KOREA trip January 26, 2018 Part 1 (MyeongDong, Mangwon market, Zapangi)

February 8, 2018

Travel

With day one done, onto the second day in Korea! This day was a lot more relaxed since I didn’t have to rush to three meetings, trying to find offices in the freezing cold. Today’s agenda was just relaxing, going to the Mangwon market where they have traditional foods/ food stalls, then heading over to the Instagram famous cafe called Zapangi. Let me walk you through my day, picture by picture since it is easier that way. I had to spilt this day in two since it would get way too long if it was just one post. Let’s get started~
Every morning, I would walk through the Namdaemun underground market to walk to the subway station. Unfortunately for me, every morning I would wake up at 8 am naturally, and nothing is opened until 9 am or 10 am. So I never really shopped here but I think I should have gave it a chance since I could have maybe found my long lost Italian toilets HAHA.Walking to my next transfer station, I came across this little bakery where they baked fresh breads. I was super hungry but on the run, so I grabbed a toast which had egg and ham baked right in. I thought the bread was warm since there was steam on the packaging, but unfortunately it was ice cold T_T.

Now I think back, 2,500 won ($2.50 USD) is quite expensive for bread. I have heard that Korean baked goods are a lot sweeter then the American counterpart. This toast combo, you’d think it would be savoury but the bread itself had some type of sweetener, honey I think? It was a little too sweet for my liking, but I still inhaled it since I was hungry.

After my fail of trying to walk to Myeong Dong shopping street on my first day, I finally reached Myeong Dong by train through amazing instructors from my Korean friends. Naver map definitely is the way to go but unfortunately it is all in Korean. Google map doesn’t tell you which exit to get out of, which is annoying since Korean subway systems has seven million exits. If you guys want to get to Myeong Dong shopping street, get off of Myeong Dong station and out by exit 6. Also when you head over to exit 6, check out the underground shopping there. They actually have pretty decent trendy clothes for an affordable price. It is also the best place to get socks since it is 1,000 won each and if you get 10 pairs, you get one free. I got 10 pairs of socks in Hongdae but they didn’t give me a free one :'(. Also surprisingly, Hongdae prices are higher the Myeong Dong and Gangnam underground shopping center.

I finally set foot in the dreamland of K-beauty. Funny thing is, I didn’t even buy any cosmetics when I was there. I only stopped in Myeong dong that day since I had to wait for my friend to head to our next destination and this was the only time I could squeeze in to shop around here. There was multiple of the same stores like Skinfood, Aritaum, the face shop and Holika Holika. So odd, I don’t know why you need so many of the same ones. There is also the biggest Olive Young here and Boots as well. I’d definitely hit up the Olive Young there since they have the best selection in terms of brands and selection as well. Clothing shopping here is decent but I’d definitely look around before splurging all your money here. And a lot of brands have bulk best since this is a tourist hot spot. If you really want to get the good deals and going to be travelling in other places of Seoul, hold off since you might get a better deal elsewhere. But it seems like Myeong Dong still has the same sales/ promos.

It still surreal to me I was standing in Aritaum and didn’t get anything LOL. I felt like I should but at the same time, nothing was calling my name.
Buy two get two free? DAMN! LOL but color correctors doe… you know me and color correctors HAHA. Sick of em after 2016’s boom of color correcting everything.

I was super tempted to get these from Iope but from testing it out in stores, it seemed really sticky.

I was also in A’peiu!! One of my favourite brands ever! They have super affordable products and a lot of them are quite nice. I should have bought back ups of my favourite honey milk sleeping lip masks but forgot T_T.

They came out with new lippies and the packaging looks so nice. I couldn’t pick out a shade I liked though so didn’t end up getting any.

I also stopped by the Artbox there, but it was a small one. I was tempted to get another face masks since mine was getting moist and had make up all over it, but I liked that it contoured my face nicely. I really wanted to get the bear one though hehe.

