Day 10+11: Edae~

Edae is a well known shopping district in Seoul. It's located near the Ewha Women's University. It's close by Hongdae and Sinchon (which are also other shopping districts). However, the charm of Edae is how cheap everything is. The clothes are mostly aimed at female students, but you can also find some male clothes too. 

You can find some really great bargains here! I bought 2 tops for 15,000 KRW, 2 pairs of leggings (which are super warm!) for 20,000 KRW and these boots for 42,000 KRW. Bags here are also super cheap. The quality isn't that great, but it isn't falling apart or anything. 

I did end up going back again to buy another pair of boots because I can't walk on the ice and snow too well with these. 

My Tips~

• Don't pay more than about 30,000 KRW for any one piece of clothing (unless it's a coat). Things go for extremely cheap and you can find really great pieces for about 5,000-20,000 KRW.
• When shopping for shoes, know exactly what you want to buy! Shop keepers won't like it if you keep trying on different pairs of shoes because the more you try, the more they think you'll buy something. 
• If you're confident with bargaining, then do so! I'm pretty terrible with bargaining because it makes me feel bad, but some people are really great.
• You cannot bargain however, if the price is already marked on the shoe. Usually it'll be on sale items. 
• Don't ever pay more than 55,000 KRW for shoes! Especially if they're a ankle boot or something like that. 
• If you see something you like, then buy it! There's no real point shopping around for the cheapest price because they're all around the same price anyway! Sometimes its a few thousand KRW difference only. 

Finally tried potato twirls! Because of how cold it was outside, my potato twirl was pretty much cold within the first 10 seconds of buying it. 

Day 5: 홍대, 이태원

Today was shopping day. I met up with Tony to start our day. 

Tony really likes these vitamin drinks. So he bought one for me...

Our first stop for the day was 홍대 ( Hongdae ). Hongdae's feel is very indie and urban. Plenty of restaurants and cafes around but most open after around 2pm. There are also many little clothing stores that have clothing for cheap. I believe Haha and Gary's restaurants are around too.

Originally, we wanted to eat at Bar Sak but they weren't open till later. So we found La Lieto for some Italian food (I was craving something with cheese!)

Nom!

After lunch, we decided to do a bit of shopping, but on our way to the part of Hongdae with heaps of shopping, we saw this.

The Hello Kitty Cafe!

The prices are alright for a cafe. To be honest, you really just pay for the novelty. The Green Tea Iced Latte was okay... there was a little too much ice for my liking but most places put too much ice anyway.

The interior is super pink and so cute! It's actually a great place to chill and hang out if you're out with friends. 

If any of you watch Running Man, then you'll know that Song Jihyo wears a very memorable hat in an episode.

Well, the shop is called Hats On!

This is the hat I ended up buying. It's a bit of cute mixed with quirky punk (?).

Finally got myself a pair of Vans :) Navy blue

Our shopping haul... Not all of it was mine, but I did manage to get most of my shopping done. I'm not the type to take it slow on a trip and get my shopping done bits and pieces at a time. I either do all my shopping or none at all.

이태원 ( Itaewon ) was our next stop. Itaewon is known as the foreign town of Seoul. There are many foreign restaurants around. It's popular with a lot of tourist and hence, many of the shop assistants and owners speak a little bit more English than anywhere else.

We decided to eat dinner at the Korean Pancake ( 전 ) restaurant that Kim Jongkook, Lee Gwangsoo and Ji Sukjin went to in Episode 44 of Running Man. 

김치전 ( kimchi pancake ), 감자전 ( potato pancake ), 막걸리 ( rice wine )

We did a little bit more wandering and looking around places. We went back to Myeongdong (again) to buy a few more things since the shops were closed when we went yesterday. We eventually got really hungry since the pancakes didn't really fill us up. 

So we found a BBQ place near the COEX mall. The meat was so spicy! Tony ended up eating most of it (hehe) but I did train my tastebuds a little. Kimchi isn't so spicy to me anymore. 

Icecream to finish the night.

PONY