After the hectic concert days, it was finally down to our own itinerary for the rest of the trip. I got to meet a new Japanese friend with my travel mate and we hanged out together the entire day.
We started off the day with an early lunch at 별다방미스리 (Miss Lee Cafe) in Myeongdong.
Does the restaurant name ring a bell to you? This is the restaurant where YongSeo couple (Yonghwa from CNBlue and Seohyun from Girls Generation) visited in We Got Married Season 2. They visited the store in Insadong, but this outlet in Myeongdong is more convenient in my opinion.
We had the entire second floor to ourselves. I recalled the morning had just rained and it was a little windy out in the open on a Monday morning. The cozy second floor was a good refuge for us to sit back and drink hot soup.
The interior is delicately decorated. A tall tree stands in the middle of the restaurant with handwritten messages hanging from the branches. There are pens and papers available for you to write yours too. I spent my time peeping at what other people wrote, while waiting for my food to be prepared.
Our buzzer vibrates and it’s time to collect our lunch box with hot seaweed soup. I am so loving seaweed with rice. It’s like the best combination ever. If you stare hard enough, you might see the egg underneath the pile of seaweed.
After taking pictures, close the lid back. Shake it like how Seohyun does in the animated GIF below. Shake it hard so your rice and dishes will mix well together.
I opened mine and tadahh! It’s time to dig in! I couldn’t finish mine as much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t stuff anymore into my tummy. My friends managed to finish theirs though.
We wandered around Myeongdong for a little, did some heavy shopping (coughs) and felt like it’s time to rest our heavy bottoms again. This time, we entered O´Sulloc Tea House. Never a big fan of Matcha flavoured products but the Fresh Citron Hot Green Tea I ordered was refreshing. Three of us couldn’t finish the Green Tea Bingsu on top of our drinks. It’s like having to drink 4 big cups for 3 of us. We were too greedy Teehee~
Another day, I met up with my Korean friend near her house. With her moving near Konkuk University subway station, we can finally meet more often. It’s more legitimate to meet there since it’s now her neighbourhood and Yesung’s cafe Mouse Rabbit is situated there. I got to visit the new shopping mall Common Ground.
This is also the place where Korean girl group SISTAR filmed their MV “Shake It”, a very addictive song. It’s after all summer when I visited, and war time between all the girl groups. My observation for this trip – amongst the girl groups’ comeback songs, “Shake It” is most popular and most played song for retail shops.
Why is summer the war time for girl groups? It’s the hottest time of the year where it’s valid for girl groups to wear less for performance, showing more skin to appeal to males. A comeback during this period would also allow sufficient time for the girl groups to promote their albums and songs til the year end awards where sales of the year is concluded. If this comeback schedule during summer time went well, the girl group might even slot in another comeback period before year end to boost their popularity. Hence, summer time every year is the comeback war amongst girl groups. This year alone, there are major groups comeback such as Girls Generation, SISTAR, APink, Girl’s Day, AoA… etc.
Back to Common Ground, it’s shopping mall within pop-up containers. Don’t worry, it’s air-conditioned. Spend an hour or two there but didn’t bring anything home with me. The prices there are too high-end. I guess I am more suited for cheap and good shopping at Express Bus Terminal Subway Station.
My friend and I settled ourselves at a cafe called Dore Dore and ordered Oreo cake and fruit juices. Superman Returns Hwijae dad brought his twins Seo Eon and Seo Jun to this cafe before! Look at the adorable twins devouring their cakes.
Our Oreo cake is so adorbs! Taste is not to our liking though, for both cake and drinks. I guess their dessert and drinks are Instagram worthy and stops at that.
I wanted to write more, but it seems like my words quota has reached for this post. I am splitting my trip into so many posts that I’m starting to run out of puns for the world “Seoul” as title. I need ideas!
From Naver map above, there seems to be some constructions going on. If there isn’t (completed by now) you probably can cut across from in front of Lotte Hotel World to get to this Charlotte Theatre below. Walk straight past this theatre.
Cross the road to the other side as seen below.
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The corner where my friend sat for hours and poured his heart and sweat to make shoes. The shoes can be customised at a very affordable price!
A cafe and retail store in one. The kitchen was open concept. 
Nothing fanciful from the menu, which is why you don’t need to worry about oil or noise from their open concept kitchen. I was very at ease the whole time I was there. 
The lighting was too awesome that I had to take photos.
