Hongdae: Trick-Eye Museum
I think that this three-week trip to Korea was planned the best way possible. It was great because while Rosemary was living at my place 24/7, I was working form 9-6 on weekdays, so she both had her personal space at my place, and the time to plan things she wanted to do while I was working. Consequently, as soon as I got off work, I basically followed her wherever she decided was worth spending her time on, thing I would actually never do on my own.
This got me thinking. I finish at 6 and never really do anything after work, because juste planning the whole thing would take time and I am not sure I would drag myself out of the ACed flat I live in after getting back home. When she was there though, having already her plan in mind and me just having to follow, I basically just left work and took the 4403 or the 4108 M-Bus to either Gangnam of Seoul, and we'd see from there. It was hard for her to get around as she spoke next to no korean, so I was as useful to her as she was useful to me :P. That's what I call give-give :P
But now, I know that with a little will, I can just hop in any bus and go find things to do downtown even after 6, and still be back home before the last bus. It's just a constant money and energy sucker. I am positively drained from those past weeks, but positively satisfied with everything, nonetheless.
I think it was a Tuesday.
She looked at videos from that sweet K-pop-lover couple living in Korea the whole day and saw that there was this Musée Trompe-l'oeil downtown right into the Hongdae Clubbing district. So there we headed.
The place is tiny, in the basement of a building, and you really can't miss it: the signs are in bright pink, almost glowing in the dark. We got there a bit less than one hour before the close (the only negative point about leaving at 6PM is that a lot of places actually close just a while after we get there so it's easy to get stressed with time. In the end though, we got used to it and just left it as that: we'll go and if it doesn't work, wtv). The place itself has nothing special. There seems to have a coffee place you can chill at (but we did not have the time so we just went directly to the pictures place...) but not that appealing at the time we went. The Trick-Eye Museum smells of humidity and is kind of sketchy, but you pay your $10 and you get all the time you want to chill inside. A piece of advice, here, is that you want to go with at least 2 ppl, otherwise it sucks that you can't really take pictures together, and there are many settings that are way more fun if you do.
While the place itself it not impressive, the pictures you can take make up for the rest. It's load of fun to see the result. It's one of the rare places I've been to that you enjoy more after then during the experience. Makes for great souvenir pictures. Here are a couple.
Isn't Rosemary lovely? I don't think I ever really saw any picture of her that was not pretty. That's why I don't really post many pictures of her, obviously. So you won't be inclined to go read her blog (that is so simple and beautiful) instead of mine....
After the museum I got Rosemary to try Ddeogboggi. She had never tried real ones and being in Korea was a good reason to try it out.
Might also have been cuz we found no restaurant we felt like trying as we walked around Hongdae.
Anyways, we walked across JAWS. First time I tried it, and I did not know that they had one of the spiciest Ddeogboggi in Korea. My bad. I almost killed her. It was amazing though.
Busan
Our Guest House: Hotel The New Day
Last time I went to Busan with Heather and other friends from Sanbon we slept in a hostel near Haeundae Beach I think it was called "Guest House". It was very nice, but Rosemary decided on another one for our trip to Busan. She was the one visiting so I agreed to whatever she wanted. She also had a very low budjet so it was better for her to look it up herself (I actually probably had less money than she did, but wtv).
We went to a hostel called The New Day, also very close to the beach, 20 seconds walk from Haeundae metro station.
It was a very good choice. The rooms were neat, the service very good and there was a rooftop garden to chill at. Breakfasts are always included in this type of hostel: they leave a big kitchen for you tu use and you can make your own egg and toast breakfast. The only thing that I really recommend is not to try their coffee. They have okay coffee filter machines, but they put so little (and somehow refuse to make it different even on request) coffee in it that it tastes no different than dirty dish water. There is a nice coffee shop right by the hostel, I recommend getting coffee there and making your breakfast after if you are a coffee drinker.
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| On the way to Busan....... Train time!!! |
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| Out of the KTX ride, off to the metro station! |
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| So happy to be in our nice bedroom ! |
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| Still wondering what "hugging your own bed" means.... |
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| We spent the first day with Dongyeop, a friend of Rosemary who kindly helped us around :) had a great time in Busan!!! |
Gamcheon Culture Village - Busan
I know next to nothing about Running Man (actually watched a couple episodes on Rosemary's advice last year) but it seems like the show also ran (ha ha ha ) in Gamcheon Village once and made the place overly popular. It's a sweet place in a mountainish place near the sea. Used to be the ghetto of the place after the Korean War (50-53) but all the houses got rebuilt in cute baby colors and it is really fun to walk though the small roads all over the place. It is an exhausting trip, especially when the temperature is over 34 with humidity and the blasting sunrays on your face. We bought ridiculous looking strawhats after a while. Couldn't take it anymore.
It was a great day though. I was happy the weather was so nice. I hear it rained all weekend in Seoul.
We got a small map with check-up point all over the mountain where we could get stamps as we went, and got free postcards :) Follow the fish-trail!!!
2013.08.11 (edited)
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| I don't know why, but seeing the statue of the Petit Prince in the midst of those pastel-colored houses felt just right. I don't know where the idea was from, but I raise my hat to the one who decided on it. Chapeau! |
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