You Are Here Cafe - Grand Opening Day
For those of you who know Eat Your Kimchi and Talk To Me In Korean, you probably heard about the cafe they're opening in Hongdae. So yesterday was the grand opening day for You Are Here Cafe and I (plus hundreds other nasties that were in town) showed our support by showing up for the big day. So here's how the day went.
On their video, they said that the cafe will open at 10 am. I got there a little late, around 10.10am-ish and there's already a line that was formed in front of the cafe (and it's quite far from the entrance of the cafe). If you see the picture below, the cafe entrance is approximately around where the trees are.
The line was moving pretty slowly and I think after 30 mins or so, there were even more people that came after me. The line has gotten really really long then after. About 50 mins in, Simon and Martina came out one after the other saying that they want buy water for people who were waiting in line. Very thoughtful of them :) So then minutes later, water was distributed to the people in line. Hyun Woo from TTMIK also came out to help distribute water. They also stopped and chatted with a couple of people, said hi, and took a couple of selfies.
Right in front of the gate, Soo Zee who was selling the EYK mugs. She was so nice too, chatting with people and taking pictures.
After about 1.5 hours or so, I finally stood on the front yard. More waiting, but at least I got to see how the place look like now.
Finally inside the cafe! Took about 2+ hours or so. The first floor is where they have the counter, merchandise, the study room (which TTMIK is talking about in their video—I'm guessing), and a separate seating area.
On to the second floor...
Even after I've been inside for a while, the line outside was still quite long..
Simon and Martina finally came to the 2nd floor and spent time hanging out with people. They listened to people's stories and chatted with them for quite some times (plus the usual signing and photo taking session). It was just like a fan-meet event. Simon and Martina were very friendly, approachable, and down to earth :) Same goes for Hyunwoo of TTMIK who I talked to briefly.
