Back to Hongdae once again but this time to visit the Trick Eye Museum. I, personally, love 3D art. Last year, when we were in Lotte World, we tried their Trick Eye Museum as well but it was pretty small, so I was really looking forward to this one and I loved it.

The entry fee is 18.000 Won but you can get a discount of 3.000 Won if you download their app. However, they won't check if you actually downloaded it, so just claim that you will and they will give you the discount. Nevertheless, the AR (Augmented Reality) app is totally worth getting and it's free so you should give it a try. The museum basically works on the premise of taking a shot in the correct angle to achieve the effect of an optical illusion.

When we exited the Trick Eye Museum, we entered a Mirror Maze, which was short but fun. Our ticket also included the entrance to the Ice Museum, which wasn't that big but that's probably the good point in the other hand. Since it's so freaking cold inside you can't stay there for long. I think it took us 10 or 15 minutes to see everything.

Around noon we headed to the Yeouido Hangang Park. It's a very long rectangular one that is pretty famous. The park is divided into four themes mainly the Traditional Korean Forest, Grass Square, Culture Square, and Nature’s Ecosystem Forest. Sadly we were one or two weeks late and the cherry blossoms were all gone but I bet it must have been very beautiful with all the trees.


We were strolling along the tranquil Han River until we found a quite place to sit down and have a small picnic. The skyline was beautiful and the weather was pretty much perfect (28°C). I don't know how long we've been sitting there eating fruits while laughing about the photos we took in the Trick Eye Museum but I enjoyed this quality time with my friend ♥

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We headed to Hongik University once again and guess who we met by surprise? Amy! Read this post if you're curious about our very first meeting and the ritual we've performed. However, she was busy with finding new foreigners to teach them about Korean History and that is why we only had a small chat but it was nice seeing her again.

Hongdae is a vibrant shopping area with tons of restaurants and cafes for hangouts with friends. There are also lots of street artists and live performances. As for example, we have watched some nice groups dancing to the latest k-pop songs.
It's usually very crowded, so it's better to come here during weekdays and as early as possible but if you want to watch those artists you are probably better of with coming here in the late noon or on weekends.


Around late noon we left for Gwanghwamun. There was an traditional lantern exhibition which was held in remembrance of Buddha's birthday. Actually there were three different places to visit but we chose Cheonggyecheon, where we could see the lanterns displayed above the water. It was a very beautiful scenery but, as you can imagine, be aware of all the couples there haha.

Namsan Park today! Olé olé! We bought a 6000 Won One Way ticket for the cable car that brought us on top of the mountain to the N Seoul Tower. It's very easy to get there. Take exit 4 at Myeongdong Station and you will see Paris Baguette. From there walk straight and turn left when you reach the cross junction. It's a 10-15 minutes walk straight from there.

Actually, the plan was to find some quiet place and then have a picnic but it was way too crowded. The view, though, was majestic especially because it was Spring time. 

Since we've already been on top of the Lotte World Tower, we passed on the N Seoul Tower but I heard it changes color scheme during night, has an observatory, a restaurant and a mall. However, we spent some time looking at the Locks of Love and then decided to take a walk at a leisurely pace while eating snacks and drinking banana & melon milk.

Around 6:30 pm we went to Dongdaemun to watch the Lotus Lantern Parade, which is held every year in late April to celebrate Buddha's birthday. The festival itself has a long history of over 1.200 years. Nowadays, it has become a festival that is enjoyed by every kind of people, whether they are Buddhists or not. You can see over 100.000 lanterns in different shapes and colors. It was very impressive, especially those two giant dragons that moved around and could spit fire. I would love to watch it again someday.

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Myeongdong has so much to offer. I never get sick of walking through Myeongdong's streets. This time we searched for T-shirts and sleeveless tops but ended up with buying anything else than that. As long as it was cute, we bought it. However, be careful of those salesmen & women that stand in front of the stores and give you "free" giveaways. When you accept it, they'll drag you into the store no matter if you want or not.

We found the Goyangi Noriteo Cat Cafe (고양이놀이터) by surprise and decided to give it a try. I've never been in one in contrast to my friend, who checked it out two years ago in Japan, but it's hella cute. 
When you enter the cafe, you have to take off your shoes and put on slippers, then desinfect your hands. You have to pay an admission fee, which is around 8000 Won if I remember it correctly, but it includes a drink of your choice and you can stay as long as you want. The cashier will also tell you a few rules on how to handle the cats and will inform you to pay attention on the color of the scarf that the cats are wearing. Blue scarf signifies that the cat is not feeling very well and the red scarf means that you better do not touch or risk getting clawed. Cats with no scarf are no problem at all.
You can get there by taking exit 6 from the Myeongdong subway station. (66-4 Myeong-dong Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea)


We also found my new all-time favorite fashion store: Boy London. It's very pricy but I love their style and just had to buy this one jacket with the golden wings on the back.

And since everyone is talking about Korean beauty products, we bought some face masks and put them on as soon as we arrived back in the hotel. But I think we bought crap since it looked funny but didn't feel any different afterwards and my friend had to take hers off after a short time due to the fact that it got very hot.

Actually the plan was to go to Wangsimni, north east of the Han River, and find an awesome arcade  to still the needs of our gamer hearts. However, the plan failed. The center we were looking for no longer exists and we found Wangsimni all in all pretty boring, that's when we decided to check out the Hongik university since I've been told it's pretty lively and a great spot to hang out.

Fact: it took us only thirty minutes to get invited to some kind of traditional ritual by two Korean students, Amy and Sam, and since they've mentioned food I couldn't resist, haha. They brought us to their studio where we met the other students and lots of foreigners from all over the world. There were people from the US, Finland, Poland, Australia, Switzerland and many more that all came together to perform the ritual.

Amy and Sam taught us the meaning of the ritual and showed us how to perform it. It was pretty interesting. All in all you can say you do it for your deceased family members, to open some kind of gate for them so that they can rest in heaven. Since it's a buddhistic ritual they believe that by performing it you yourself will earn lots of luck and happiness but you're not allowed to tell anyone about the details since doing so will decrease your luck step by step.


All I can say is: we were allowed to wear Hanboks! I found them pretty comfortable but they're not suitable for this kind of ritual in my eyes. It was really exhausting and the silk didn't let us breathe properly. All of us sweat so much but then again, I think it's okay that this is hella exhausting since you do it only once in your lifetime and it's for the sake of your family and yourself, so I won't complain.

In the end we shared some snacks all together and got to know each other. All in all a brilliant experience I wouldn't wanna miss.

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