Catching up

Rain. The weather was not ideal for exploring, but when you're catching up with an old friend, we just have to work with what Mother Nature decided to send our way. Started today off with a japchae hotteok (pancake) from Namdaemun market and oh WOW it was SO delicious! I only ordered one, but really you want more than one.

After that, it was onto a bus bound for Yeoido Station to meet my friend Stephanie from my accounting program. She moved back to Seoul a few years ago with her parents and has been here since. Our initial plan was going to be outdoors, but with the weather warnings, we played in safe by going to the mall.

The mall you ask? Well, it's a pretty cool one, The Hyundai Seoul. Touted as one of the hottest and hippest places for locals. The 1st floor is a food floor that you'll probably spend the most of your time and the restaurant floor on level 6. It was nice to just walk and talk in between taking in a delicious lunch and dessert x2. Lunch was an abalone and meat set while dessert featured ice cream and then cakes from Layered Cafe, carrying out my cafe spree.

Seoul has a huge themed cafe presence, from Cafe Onion yesterday to Layered today, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Instagram. As the trip goes on, they're a daily fixture on my itinerary - though it was challenging to keep up in Jeju.

After desserts, we headed over to COEX, another mall locals frequest. This one is known for the beautiful Starfield Library that also graces Instagram. It has it's own cafe as well, and the library is full of visitors taking in the place. For a split second I wonder whether it's a bookstore or a library. I don't quite see a check out desk but I suppose it's an honor system. Silent though, it was not, with the number of people milling about.

A break in the rain, it was off to round 3 of dessert - gotta have Bingsu! Shaved Korean ice milk fyi. We headed to a place called Sulbing and ordered a mango pineapple shaved ice to share. I kid you not, pretty much everything here seems meant to be shared. Luckily we agreed on a flavor as it really would be too much for 1 person otherwise.

One more stop on the itinerary - Bonguensa Temple. I read it's best to visit after sunset as all of its numerous lanterns would be lit. What they fail to say is that the lanterns are not lit when weather warnings are issued - at least that's what I'm going with since the lanterns were not lit. The temple was still beautiful, but I imagine would've been stunning with lit lanterns.Read more