Colorful Pops

With spring official began yesterday, the weather is finally warming up here in Seoul. We've been blessed with double digits temperature here these past few days, and yesterday was the probably the first time I actually felt hot in a very long time. Really was a perfect day for things like good milkshake or ice cream. If any of you need an idea where to go to get a good ice cream, might wanna check out this place.

So a couple of weeks back, Seoul weather has been pretty cold. I think it's mostly because of the wind, rather the temperature. The 30+ km/ph wind could really makes it feels like -15C. Ugh. After a couple of those days, I was so glad that the temperature suddenly got warmer and the sun decided greet us in Seoul—with no freezing cold winds blowing I might add. And that day turned out to be the day that my friends and I decided on to go Molly's Pops (몰리스팝스), a small popsicle shop in Hongdae/Hapjeong area. I've been seeing pictures of these colorful popsicles on instagram and wanted to know if they taste as good as they look, and they do. The ice cream is not very sweet, but it has distinct flavor one from the other. We ordered different flavors so we can try more than one flavor and everybody liked it. They also have unique flavors, such as Kahlua Makgeolli (Korean rice wine), but I think since it's winter, the selection is less than what they have in the summer time. Gonna go back again next time, maybe when the weather is a little warmer so that I can see what more unique flavors they have in store.

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Les Ephemeres

Les Ephemeres (레제페메르) is hidden in a small alley in Hapjeong (합정). My friend and I was walking around the neighborhood and decided to picked a random place we never been to take a break from all the walking around the neighborhood we did earlier. We actually found the place when we turned to an alley to look at murals on the white wall on the side of the alley but to our surprised there's a cafe entrance at the end of it. Nobody was inside when we walked in, so the place's really quite. Picked a table and started to browse through the menu. They have coffee, tea, wine and beer on their drinks menu so you'll never run out of choices. There're also a good selections of cakes if you feel like having something sweet to go with you drinks. Since both my friend and I are not a coffee drinker, we opted for their tea selections. Can't remember the name of the teas we ordered, but they both were good. When I was taking pictures of the place, I noticed a 'Reserved' sign on the long table at the back of the cafe. Later on, I found out that this place do cater to private/small dinner party as well. Last thing, they have these architectural sketches up on the wall, which I totally adore. 

Mo' Better Blues Cafe

What do you do to unwind? For me, reading and listening to music is one way to do it. Jazz in particular can give me that relieve of tension when I needed one. Of all the cafes I've visited so far here in Seoul, Mo' Better Blues Cafe probably has one of the better jazz playlists playing in their cafe. It's not necessarily new musics, lots of them are from the times I grew up or even way before that—the classic jazz songs—but nevertheless, it gave me a nice sense of familiarity in this city that's still fairly unfamiliar to me. 

A little about the place, the whole cafe is actually bigger than what I imagined. They have 4 floors, but I think they only open all floors during busier times. They have good selection of drinks and snacks. And the place is good for a study place as well, unless you run into a bunch of noisy high school girls which I did. Even so, you can escape that by trying to go to another floor if that happens to you. The cafe also has a patio area on the first floor which can be used even during winter (they turned up the heater pretty high in there).

With that said, now I'm going to make myself a cup of hot cocoa, listen to some jazz, and unwind. Hope everybody is having a great week so far :)

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Furs & Paws

All of the many things I'm fascinated with living in South Korea, one of them is cafe with animals. As some of you might know, cat or dog cafe is pretty popular around here. It's certainly a new thing for me when I first read about it and I'm a little curious on what the experience of going to a cat or dog cafe would be like. And so, when one of my friend was in town visiting, he had the same curiosity. Only probably his curiosity's bigger than mine because that's how we ended up (actually) going to a cat cafe in Hongdae area. 

We went to Cheong Chun Cat Cafe (청춘 고양이) that's located on the 3rd floor of a building on an alley in Hongdae (홍대). We took off our shoes, put on some slippers, and sanitized our hand before coming into the cafe. Then right away, when we entered the waiter instructed us to pay our entrance fee (W9,000) which gave us a free drink as well. After paying, we were given a locker where we can put our coats and bags into, you know, to avoid the cat furs I guess and assigned us a table. From then onwards, we pretty much free to play with the cats in the cafe.

Funny thing, although we decided to went to a cat cafe, both me and my friend actually have an allergy to animal furs. So we stayed as long as we can until one of us started to have teary eyes and sneezing continuously. And of course not long after that, the other one followed. So after that, we concluded our cat cafe adventure and left. It was definitely and a fun interesting experience. 

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Lasim Cafe

A small quite cafe tucked in Ehwa University's area. The most memorable thing for me about this place is probably that they served Lucky Charms cereal with your ordered drinks. I mean, how great is that? (I'm a sucker for Lucky Charms :P) Haven't had that cereal for a while so it was a lovely surprise :) They also give you lollipop with your order. According to their menu, they have brunch available too during the day. Pancakes and everything. Maybe I'll try that for my next visit.

And oh, I'm back in Seoul from my vacation. Will post more stuff soon (hopefully). Happy New Year 2015! :)