Day 6: Hongdae Free Market

Well rested & ready to check out the Hongdae Free Market. Hongdae Free Market is an open-air arts & crafts market and as the name suggests, it's located in Hongdae. Hongdae has countless bars, nightclubs, restaurants, boutiques and as such attracts the local young adults. 

The Hongdae Free Market takes place every Sat from 1-6pm and it's held on the playground, close to Hongik University.

The place is filled with young artists, artisans & talents. It's possible to have your portrait done here in less than 5 mins. ;)

There are other types of portraits drawings to choose from as well. Duration varies. :)

The free market is good place to acquire unique handmade gifts. Local artisans produce pretty & practical products such as accessories, bags, pouches, stationeries, apparel and the list goes on. :)

A sweet vocal drew crowd to the afternoon stage. :) Live performances are always welcome! :)  It enlivened the area, making our Sat afternoon at Hongdae Free Market a pleasant one. 

Direction to Hongdae Free Market:

Take the subway to Hongik University station (Line 2) and exit at Exit 9

Day 6: Afternoon Tea at Hello Kitty Cafe

After checking out from Rakkojae & checking into Courtyard Marriott, we headed to Hongdae. What was supposed to be a 10-15 mins subway ride to reach Hongik University station turned out to be 45 mins because we were extremely confused by the train transfer at Sindorim. : O We were exhaused by the whole process as we boarded & alighted from the train, climbed up & down the stairs to get to the right platform etc.

Hence before we could explore Hongdae proper, we rested at Hello Kitty Cafe. :) Oh my, this cafe is really pink! *.*

The cafe was pretty packed with Hello Kitty lovers. :) We did see some guys accompanying their gfs. So at least Beanie wasn't that out of place! :)))

Lin ordered a Hello Kitty chocolate cake for us to take some pics. Cute eh? And they tasted rather good. Don't expect fine patisserie standard though. ^.*

The coffee & ice chocs had Hello Kitty face shavings on their froth too. :) Intsant pick-me-up.

And here's us with our afternoon treats. :)

Direction to Hello Kitty Cafe:
Take the subway to Hongik University Station (Line 2) and exit at Exit 9

Day 6: Ginseng Chicken Lunch at Tosokchon - 土俗村參雞湯 (토속촌삼계탕)

Do you like ginseng chicken? If you do, you need to try the one from Tosokchon. :) That's where we had ours today. :)

A minor accident happened while we were there. I dropped my camera while removing my boots and as a result, the manual function of the lens was spoilt. :~~(  So not much pics were taken of the restaurant.  I would have enjoyed my meal better if not because of the boo boo...

Unlike other restaurants which serves kimchi & preserved pickles in dishes, we were given a pot of each and to take as much as we wanted. We didn't take much though...

We wanna save our tummies for ginseng chicken! :) This is superb for a chilly day. ^.*

Ginseng chicken is a one pot dish. There's so much goodness stuffed in the chicken's tummy. See the ginseng?

Details of Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken Soup:

85-1 Chebu-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea

T: +82 2 737 7444

Direction:

Take the subway to Gyeongbokgung (Line 3)

Exit 2

Walk straight towards Hyoja-dong direction until you see GS25, turn left

Day 6: Bukchon Hanok Village

We started our day 6 by visiting Bukchon Hanok Village.  It is home to hundreds of traditional houses (hanok), dating back to the Joseon Dynasty. Today, many of the hanoks have turned into cultural centres, guesthouses, restaurants and tea houses.

Nonetheless a significant numbers are private residential and as such we needed to keep our volume down so as not to disturb the residents.

It's encouraging to see the Koreans preserving their tradition & culture while embracing the future. :) Lin & I would love to own one traditional Chinese courtyard house someday. :)

:) Caught Tina in action.

It was a morning of traveling back in time...:)

Direction to Bukchon Hanok Village:

We walked from Rakkojae (our guesthouse accomodation).

If you're going by the subway, take the train to Anguk Station. Exit 2 and follow the map.

Day 5: Seoul Lantern Festival 2011

Our trip coincided with Seoul Lantern Festival 2011! We headed down to Cheonggyecheon Stream after dinner to view the dazzling paper masterpieces. :)

There was a huge but orderly crowd. We queued to go down to the river bank where the floating lanterns were. The exhibition stretched from Cheonggyecheon Plaza all the way to Seungyo Bridge.

The following are lanterns which we found impressive. Enjoy! ;)

The horoscopes

Knights in shining amour

The imperial musicials

Imperial guards

Street celebration

Traditional wedding

Chang Er

Ancient God

Beside viewing the wonderful giant lantern sculptures of master craftsmen, visitors penned down their wishes on small paper lanterns and released them into the river. :)

Such a pretty sight!

There was a slight drizzle on our way back to Rakkojae & we were locked out even though we were back at 11pm. The ajuma who was supposed to open the door for us wasn't around. In the end, two kind Japanese guests opened the door for us! That was after a good 15mins banging on the door. What a nite! :)))

Direction to Cheonggyecheon Stream:
Take the subway to City Hall Station (Line 1), Exit 4 to street level
Walk pass the Korean Press Centre, continue until you see spiral Christmas like sculpture
Walk down the stairs at the sculpture

Day 5: Look, See, Buy at Insadong

Off to Insadong we go. :) My SLR camera battery had gone completely flat. :( So I had to rely on my lumix (battery running out soon as well) & Iphone for photo taking. : / Lesson learnt: Always charge the camera battery...

Insadong represents Korea's culture of the past & present. As such you find many art gallery, antique and traditional stationery shops here. There are many pretty alleys that connect to Insadong.

You might want to follow this guide as you explore Insadong. :)

We stopped by at Ssamzigil, a traditional culture & shopping complex. :)

There was a fair selling handmade products while we were there. :)

Lin & I bought a porcelain music box from one of the shop. :) Something Korean for the new house again. :D

There's a famous Hoduk shop in Insadong which Lin said we needed to try. :) And yeah, it was good!

Hoduk is made from corn with peanut & sugar syrup filling in the center. It tasted a little like the peanut pancake we have in Singapore, but it's more liquid.

Time just flew and we had to head back to Rakkojae for sirloin BBQ dinner. :)

To get to Insadong:
Take the subway to Anguk Station and exit at Exit 6