Dream Come True 2013 - Day 3 in Korea - Seoul (12 Dec 2013, Thursday)

It was the third day of our holiday but our first day in Seoul and we were super excited to start off our journey to explore Snowy Seoul! 

It had snowed the day before and the grounds were covered in snow...

Our first stop for the first day was Ewha's Womans University. It is not very usual that a University would be part of one's tourist itinerary. It is a known destination for shopping paradise and a nice place to hang out and chill with your friends. 

 

We stayed in Itaewon so we had to transit at Hapjeong to get to Ewha's Womans University.

Finally arrived at Ewha's Womans University!!!

The first thing that caught our attention was that there was a KOPITIAM there... A Singaporean's pride to see something so close to home in a foreign country.

Shopping! There was a big sale at the Face Shop when we were there as it was their 10th year anniversary! 

We were at the right place at the right time.. the sale "happened" to end on the Sunday before we were flying back to Singapore! So we were in for a great deal while we were in Seoul for shopping!

Exit from Ewha's Woman University subway exit 4 and you're in for many good treats as the streets are filled with shops and interesting items! But the first thing on our agenda was to meet one of my University friend, HJ, who brought us for brunch and for a visit around her university. 

고냉지 (gu naeng ji) 

Kimchi jjigae

계란말이 (gae-ran-mal-ri) - Egg omelette

보쌈 (bo ssam) - Boiled Pork... Wrap the cabbage around the boiled pork 

So that was how we settled our very first meal in Seoul, enjoying hot pot while it is snowing outside, what more could one ask for? 

Then HJ walked us to her university where we were blessed to see the university covered with snow! 

Walking towards Ewha Woman's University

Wah a timely scene as Christmas is right around the corner!

Panoramic view of the university

A hot cup of green tea latte before we went for our next itinerary.. I love how they write messages in Korean on their lids to light up the drinker's day. 

HJ left for class and we proceeded with our next stop - First Shop of Coffee Prince. For those who have watched the drama Coffee Prince would probably be familiar with the cafe where they filmed majority of their scenes at.

Directions to the 1st shop of Coffee Prince at Hongdae: Take the Subway Line 2 to Hongik University station, get out from Exit 8. Turn right and you'll see Seven Springs, keep walking till you pass a roundabout, turn left and you'll see a playround. Keep walking ahead towards the road on the right side (up the slope) for another 500m and you'll find the cafe. The walk from the station to the cafe would take about 10 - 15 minutes walk, we took a little longer as we were a bit lost and it was winter and the floors were slippery to walk on. 

Finally found the cafe!

How the cafe looks like from the outside during winter!

We're in... 

Welcomed by Gong Yoo and Yoon Eun-hye

Tried the waffle, a little too sweet, tasted not too bad but a little higher in value. The price was quite expected because most people who visit are drama fanatics and the place rather than the food they serve seems to be more attractive. 

The oppa cleaning up the slippery floors outside.. 

Cute little snowmen, seeing this makes me want to sing "Do you want to build a snowman?" from Frozen OST

Nice photo-taking place

More information can be found on the official site of Korea Tourism Organisation.

We didn't spend much time at the cafe or roaming around the area as we had to get to Chungmuro before 4.30pm for Han Style @ Korea House. This was a 3 hours running program where one can cook Korean cuisine, write Korean words, wear Korean hanbok, and watch Korean traditional performance. We found it very interesting and worth our time and money. We made our reservations online so we paid 20,000 won per pax for the whole program. This program runs once a day, three times a week, on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Exit 3 of Chungmuro Subway Station

You'll see the Korea house the minute you exit from the station

The kitchen where we learnt to make Korean food

The teacher

Teacher demonstration first

Then we proceeded to write Korean words and wearing of the Hanbok

There was another family of Singaporeans alongside the same program with us. Feels homely to meet people of our own races in a foreign country

The Singaporean family in their Hanbok... 

Then we proceeded to watch traditional Korean performance

Everything at the Korea House ended at 7.30pm. We took the subway to Dongdaemun but there was nothing fancy about the place so we left shortly after. 

That concludes our first day in Seoul!

For more photos, feel free to visit my photo album - Korea Dream Come True 2013!

For Day 4 of the trip, please access HERE.