest to make their cafes look desirable from the outside, and some succeed!

A cute little cafe in Hongdae.

Another cute cafe in Hongdae.

Another cute cafe in Hongdae, the next corner down from the last.

One of my favourite cafes so far: the You Are Here cafe in Hongdae. From the outside, it is massive and looks so homely.

The Hello Kitty Cafe, also in Hongdae.

The Hello Kitty Cafe is a classic example of a cafe with its own quirk, and its quirk is definitely as-much-pink-as-physically-possible.

Even the bathrooms are cute:

Fun fact: The Hello Kitty Cafe also has a Hello Kitty Resort on the island of Jeju:

I know some of you would feel that visiting this cafe would compromise your masculinity, but take solace in knowing that many, many men visit this cafe, such as this lovely gentleman right here:

He had no regrets, I am sure!

And, if that's still not enough to make you go, you could always bring a girl with you! I know I would have no objections to returning here! Check out how cute the food is:

At this point, I feel like I have spoken too much about the Hello Kitty Cafe, so I will move on.

Cafes in Seoul are overall an excellent place to study. Much like Australia, it is not strange to go to a cafe by yourself and whip out the textbooks. There are often tables/booths especially for study. Heck, I am even 'studying' right now in a cafe (and by 'studying' I mean writing this blog). Here is a photo of a line of students studying at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on campus:

Sneakily taken through the window.

The You Are Here cafe in Hongdae is the size of a large house, and has many separate rooms, so you can stay there all day and study! Check out some images below:

One of the study rooms. This guy was definitely suspicious.

A cute message board for visitors.

The front counter. On the back wall, there is merchandise and also textbooks for studying the Korean language - all available for purchase! I believe the cafe also offers Korean lessons themselves :D

Some cute decor and the standard bin-station within the cafe. (The Korean bin system is the worst, but more on that later)

A cute study room, in which Tinika and I sat and chatted for a couple hours. We felt cute. It was very secluded and the music was lovely.

Me enjoying my iced cafe latte and garlic herb scone (and my phone).

I tend to get side-tracked a lot whilst talking about cafes. For example, I could write a whole other paragraph on how good the above carrot cake was, but I won't. There is a lot to say about the cafes here, but as usual, I want to encourage you to come to Seoul and experience it all for yourselves.

This guy was certainly experiencing it for himself:

Taking full advantage of the barrier between himself and the counter by having a righteous nap.

Another cafe-napper.

Korea also provides cafes for those K-Pop lovers who want to go and stalk their 'oppas' by waiting outside their Entertainment Company buildings all day. For instance, here is a photo of the 'NIT' cafe, which I assume is taken from the word 'infiNITe' (a popular K-Pop boy group). This cafe is located literally right outside the Woolim Entertainment building.

It's so weird but so great for reeling in cash. The fangirls arrive at all hours of the morning and stay for an extended period of time, hoping to catch a glimpse of the stars.

I participated in this activity myself for a few hours, and could not believe the level of fan-girling that occurred when any of the Infinite members walked past. I kind of enjoyed it, though.

Inside the NIT cafe, before it filled up with fan-girls.

There is so much more to say about the cafe culture in Korea, and I hope that you can one day experience it for yourselves! This culture is definitely one of the things I will miss most about Korea.

Until next time! Thanks for reading!

Signed in Seoul,
Kristin

Kristin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

10 things I love most about Korea - Day 6: Clubbing

I know I've already done 2 posts related to the nightlife in Seoul, but it is all about the nightlife here. So, day 6 is:


Clubbing

I know a lot of you will not be interested in this sort of thing, but I feel it's something I should write about because clubbing in Korea is quite different from clubbing in Australia.

If you know me, you know that I love dancing. So much. But I am not usually a fan of the other aspects of clubbing, ie. drunk people everywhere, impolite people, the danger of getting glassed, the danger of being hit on or touched inappropriately, the price of drinks, the lack of conversation and the bad music. Well, although I cannot say that clubbing in Korea is perfect, in comparison to Australia, the clubs here are definitely my style.

Crazy lights at Club Answer in Gangnam.

