Shopping & Cafe Hopping at Garosugil

Today, we’re planning to meet up with a couple of our friends and decided to just hang out at Garosugil (가로수길) the whole day to do some shopping and cafe hopping. Soyoung and David joined us for the afternoon as we started going from one store to another. The first store that I took them to was Village 11 Factory, which is one of my favorite store in Garosugil. Not only they have a very interesting store concept and decor, I actually like their products, especially their body wash (try it if you ever in the area. They provide samples and sink for you to try the body wash). We took some pictures inside the store as well as the outdoor area of the store and bought some stuff before heading to the next stop.

Next, we stopped by Villa Soohyang, a fragrance store that sells candles, diffusers, and room sprays with different scents. The location of this store is a little bit hidden and away from the busier area of Garosugil. As we enter the two story building, we immediately looked around the products they have on display and started smelling the samples of the different scents they have available. There are 33 types of basic fragrances at Soohyang that you can choose from, which is more than plenty in my opinion. I lost track of which scent is which after I smelled my fifth scent.

After we bought some candles we headed out and decided to get some coffee. Garosugil has tons of cafes to choose from which made it difficult for us to decide on where to go. But after contemplating for a bit, we ended up at Milestone Coffee (마일스톤 커피) which we passed by earlier. The weather was really nice and we kinda want to sit outside to enjoy the warm spring sun and Milestone Coffee actually has outdoor seating that looked perfect for what we have in mind. We ordered some coffee, hot chocolate, and some tiramisu for dessert. I know Christina and I just had tiramisu the other day, but I swear tiramisu was really popular during that season for some reason and it seemed that every other cafes decided to just sell tiramisu for their dessert menu. The tiramisu themselves were okay. We ordered the original flavor and the matcha flavor and they were definitely less creamy than the one we had at Cafe Mula. The drinks were good too.

We sat there and chatted for a while, trading fun stories from our travels and David certainly has many of those apparently. He told us about how he met Gary Pepper Girl a.k.a Nicole Warne, his long time idol, at Singapore airport and also his accidental encounter with G-Dragon who was leaving from an event that he passed by. I’m a fan of G-Dragon too and we all saw his Instagram story updates recording the whole ordeal the day before, so we were all pretty excited to hear what happened straight from the source.

After we’re all stuffed with tiramisu and fully caffeinated, the shopping and store hopping continues. We went to a couple of different places, where sometimes one or more of us bought things from the stores. Other times, we just browse around and left the stores as soon as we’re done looking. Grace ended up buying snacks again from a small bakery that we passed by. And by the time it’s almost sunset, we decided to go check out another cafe and take a break from the shopping.

Skinfood Cafe was the last place that we checked out. David wanted to come here and so we went. The place is actually served as Skinfood Store and Cafe. The first floor is where the store displays and sells their beauty products in and if you go up the second floor, that’s where the cafe is located. Before we settled ourselves inside the cafe, we actually went to their rooftop terrace to check out the view. We thought if the area is comfortable enough for us to sit outside, we were going to do that. But the area wasn’t as cosy or inviting as the other cafe we visited so after taking pictures around the rooftop (and Grace finished eating the bread that she bought from the bakery) we headed down to the indoor seating area and placed our orders. We talked some more before David has to leave and with that, we concluded our hang out in Garosugil.

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Villa Soohyang

Address: 서울특별시 강남구 신사동 551-8
Telephone: 02-516-5518
Hours: 11:00 - 20:00

Instagram: @soohyangofficial

Milestone Coffee (마일스톤 커피)

Address: 서울 강남구 논현로159길 49
Telephone: 070-4219-1195
Hours: Monday-Saturday 11:30 - 22:30 | Sunday 11:30 - 22:00

Instagram: @milstone_coffee

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Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 04 - Cafe Mula & Hangout at Garosugil

Travel Vertical Vlog

Went to a workshop with Christina and then for an afternoon coffee at Cafe Mula in Garosugil. Ended the day with a funny incident where one of us got separated from the group.

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Tea & Tiramisu at Cafe Mula

On our fourth day in Seoul, we split into two groups. Christina and I went to a floral workshop that Christina signed up for and Grace and Marshellia went to do their own thing. Funny thing about the workshop was they supposed to provide a translator for Christina. But for some odd reason, they thought Christina speaks Chinese (I’m guessing there were probably a lot of Chinese participants in this workshop). We found out about this miscommunication the night before the workshop and they told her that the only translator that’s going to come tomorrow was a Korean-Chinese translator and Christina doesn’t speaks any Chinese. So as a last minute fix, I became the last minute back up plan. I’m in no way a professional translator, but I’m pretty good at understanding day to day conversations. So we thought it’s better than no translator at all.

We reached the place a little early and decided to get some breakfast first before heading to the workshop. When the time came, we were lead to this outdoor rooftop area where the teacher has already prepared some materials for the participants. And as soon as the workshop started, so did the light drizzle from the sky. It started raining lightly when the teacher was explaining to the group what they’re going to do for this session. Umbrellas were opened, and everybody was concentrating on listening under the rain.

