Hongdae Guide

If you are just visiting the layout of Seoul can be a bit confusing. 

Head in one direction and you end up on a street with nothing but cafes, another direction only clothes, all while the alleyways twist and turn with sprinklings of tiny shops.

Hongdae is known for it's clubbing scene and lots of all-you-can-eat/drink restaurants. If you can't tell, Jay and I aren't exactly the clubbing type so we wanted to share a few of the great places we like between Hongik University station and Sangsu station.

Google Map version

Coffee:

1. CoffeeLab - great espresso based drinks

2. Zombie Coffee - best for pour overs and lattes

3. 5 Extracts - great pour overs and specialty drinks

Eats:

4. Molly's Pops - ice cream based popsicle, try the milk tea or makgeolli

5. 신선설농탕서교점 Seolleongtang - a chain restaurant that serves oxbone soup and great kimchi 

6. Paul & Paulina - french style pastries and bread

7. 옥상달빛 Rooftop Chicken - delicious garlic fried chicken, one order is enough for 2

8. The Beastro - new american bistro, a little pricey but worth it

9. Fell & Cole - ice cream shop with inventive flavors

Select Shops:

10. Style Nanda - for 3CE cosmetics, fun colors and nice finishes

11. 호미화방 - a fantastic art store that carries almost anything you'd need

12. Åland - international and local designers, this location has 6 floors

13. Gentle Monster - high end eyewear, store space changes monthly with a new art concept

14. Object - great for gifts: jewelry, cards, phones cases, magazines, homewares

Fun:

15. Mustoy - draw on a ceramic toy of your choosing, comes with a drink and no time limit

16. Vault - escape room, dine in the dark, and drinks

In addition to the places listed there are also streets packed with shopping (as highlighted in the map in pink). Often these filled with single shops and a few chains. I'd recommend looking around at a few of them before you make your purchase because they often carry the same items at varying prices.

To be embarrassed or not to be embarrassed?

Nothing like a youtube video to let one decide. What is it about movement that makes one a bit uncomfortable? These are both quick, dirty, and easy tutorials for when you are in a dash and want to look put together enough.

Escape from winter blue's mountain

Living in the northwest for so many years brought up a strong case for seasonal SAD-ness. The never-ending gray skies meeting gray water, going to work/school in complete darkness and missing out on the only peeking of light for the day, and the constant countdown of how many months left of winter left quite a lot to be desired.

A dose of vitamin D does wonders for your health and mood and I've always been convinced that that would be all I need to kick the SAD out. Thankfully, we now live in a place where I can see a bright blue sky for hours at a time and a golden sunset in January. but this year I've noticed it isn't quite as helpful as it was previous winters. Thus I'm already beginning the winter countdown.

Style snapshots: Coffee date

On Elle: glasses: Style Nanda sweater: JCrew pants: H&M shoes:small shop in Shibuya bag: Sephora freebie (shh!)

On Jay: jacket: Todd Snyder shirt: H&M watch: komono pants: GU shoes: sperry top siders

On a coffee date in Yeonnam-dong on a unusually cool day.

Japan: Week Two

Could it get any hotter in Japan then our first week? Well, yes. We made our way to Tokyo for the first time! Flying into Haneda airport was one of the better decisions we made; compared to Narita airport (which we flew out of) it is a breeze to hop on a bus and get into the city.

One of the dilemmas a lot of people face while travelling is where to actually stay when you haven't been there before. You want to find some place convenient for your planned activities, ideally affordable, and hopefully an interesting neighborhood. After some quick research (ahem, Googled "hipster neighborhoods Tokyo") we settled on an AirBnb in Shimokitazawa. Easily the best decision in our entire trip; its streets are littered with cheap eats, thrifts shops, and hair salons.

Japan: Week One

I feel like we both grew up during a time of an obsession with Japan, probably all thanks to Toonami and Uwajimaya. When we went to the Kansai region last year we were excited but prepared for some disappointment for the sake of being realistic, yet somehow Japan lived up to all our 12-year-old dreams. We are lucky enough to be living such a short distance away that we can actually take quick weekend trips but decided to save up for 2 week stay in the hottest part of summer in Osaka and Tokyo.


curry and takoyaki for days

Keeping it simple

Over the years I've figured out something that really makes shopping a whole lot easier: I am not a shoe person. If I had figured that out sooner I would have happily saved a lot of money and time; however, instead I searched and searched for the shoes that I thought would finally complete my outfit without realizing they didn't need to make a statement of their own. Truly I feel like I (and most people) can get away with about 6 pairs of shoes: tall boots, short boots, oxfords, flats, tennis/running shoes, and sandals. Of course in the middle of Seoul's humid summers I'm missing the last two. In the meanwhile here is what I have to fill the other slots:

Madewell Ames black ankle boots

Stilmoda brown oxfords

Frye Regina black-brown flats

Sam Edelman Foster tan knee high boots

I find that if you want to keep a minimal shoe wardrobe it's best to keep to simple lines and neutral colors. I'm usually drawn to styles with some masculine inspiration and rich leathers (there are some great vegan leathers options available too). Something to keep in mind, the care of your shoes is key! I condition all of my shoes and make sure to wipe them clean as soon as they get wet, due to this I've noticed a marked improve in the life and wear of my shoes. Be sure to check our this post on reddit about leather care and this post on insoles (they'll save your feet and posture).

