Hongdae Trick Eye Museum

Hongdae Subway Station, Line 2, Exit 9

I arranged to meet my Japanese 언니 (sister) in Hongdae since I am staying here and the first itinerary was a visit to the Hongdae Trick Eye Musuem. (I know there is one in Jeju too, this one is probably a smaller version. Nevertheless the idea is similar, so well, till I go to Jeju again, this will suffice my cravings for taking funny pictures!)

Here is the direction to the museum..

Upon crossing the road, you will see 2 lanes that you could turn into - just choose the right one (the lane between Tony Moly& Holika) and walk straight. You should spot the Trick Museum in less than 100m

Here are some shots to remember this day. Photo SPAM starts NOW!

 If only the money was real!

 If only i could look this long in person!

If you are in Hongdae and would like to take funny pictures (like me), this is a good place to visit! Cheers!

The New Year Party I shouldn't have gone to!

THIS! THIS was the New Year Party I shouldn't have gone to!

Right after this, as of now, my body has succumbed to the cold  and I am starting to feel the after-party effects!

So much for a happy new year. :(

Nevertheless, I am still gonna post pictures of how my NY went.

Our class has significantly grew much closer as a group since the 1st term and the many field trips - so since it was New Year and the time to celebrate, we decided to do it as a class.

And this was also because everyone else was here in Seoul on their own - shouldn't we all group together and hang out?

Ever since Huiwen left for Taiwan, a few weeks back and the start of term 2, I realised I have been really serious about studying - so much so that every week I have 2 extra "classes". One being a 1-1 tuition with a Korean friend I got to know through Language Exchange website (he teaches me Korean and I teach him mandarin). The other extra class is a night class conducted at one of the pro-Korean culture centre in Seoul Station and it's free!

I am really glad to be spending more time to re-cap all that I have learnt (since my term 1 was really mediocre).

I digressed!

Ok, so we decided that we will have a party at a nice KTV place - bring food, cut a New Year cake and have a good time!

Nothing out of the extraordinary happened, we just sang, played, ate and had a good time hanging out together.

The drama came when everyone decided that the night was still young and they wanted to club - obviously, there was 1 key choice and it was HONGDAE - close to my place. Because I have not recovered completely from my previous flu and still have some remnants of the cold, I just really wanted to go home. And they so-happily offered to give me a "ride"" home in the train and whilst doing, psycho me to just hang out a bit longer, afterall my place is walking distance from all the action district. 

 

And there they were psycho-ing me - and I was left alone to battle whether to rest or to go.

Ultimately, I was influenced and I agreed to hang out for "just a bit". Feelings are unreliable! Seriously.

Because we only went home at 4am - big regret!

Nevertheless, I absolutely loved the streets of Hongdae. It's so vibrant and cheerful, despite being late in the night.

The weather was so cold that we kept stopping at those random street stalls 포장 마차 to sip piping hot soup & ate so much fish-cake and toekpokki. It was crazy.

And at 4am whilst walking home, random crowds were gathering and huddling around random 2-men bands, singing and rapping on a New Year's morning!

It was so spontaneous and suddenly, everyone started singing/humming to the popular tune in the deep of the night together with the performer. I dunno if "heart-warming" is the right word to use but it was definitely one of those moments I will remember for a long time.

These people weren't friends - they are random stangers who stopped to listen to the music and they started singing so loudly as a group - I felt this wave of warmth standing in the midst of them.

I better get going - for my much-needed rest!

Till the next time -cheers! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hongdae 홍대

Did I mention i am staying in the Hongik area?

After "school" i decided to come home and i created an aim for myself... that was to find the Coffee Prince (Korean Drama) Cafe which was somewhere around here...

Like i said before, when there is an objective/goal, there is usually more motivation to do something. The goal need not be a big one, cos ultimately, the journey is what makes it fun, not the destination; but without the destination, the journey will never get started.

First... Hongik is pronounced as Hongdae (홍대) over here.

This area is one of the hot spots (there are quite a number of such "hotspots" actually and this is just one of them....) because there are 2 universities in the vicinity. The area here is often full of young undergrads and yuppies, streets are full of shops selling clothes, accessories, bags etc. And there are cafes and restaurants EVERYWHERE, there is seriously no lack of food in this area!

This is one of the intersections of the streets along Hongdae and this shop is one of my favourite accessory shop - cant recall the name though, but it blasts deafening music and has a pink signboard.

In comparison with many other accessory shops i have seen in Sinchon, Myeongdong and Dongdaemun, this shop actually offers accessories at pretty good prices. e.g. like the famous OWL necklace only costs 3000 won here about SGD3.60... I have seen it in Singapore at $19.90...

What i thought was only a 1 hour walk turned out to last about 3 hours?

These are the close-up shots of the accessories i found pretty...

Walking on.... the streets are full of people on a Monday! And those streets with glorious lights really boosted my spirits!

So according to the map, i was walking towards Coffee Prince... but it turns out there were 2 Coffee Princes. I don't know which is the imitation.

The picture on the bottom left is the first one i found, but i am convinced this is not the one i wanted to see, so i walked on reverse and somehow found the one of the bottom right. 

This was the site used for the filming but which was also closed!

Mission accomplished...
Though i did want to have a cuppa coffee there, i had dinner ready for me, so gotta accept that things don't usually always turn out the way i'd like them to turn out yeah...

This was my home-made (but not by me, by my housemate) dinner for the night...

Walking down these streets on my own did somehow cheer me up as i did felt kinda blue...

The thought of not having my friends (not new friends, but friends whom i know, like those in Singapore) to hang out with did dampen my spirits and i have began to miss home.

Perhaps i have came to a point where i learn to treat myself as a friend, to spend as much time with myself as if i were my own best friend it's a kind of self-discovery and reflection that can probably be encountered when you are alone...

Photo-spamming time!