My idea of a good night in a club is being able to dance with friends without being disrespected by randoms and with the occasional drinks-break. For this reason, I am happy that I have found my S(e)oul-mate and roommate, Tinika, who seems to be able to dance for just as long a time as I like to! Earlier in our stay, we danced for 5 hours straight at Club Cage in Gangnam. This club was definitely one of my favourites, for the following reasons:

• It was very, very large and so the dance floor was huge. Therefore, it was easy to find space to dance and it was also easy to escape those... keen... people who approached us. Often in Korean clubs, there is a lot of space allocated to the dance floor, which is fantastic. In Sydney,  I have not encountered many dance floors this big.
• The music was good. There were a lot of songs that I knew, with great beats that were easy to dance to. At the time, the songs were relatively new to us but we have since come to know them, as they tend to play a lot of the same songs at different clubs.
• It had a separate room, which played hip hop music! This was awesome, because when you wanted to take a break from the intensity of the main dance floor, you could head into the hip-hop room. This room had a much more chilled vibe, couches, its own bar and less people. There was also much more space to dance, which was good for dropping it low (lol). I craved this room because this is where a lot of the more talented/experienced dancers hung out and I just really enjoyed watching them (in a non-creepy way).
• It had lockers, so you could ditch your stuff without having to worry about it being stolen, then you could go dance freely!

I thought that I had found a one-off in this club but turns out, most of the other clubs actually share these elements. So, I have come to love clubbing.

With some mates at Club Octagon in Gangnam

There are a few things to know about your clubbing in South Korea. First of all, there are three main areas good for clubbing in Seoul:

1. Gangnam: This is where you will find the least amount of foreigners. Clubs are often pretty exclusive, with classy dress codes and lots of VIP areas. Your typical clubber will be a Korean male in his mid-twenties, in a collared shirt, stylish hair and a face that is suspiciously too in-proportion. I like Gangnam because there are not a lot of foreigners, so less people will approach you (Korean people tend to stay back unless you deliberately make and maintain eye-contact with them). Because of this, I can dance happily without having to worry about this or about my feet getting stepped on (the amount of foreigners who have stepped on my toes! Because they don't really dance, they just start jumping when the beat drops :p). However, a reason I don't like Gangnam is because it is a little too exclusive and they can be quite rude to foreigners.
2. Itaewon: Itaewon is in many ways the opposite of Gangnam. Itaewon is foreigner central. A lot of foreigners come to Korea to teach English, because the money is good, and so they all live in the same area. This place is a bit looser than Gangnam. I have seen many drunk people wondering around, randoms hitting on you on the streets, inappropriate dancing and such things. However, it is a good place to relax with mates and to make friends. I have made a few international friends here. The clubs themselves are harder to find (in Gangnam they literally line the streets), because most of the places are bars, but there are a few good clubs. I like Club Naked, because it plays really good music. However, it is very small and my feet get stepped on a lot. I definitely recommend Itaewon if you want a little taste of your home country or if you want to visit some good pubs.
3. Hongdae: Hongdae is a mix of the two. It is full of young people, who are mostly students, Korean and international alike. The dress-codes are less flashy and you will often meet some Koreans who are keen to make foreign friends. I have not clubbed here as often as I would like to, but my experiences so far have been good. There are many clubs, and each one is vastly different from the next. A memorable experience for me was Club Vera, purely because it was so ridiculously packed. This place shared similarities with Gangnam clubs, in that there were no other foreigners and people didn't really smile, they sort of just stood in a massive crowd on the dance floor, staring at the DJ (very frustrating for those of us who wanted to dance). You can see from the below photos that there is hardly anywhere to dance:
   
   
   

   

   The lack of space was real, but we still had a lot of fun.

So there are many options, it depends what mood you are in. Clubs in Korea are just quite crazy in general, but I love it, because you will never find an empty dance floor. Also, it's awesome how Koreans seem to unite on the dance floor. People smile at each other and will come and dance with you just for fun, not in a sleazy manner. I must say, most of the people who are on the dance floor are men, which was very strange for me, but I also enjoy it because I am often impressed with their dance moves. Korean females have been very friendly to me on the dance floor, and have sometimes saved me from the 'wolves' (as we call them), even though they don't know me.

Another big yesyes about clubs is the fact that it is SO CHEAP TO GO. Even to Gangnam. Clubs will often have free entry before midnight, and even the most popular clubs still only charge as little as 10 000 won (approx. $10). And because you have spent a few hours drinking on the street (see my 'drinking culture' blog), you can afford to just go in and have a good time, without having to worry about the price of drinks. Drink prices inside clubs are very similar to Sydney prices, so it's not really worth it.

Life was good the other night in Club Octagon, because they had FREE DRINKS before 12am! Stuff like this, I have found, is quite common in Seoul. They will usually give you a 'free drink' coupon at the beginning of the night anyway, especially if it's a special event. This occasion was Octagon's anniversary, so we had soooo many free drinks and it was great!

Some lemon drop shots we got for free!

On this same night, my friends scored a VIP table and got access to all this food for free:

As you can see, you are always in for a good night when you go clubbing in Seoul, especially when you are with friends. Also, it is very easy on your wallet and clubs stay open here until like, 8am!

