Day 2: Exploring Hongdae & Jetlag

Korea Day 1: Woke up way too early and had to wait for things to open. Eventually headed out and got food at Paris Bistro across the street which didn’t have coffee. Paris Bistro is basically a Starbucks for Seoul. You’ll see them everywhere with similar options. They did also have Melon pan, a tasty melon bread with a hard sugar shell on top, that I get whenever I have the chance.

Mapo-Gu

We continued our way north from our hotel and explored the Map-Gu area just west on Hongdae. Of all the areas we explored in Seoul, this was probably my favorite. It has a great combination of thrift stores, dessert cafes, and tasty restaurants. It’s a fun place to walk around.

Koriko Cafe

When look over Naver maps for places to go in the area, I stumbed on Koriko Cafe, a Kiki’s Delivery Service themed cafe hidden a block off a main street. We took the opportunity to buy a few cute things from their gift shop, have a tasty peach milk tea and take a few photos.

If you’re a Ghibli fan and in the area I’d recommend it. They have egg scrambles that look right out of Howl’s Moving Castle as well as some tasty pastries. Get there early if you want to have the whole place to yourself.

Lunch at Ongsimi

Went to a buckwheat noodle place for lunch. The noodles and broth were tasteless, but the dumpling and pancake were delicious. The gnocchi in the soup was better than the noodles. I’d recommend that and the pancake. If you’re really hungry, or sharing them with at least 3 people, the dumplings are delicious – but huge!

Adjusting to Jetlag

We returned the hotel and almost immediately fell asleep at 4pm. My plan to stay up until the evening didn’t pan out, but after this first day we’d be on a regular schedule going forward. We enjoyed all the sleep we could get before waking up early to stock our fridge with some snacks before cafes opened.