 

days, months, years? part two.

Let's do some math. 

977 days or 23448 hours or 1406880 minutes since our last update.

However, truthfully: 

1668 day or 40032 hours or 2401920 minutes since our last real entry.

As a reminder from our first post:

This is jay. This is elle.

We have many things in common like:

We are the same age,

like cheesy sci-fi b-movies,

and think there is nothing better than a midday nap.

I can confidently say all these things are still true. One can easily argue that everything is almost the same as it was 1,668 days ago. Now we have hairline fractures on our faces, have had more haircuts then you can count on your fingers, but have settled on the same style repeatedly, and have our same little knickknacks just in another apartment. 

In between then and now we've celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary, traveled to some of our dream countries, and learned how to enjoy life in any situation. 

Top: H&M, Shorts: H&M, Shoes: Sperry, Watch: Komono, Bracelet: ALand



A mini timeline is as follows:

We finished our road trip all the way to Seattle! That was a bit of an abrupt ending to the blog…whoops.  We then spent the next 2 years living in a tiny house on Capitol hill and, in general, a bit unhappy with where our lives were going. We needed change!

In 2012 we made that change and moved to lovely Korea. We spent two years living in a wonderful “suburb” of Seoul called Bucheon. The funny thing about Korea is almost every town feels like a city as the standard buildings are high rise concrete apartments and living is as condensed as possible compared to the low-and-wide feeling in the United States.

Then our wanderlust took over us again resulting in a year long nomad lifestyle. We started off in Japan and fell in love with the Osaka area, moved on and WWOOFed on the big island of Hawaii, had a stint in Los Angeles, and finally visited family in Seattle and Austin. As exhausting as it was, I would never trade our experiences for anything.

As of the end of March 2015, we returned to Korea! This time we are in a quieter place outside of Seoul that offers a bit more nature and a country attitude but is only 20 minutes away from the lively city.

Now we, although mostly Elle, make a return to blogging because it makes us happy to look at our old pictures and read our memories.




These pictures we taken in Daehak-ro or Ehwa mural village, close to Dongdaemun. It’s worth the walk since when it comes to street art in Seoul you really have to seek it out! This more traditional neighborhood was losing business and, in a (successful) effort to revitalize it, the government commissioned local artists to paint murals all around. We spent an afternoon with friends walking up the winding hills spotted with art, coffee shops, and ice cream novelties.


Top: H&M, Skirt: Express, Hat: ASOS, Shoes: Frye

Korea by the seconds

Oh, hello blog. We've abandoned you for so long, but here we are with a short video! If you are not a close friend of ours or family you must not know we have been living in South Korea for the past 6 months. Here is a little taste of our life (notice Elle is completely absent from the video aside from her feet, I wonder who recorded it all!)

New York, New York

What a wonderful town! Travel-weary and homesick we nearly skipped over this gem of the east coast, but thankfully our friend and any other New Yorker we happened to meet laughed when they heard about our "day trip to New York". Needless to say we stayed a week, exploring mostly Brooklyn and Manhattan, without scratching the surface of this city of cities.





We could have spent days in the MOMA alone, staring at the countless beautiful paintings and video exhibitions. Another wonderful surprise was the ICP (International Center of Photography), which we did not get any pictures of, but is well-worth a visit if you are going on the museum circuit.

We left heavy-hearted, our heads filled with the sights and sounds of New York, a trip back across the country ahead of us and the promise to move there someday soon.

DC

It took us 37 days to get from Washington to Washington (D.C. that is). Our empty wallets smiled because, unlike the rest of the country, everything there is free! Allowing us to spend days wandering through museum after museum; monument after monument until we collapsed in a heap in Philadelphia.



What's more American than grilled cheese and burgers! After a bit of a trek we made it to Capitol City diner and enjoyed our meals (and amazing milkshakes) making us want to take a nap on the arboretum lawn.

We rested for awhile and made our way to The Museum of Natural History (The Best!) and squeezed our way through the crowds, gawking at their most famous pieces, and taking goofy pictures. Jay's favorite part was the giant ground sloth skeleton while I preferred the natural gemstone growths!

Atlanta

We arrived in Atlanta in the early morning which was perfect timing for tea! Luck seemed to be on our side during our trip as we always ended up finding the cutest little shops. Dr. Bombay's Underwater Tea Party had excellent Darjeeling Tea, Vegan Spice Cupcakes and a wall of portraits. All of which gave us the energy to explore!





Luck wasn't the only thing we had. Rhiannon of Liebemarlene gave us an extensive list of recommendations including the very best pizza we have ever had (Sadly we were too busy stuffing our faces and the idea to take a picture came as an afterthought), an old southern plantation that wooed us, and a number of vintage shops.

New Orleans

After a delicious catfish lunch in Baton Rouge we drove across the Bayou, dotted with small houses on stilts and sparsely growing forests, slowly entering the storybook city of New Orleans. As Seattlites we were especially excited by the promise of roasted chicory iced coffee, which did not disappoint!







We could easily have spent hours walking the neighborhoods, gawking at intricate ironworks and fancy french trims present on nearly every house (Oh how I wish we could transport one of those houses to Seattle). After a while of wandering we ended up in the historical graveyards that sprawl throughout the city; never had we thought we would have wanted to roam a cemetery, but the old mausoleums were so beautiful!