Finally, I will leave you with this photo:

Yep.

If there is anything else you would like me to include in this blog, please send me a message and I will write about it!

See you soon!

Signed in Seoul, 

Kristin

(Photo credit to Nam)

Kristin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

10 things I love most about Korea - Day 5: The Food

I know some of you were probably waiting for this, and wondering why it didn't come sooner on the list, given my love for the stuff. So here it is:

The food

Funnily enough, I am actually not the best person around to give an accurate account of the many food options here in Korea, for as many of you know, I don't eat spicy food or seafood. And what does Korea love? Spicy food and seafood.

Alas, I will do my best to do it justice by revealing to you some of my favourite meals and places to eat in Seoul. Seoul is, of course, massive and I have only been here for just over a month so my experience is amateaur.

The great thing is that there are so many places to eat here. Countless. They are mostly Korean places, with some Japanese and Chinese. Each has its own speciality, ie. seafood, samgyeopsal, noodles, pizza. If you like everything, you'll love Korea.

Korea shares some fast food chains with Sydney, such as McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut and Dominos, and there are also Korean-influenced places we have in Sydney such as Tom 'n Toms.

My roommate and I tried to locate an Italian place during our first week here and we had no luck whatsoever, which was a shame because I was craving a massive pasta dish. However, we were silly to think that we could search properly with just the two of us. We have since discovered many, as unfortunately a lot of the good places to eat are hidden away in dark corners or on random levels of buildings. The key is to make a Korean friend who knows the area well. Or, to just open your eyes -we have since discovered that there is an Italian place, Crazy Brown, on campus right outside our dorm. It has since become one of our favourite places to eat mostly because of THEIR BROWNIES. If you come to Seoul, go to Crazy Brown even if only for the brownies.

My roommate posing on one of the most popular streets in Sinchon. This street has bars, clubs, karaoke, restaurants and random pop-up stalls with giant fluffy plush toys.

The brilliant thing about Korea is that there is so much food that is very cheap. I have become a massive fan of rice burgers. There is a rice burger place 2 minutes from us and I crave one every day. When someone merely says the words 'rice burger' to me, my cravings become real and I will not rest until I have had one. Each rice burger is around $3, which is great because I know in Australia, they would be at least twice that. For those of you who don't know what a rice burger is, it's a burger made of rice. There are various filling wedged in between two rice... bun-like things.

Meals at the more popular/classy restaurants are a bit more expensive, but never more expensive than what you would find in Sydney. Also, you will be provided with food or snacks or complimentary side dishes at most places you go (hey, more food, who's complaining?). For example, at numerous bars, I have been given complimentary crackers, chips and nuts, and even popcorn at this really classy Jazz bar called Jazz 9 (definitely a recommendation of mine).

My friends recently scored a VIP table at club Octagon in Gangnam (a popular club frequented by K-Pop starts Taeyang and 2PM), and they were given complimentary food, which looked like this:

Yes, that is cheese, fruit, pastries and pasta. And yes, my friend is getting hit on by a Korean guy in this photo. Unfortunately, my roommate and I were unable to sample these delightful treats because we decided to leave and visit Nap City, but we hope the opportunity will present itself again.

Moving on, my favourite thing about the food in Korea is all the cafes. They have so many yummy pastries, but more on that later.

A bagel and iced cafe latte from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on campus. I am never a bagel person in Australia, but I crave them in Korea.

A box of macarons from A Twosome Place, a popular dessert cafe (thank you to Ki Joong for buying them for me!!).

The desserts in Korea deserve their own category! The variety is amazing. There is a popular Korean dessert called Bingsu, which is made of condensed milk, crushed ice and sherbet. It comes with various toppings. Below are photos of two different flavours of Bingsu!

Coffee-flavoured Bingsu.

Berry Bingsu.

These are samples of some of the amazing desserts you can get in Seoul. There are so many dessert cafes, and so you have to make sure you do your exercise here to balance out your sugar intake!

Another popular type of food is street food. You can find street food almost anywhere: outside train stations, at large outdoor-markets such as Myeondong, outside clubs, on outdoor shopping streets, at festivals... The list goes on! Typical street food may include kebabs, dumplings, large chunks of fruit, hotdogs or anything deep-fried.

An example of a typical street-food stand: busy, fatty and served by ajimas.