When the teacher was demonstrating the technique she was teaching, there was this one girl who helped out the teacher and we both assumed that person was the assistant. But after a while, I started talking to her and found out that she’s also another participant. And guess what? She speaks perfect English. We quickly explained Christina’s situation to her and she gladly offered to help translate for Christina. And from that point on, my service was no longer needed. I ended up just hanging out and observing the workshop. It was pretty interesting since I never been to a floral workshop before.

The workshop soon moved indoor since the rain was getting heavier, which I’m kinda glad they did that because I was starting to get a little bit soaked since we had to share a small umbrella between the two of us. So for the rest of the workshop, we were all warm and protected from the rain. I ended up waiting for Christina to finish while drinking some tea that they gave to us. In the end, the teacher told her that she did a good job with her arrangements and we left as soon as she’s done with her session.

After the workshop, we the plan was to meet up with the rest of the gang in Garosugil. So we headed there and had some lunch before settling ourselves in Cafe Mula while waiting for Grace and Marshellia to come since we’re done before they arrived in the area. Christina was tired from the workshop and it was still drizzling outside, so the idea of staying indoors and just chill sounded perfect for the both of us. The cafe was pretty busy when we got there. It was a Friday after all. There were groups of friends and couples hanging out and we took a seat on an empty table in the middle of that crowd. We ordered teas and tiramisu, the dessert which the cafe was well know for, to share. The tiramisu was just okay. Too much cream and not enough ladyfingers for my taste. If you like cream heavy Tiramisu, you might like their tiramisu though. We were there until the rain stopped and we were ready to move around again.

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Seoul Spring '17 - Ep. 03 - Garosugil & Seongsu

Travel Vlog: Third day of the trip, we went cafe hopping in Seoul. From Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in Garosu-gil to Daelim Changgo in Seongsu. We also went to Common Ground and accidentally met a couple of celebrities when we were passing by an event that just finished.

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After we finished exploring Common Ground (see the story here), we started to make our way to the next cafe we wanted to check out. And this was when an unexpected happy coincidence of meeting a couple of Korean celebrities happened. So we were walking to our next destination when suddenly we saw a bunch of people exiting a storage-like building that we just happened to be passing by. Since there were a lot of young and well-dressed people coming out from the building, we were curious on what’s going on and whether there was some kind of an event that just ended. So, we decided to just stand there and watch the people for a bit.

Soon enough, suddenly there was this woman and a group of people around her who was walking out in quite a rush. At first, we couldn’t make out her face since she’s still a bit far, but by looking at her entourage, we’re pretty sure she’s somebody famous. We just weren’t sure who she was. And then when the group was closer to us, we immediately recognized the woman. Turned out it was Choi Soo Young from Girls’ Generation! My camera hasn’t started recording when she was facing us, so I only caught a glimpse of her back when she turned for the alley. But we’re sure it was her. She’s pretty tall and her face is kinda hard to forget. And then minutes later, Minzy, former member of 2NE1, also walked out with her mom and her entourage. The girls were excited because they didn’t expect to see anybody famous on the street of Seoul, but there we were, just happened to saw two Korean celebrities who we recognized. It was definitely one of the exciting moment from the trip.

After we all came down from the excitement from minutes before, we finally arrived at our next destination, Daelim Changgo (click to read more about the place). The place was a bit busy, but there were still empty chairs to choose from since they have a very spacious seating area. We spent our afternoon there before heading back to Hongdae to get some dinner.

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Mr. Holmes & Common Ground

Kicked off our third day in Seoul by going for breakfast at Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in Garosugil. I actually already know about Mr. Holmes since I was still living in the State, but I never actually went to their original shop in San Francisco. Since it’s just opened in Seoul, thought it’d be fun to go and check the place out. We passed by the first floor of the bakehouse that served as a take-out only counter and went up the stairs to the cafe area. We ordered teas and a couple of different pastries, including their famous cruffin. It was okay, not too bad but I wouldn’t say it’s super good either (but then again, I’m no food critique).

After we finished breakfast, we took the bus and headed to Common Ground (커먼그라운드), a shopping area made out of blue containers. The shops actually located inside these blue containers ranging from clothing brands to cafe and restaurants. I quite like this place because they sell pretty cool design products. So, if you are like me, a person who doesn’t really shop a lot, coming here to just window shop is actually perfect. Some part of the complex was under construction preparing for new tenants to move in, but there was still plenty for us to see. And we, of course, also made the time to took some pictures in front of these photogenic blue containers. There were so many people taking pictures at this spot, especially for their OOTD shots, and we kinda have to wait for our turns (thank God people were pretty orderly and good at taking turns). After we finished, we headed to the second floor for lunch.

We went for Chinese food for lunch and ordered the three things that people usually order when coming to a Chinese restaurant in Korea: Jjajangmyeon, Jjamppong, and Tangsuyuk. We also ordered the Crab Fried Rice to try out an extra dish and they were all pretty good (the Crab Fried Rice was just average though). Grace said she had better Jjajangmyeon prior to this (she lived in Korea at some point in her live) but the rest of the group seemed to be happy with the lunch, including me. The food was good and we were stuffed at the end of the meal.

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