Hongdae Street, Gwangjang Market & Cheonggyecheon River

The Hongdae Street (Hongik University station, Line 2, Exit 9) offers a glimpse into Korea's youth culture.

Wall paintings by Korean Red Cross

Wall paintings by Korean Red Cross

Wall paintings by Korean Red Cross

A diner at Hongdae Street that specializes in pigs' feet dishes.

Hongik University is famous for its fine arts courses, and on every Saturday (Mar-November only), there is an art market (or FREE MARKET as they call it) at the Hongdae playground from 1pm - 6pm. Hongdae is actually a contraction of HONGik DAEhakgyoh 홍익대학교 (Hongik University).

Students from Hongdae will set up stalls at the Hongdae playground and have their products and art designs (some in the form of audio/video) sold there. Many are handmade. Got myself a reasonably-priced purse there (although mine is mass-manufactured product) for 16000₩. The market isn't as big as I expected it to be, but for those who are a fan of art, you should pay this space a visit.

Some stalls prohibit photo-taking, so I didn't.

There was a cute guy (properly-dressed, stylish messy hair, typical representation of an art person, still cute nonetheless) who gets your caricature done in 10 seconds. The cost? Only 10₩ (MRY0.03!) and erm, a long wait. But I guess it was worth the wait.

Before we went to Hongdae art market, Grace and I stopped by a small shop somewhere near Hongik U for lunch. You see the guy in the picture below? He's running a one-man show. It's a small shop, but he's the host, the waiter, the cook, and also the cashier.

Cheese Ramyeon. Try this at home! :)

Odeng (fish cake) and Ddeokbokki (Spicy Korean rice cake)

A building that sells paper/paper products.

That is just one example, but you really gotta give the Koreans a clap for their architecture. Go to Hongdae and you'll see what I mean.

After a Mary-Go-round (cos we got lost looking for the Market pfffttt), it's time for some much-needed rest for our exhausted legs. We stopped at a yogurt place at Hongdae and hanged there a bit to tap on their free wi-fi.

Decided to head to Gwangjang Market 광장시장 (Euljiro 4-ga station, Line 2, Exit 4) before we got too comfortable (and sleepy) sitting there.

Food stalls

World of textiles

Busy and crowded stalls

Wanted to try 빈대떡 (Bindaetteok, mungbean pancake), but it seemed like there was only one stall selling it in this market. We waited for about 10mins, but the queue in front of us is still long. Besides, those patrons seated behind are still waiting patiently for their order. I overheard one of them ordering 10 pieces and each piece takes about 5mins to fry. Gonna try this another time instead.

Stuffed ourselves silly with kimchi dumplings as no sharing is allowed. Each bowl has about 7 or 8 pieces. -_-. It's not bad, but I don't think I will order this again.

Kimbap (mini version) - this portion is meant for one. Made with only carrot and radish strips. No less yummy nonetheless.

잡채 Japchae (Korean glass noodle with mixed veg)

After dinner, we strolled along Cheonggyecheon River leisurely. As the river is very long (8.4km), you can start walking from many different starting points. We started ours mid-way, which was near the Gwangjang Market.

According to the signage at our starting point, this is a Waterfall. So much hope we had to seeing a real Waterfall -_-'''

Night falls.

View of the river from a bridge

 
We stopped after 45minutes since we still have to walk back to the start for subway.  Saw a 녹차 호떡 (Nokcha Hotteok, green tea pancake) cart along the way and sat down for one last munch from Gwangjang Market before we called it a night.

Different stall fills the dough with different fillings. This is filled with brown sugar, chopped peanuts and cinnamon. Best eaten as soon as it is served or while it's warm.