Unfortunately, I have not won the lottery, nor am I immune to fat and sugar, so I have to be careful with what I eat and even though food is cheap, the cost adds up. So most night, I stick to my dormitory cafeteria. These meals are included within our dorm fee and so we pay nothing every night. Every meal, there is a Korean option and a 'western' option (although the 'western' option is loosely western). The Korean option usually includes kimchi, rice, some sort of soup and some sort of spicy meat. The 'western' option has included food such as spaghetti bolognese, udon noodles, cereal, fried rice, fruit, chicken schnitzel and various rice dishes to only name a few. A lot of students (especially the Korean students who have lived in the dorms for a couple of years) are sick of the food or complain about its quality, but I actually really enjoy the food. I think that most of the time it is delicious!

A Korean breakfast VS. a 'western' breakfast.

I have finally accepted that having rice for breakfast is a standard thing in Korea and I am now okay with it and mostly look forward to it (although it's always a gamble what they will be serving at the cafeteria).

One of the more delicious dinners: deep-fried dumplings, noodle soup with vegetables and rice.

So, that's a summary of the food here as I have experienced it. I look forward to trying new things every day although if I am being honest, I am probably looking at another rice burger tomorrow.

Signed in Seoul,

Kristin

PS. Most of the photo credit here, again, goes to Nam.

Kristin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

10 things I love most about Korea - Day 4: The Drinking Culture

This post goes hand-in-hand with my last post and is something that I definitely felt needed it's own section:

The drinking culture

The drinking culture in Korea is quite different from that in Australia. I crave the drinking culture here, mostly because alcohol is just a part of everything you do at night time, without necessarily meaning that you are going to get drunk. During the day time, people walk around in their business suits with places to go and work to do, all serious in the face. But then when night time comes, everything changes. I am trying to think of a way to adequately explain Korea's drinking culture, but unfortunately - like most things on this blog - I feel I cannot do it justice. You will just have to come here and experience it for yourself!

Rather, I will pick a few things I love about the drinking culture here and explain why I love them as best I can!

1. The fact that you can drink on the street: This is a strange thing to love, but drinking on the street in Korea is not as trashy as it sounds. There is no law in Korea that forbids street drinking, so it is a common occurrence. This does not mean that everyone gets smashed on the street (of course there are those few individuals who take it upon themselves to do so), but rather, it is sort of a pre-drinking place before you enter the club/bar. There are areas in each suburb which seem to have been designed for street drinking, and so I have had some great times on the streets with my friends, meeting strangers and having great chats.
   
   

   

   Street drinking in the busker's circle in Sinchon.

   Crowds for street drinking can sometimes get quite large. There is an area in Gangnam, in particular, which is exchange-student central. It is located outside a convenience store (of course) and without fail always has exchange students outside drinking. Whenever we go, we see new faces and have the opportunity to meet exchange students from many different universities in Seoul. It's awesome! The below three photos were taken in this area:
   
   

   

   People pre-drinking and socialising at our spot in Gangnam. I do not recognise half these faces. 

   

   A selfie, which I somehow missed. 

   

   Street drinking areas are often places for intense chats.

   On one occurrence, we spent three hours chatting on the street and only one hour in the club! On a Friday or Saturday night, it is a lot of fun on the streets because there is no loud club music, so you can have a decent conversation, and you can also meet random people (maybe with the help of a little liquid confidence). There are many characters in Seoul, and the streets are a great place to meet people and to just bond in general.
   

   

   On this occasion, in Hongdae, the three of us sat on the street in the same spot, literally just speaking in a fake Southern-American accent for about 2 hours and getting way too much enjoyment out of it, laughing at ourselves and saying hello to almost every person who passed by (the guys behind us judged). It was one of my best nights here and I will never forget it!

   In truth, I often have more fun drinking on the streets than in the actual clubs themselves, especially if we are playing Korean drinking games! Speaking of which...
   
   2. Korean drinking games: Aw man. Just. So much fun. I cannot wait to come home and teach you guys Korean drinking games. Whenever we go out drinking, I make a point of playing these games. And everyone is keen to play. They are not considered childish at all, they are just part of the culture. Drinking games make for awesome memories, many laughs and a great way to break the ice with new people. Often, I have found myself in a social scenario with new people, and drinking games are a great way to get to know them, because there is a drinking game for almost everything, including getting to know someone. These games are a lot of fun and you don't even have to play them with alcohol (my lecturer has played them in class with us before). They test memory, coordination, attention-span and confidence.
   
   

   

   At one of our favourite drinking places, a Japanese all-you-can-drink restaurant called MuSa.

   At this point, I would love to provide a list of all my favourite drinking games, but a) I like them all so it's hard to choose and b) they all have Korean names so no deal on remembering all their proper names. The most popular English-named ones here though are 369 and Baskin Robins - mostly every person you meet will know how to play these. Fun fact: Korea actually provides this weird pre-pre-drinking beverage that prepares the stomach to be able to handle more alcohol without getting drunk, and without getting a hangover. These can be found in every convenience store and explain why Koreans are usually able to drink more heavily than you think they can.
   