Now I’ve seen this cat before and they sell for super expensive here in Vancouver. The prints are SUPER cute and I was expecting the price to be high as well. but to my surprise, the prices were decent. I had my eye on the banana cat and knew I wanted something with the banana cat, but didn’t know which size. I ended up getting the teal pouch with the banana cat as well as a strawberry cat for my best friend :P.

SO STINKIN’ CUTE!

It was time to head over to the Mangwon market. I was super excited to eat at the food stalls since I’ve never tried them and plus, you see them always in K-dramas hehe.

Look at all those delicious food!! Steam= food. Whenever lost in Seoul, head over to steam HAHA. Fish cakes on a stick, deep fried goodness, tteokbokki (rice cakes)… UGH LET ME BACK INTO THE MARKET!

We walked through the whole market to see what we want to eat and ended up at this stall. I thought we were just going to stand and eat, but my friend actually got us VIP seats inside. HAHA okay joking about the VIP seats but you can actually head into the “restaurant” inside, order your street food and they will bring it in for you so you can sit comfortably and eat. This would be a little hard if you don’t know Korean but I mean you can always do sign language.

When you head inside, you actually help yourself with the water and condiments like the soy sauce and radish. There is also tissue boxes built into the wall if you need some as well. Oh also the utensil, you’ll have to grab yourself.

We ordered a serving of Odang 오뎅 (fish cake on a stick) which comes with a nice refreshing fish stock with green onions and also tteokbokki 떡볶이 (rice cake with spicy sauce). The rice cakes in Korea is a lot less “hard” as the ones you can get in Vancouver. I suspect it has something to do with their flour there. It is a lot lighter in texture and mouth feel, a lot more enjoyable actually since it doesn’t feel so heavy in your stomach.

The kimbap (김밥) we got was the beef one which was about 4,000 won. It was a lot better then anything I’ve gotten in Vancouver since the rice is actually warm, and the seaweed is brushed with seasame oil. Yummy!

After that, we headed over to the Instagram famous cafe called “Zapangi”. They are famous for their very interesting looking door which is a hot pink vending machine. Cafe culture in Korea is none other and cafes are usually decorated in a very beautiful and appealing way. This one had the concept of desserts in a tin, doughnuts and delicious milk teas.

Those of you that want to come here, here is the address:
서울 마포구 월드컵로13길 79 (79 World Cup-ro 13-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul)

It is super close to the Mangwon market, so definitely hit the place up.

Don’t be afraid to open the vending machine because that is actually the door!

Walking in, it looks exactly what it looks like in vlogs. The place has very simple displays but the attention to detail with the hot pink touches, retro looking speakers and even the washroom was super cute! They offer bottled milk teas, fresh coffees and espresso, desserts in a tin as well as doughnuts.

I really wanted to try the tiramisu but I was too full at this point to want to get one.

Sorry about the lightening for the doughnuts. They had this weird blue florescent lighting which is horrible for photos.

As for the milk tea, they offered a strawberry milk, black soy milk, original and a jasmine one I believe? Each milk tea was 5,500 won which is quite expensive to be honest but I was already there so I might as well. On top of that, we just wanted to get out of the cold hehe.

I personally picked the black soy milk tea since it was the most unique. I actually think you can keep the bottle if you wanted to but I didn’t want to lug it around with me all day. My bag was heavy enough as is. You can actually request for your milk to be heated up which was great because my lovely period decided to show up during this day. GREAT! I don’t know if it is a thing for all my ladies out there, but when I’m on my time of the month, I can’t drink cold things unless I want nice big stomach aches that feels like someone punching me in my ab area.

I have to say, this was definitely THE best milk tea I have ever had. Now I’ve drank a lot of milk teas in my life, but something about this one was special. The milk was smooth, the tea was smooth and didn’t have that gritty after texture on the tongue. The tea itself was strong in flavour but was also mellow and worked with the black soy milk. There was just great harmony throughout the drink and now I want to know how they did it. It’s truly amazing. I went into this place thinking it was just going to be one of those gimmicky, trendy cafes that would close down in a couple months. But I truly thing Zapangi got something going on for them and I can definitely give you a thumbs up for this place.