   

   My friends and I drinking at a communal area in Sinchon. We played Truth or Dare with some hilarious results. The group behind us were also playing drinking games, and they also had a guitar, which was awesome!

   
   The Seoul nightlife mixed with its drinking culture often has hilarious results and always provides a good time. So the final aspect of the drinking culture that I will talk about is:
   
   3. The streets and the people: At night time, a magic spell is cast over Seoul, which seems to bring out the friendliest and most festive sides in everyone. Walking the streets at night time is a vastly different experience from walking the same streets during the day. Everywhere you look, there is cheeriness and kinship. I often like to just watch (without being too creepy) groups of people drinking together. Groups of Korean friends are interesting to watch in that they interact in such a different manner from Australians.
   
   A group of boys/men, for example, will walk around with their arms around each other, or just with a hand on the other's shoulder, and when they sit together, they sit close and show lots of friendly skinship (the point in any relationship where there is physical contact). This warms my heart because I can just see the affection and camaraderie there and I must say it is one of the things I love about this culture. It sounds weird, for sure, and obviously not every group of friends does this but I find that it is more common than not. Women are the same, walking arm in arm and calling each other by affectionate names. You could probably notice it amongst the Koreans/Asians in Sydney. It's nice.
   
   

   

   Walking the streets on a bar-crawl with some of my dear friends. We've got some solid skinship on the right there.

   
   So the streets really are a nice place to be. Everyone is out to have a good time. One night, for example, I was sitting with one of my friends who was visiting for a few weeks. We were drinking on the streets in a communal area with lots of people, enjoying the vibes and applauding the buskers, when a group of 4 people (3 Koreans and 1 international) approached us and said that they would love to share a beer with us. So, we spent the night laughing, eating and playing drinking games with these complete strangers and it was so much fun! A lot of Koreans love meeting international people so I will admit that I have a nice advantage here. We stayed out with these friendly people until 4:30 (which is now a common bedtime for me, sorry Mom). In fact, we ended up hanging out with the international student from that group on 3 occasions afterwards (he has now gone home back to his home country but it was such a pleasure to meet you, Kyle, if you're reading this!).
   
   

   

   A photo taken in an elevator on that night. Nam wasn't there so I had to take the photo for once :p

   I will remember that group of people for a very long time! <3
   
   Furthermore, the fantastic thing about the drinking culture is that it is so cheap to join in! Alcohol is very cheap at the local convenience store, which is why so much street-drinking occurs, and there are so many all-you-can-drink places. One of the things I have also noticed is that the Korean culture generally means that a lot of the time, Koreans love to buy you drinks. My Korean friends have been so kind to me in that they are often quite keen to buy me and my friends drinks. Also, the age hierarchy in Korea means that it is typical for the oldest person within a group to pay for the drinks (this actually hasn't happened much but I have heard it's a Thing). Recently however, I have been happy that my Korean friends have finally started letting me pay for the drinks (cause you know, in Australia, everyone pays their own way so it's what I am used to). Koreans in general are really very kind to international students, but more on that later.
   
   

   

   Street-drinking in Gangnam!

   You may be wondering: How does so much drinking occur without people getting smashed? And how are people not passed out on the street everywhere? Well, there are many solutions to this problem. Nearby hotels are very cheap for this reason. Not to mention, Koreans are usually kind to their friends and so I have seen a lot of help going on, which is nice. Also - and this is crazy to me - there is this thing in Korea called 'blackout Korea' which means that Koreans can pass out anywhere on the streets for the night, and they won't have their phone, shoes or wallet stolen. This was unfathomable to me when I first heard it, because there is no way belongings would not be stolen if this happened in Australia. Alas, I have seen it with my own eyes: Koreans passed out alone, late at night, on the steps of a building somewhere, with their belongings in plain view, and later, when I come back, they are still there. Seoul is one of the safest places in which I have lived, and I mean that. But more on that later. I have so much more to say on this but alas, time does not allow. I am off now to have dinner at the dormitory cafeteria before my night class, and then, who knows where the night will take me! ;)
   
   Finally, here is a photo of me street-drinking in Itaewon with my two best friends:
   

   

   This was an elevated stage-like area in the communal drinking space and so there were about 100 people who watched us take this photo.

   
   Check in again tomorrow!!
   
   Signed in Seoul,
   Kristin
   
   Kristin is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia-Korea Foundation of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade