#JOJINTOSEOUL Banjang Tteokbokki, Entertainment Companies and Cafe Hopping

Hi there! Day 2 of #jojintoseoul!! 

Here is a mirror selfie of my outfit which i entirely bought from Express Bus Terminal Underground Shopping the previous day. Doesn't braids go so well with this look?

All the cafes we were headed to are all located at Sinsa Station. Sinsa is a definite area to explore as it is filled with many quirky hipster cafes! 

GINGKO AVENUE

First cafe stop was Gingko Avenue! We read about this cafe from ladyironchef, the link to the blog post is here: http://www.ladyironchef.com/2015/11/seoul-garosugil-best-cafes/. The waffles look so good, we had to try it for ourselves! We googled the location and quite easily found our way around. The cafe had royal purple cafe exterior decor on the second and third floor which can be spotted quite easily! This is the entrance of the cafe.

I ordered a caramel macchiato for 6,500 won. For the waffles, you can choose the type of waffle and flavors of the two scoops of Haagen Dazs ice cream. We chose belgian waffles with vanilla and chocolate ice cream for 8,500 won. It was pretty good I must say! The waffles was the crispy sort and when eaten with the whipped cream and ice cream.. heaven!!! Moreover since we shared, one person's expenses converted over to SGD is only about $5! Let me live there already...

3CE CINEMA

Moving on, we used google maps to help us get to 3CE! If you want the exact location of the place, you can head over to my Instagram: swxxjyy and hover over at my OOTD there with the location tag on the post! Korea's roads are so narrow and the cars can come really close to the side of the roads so be careful! The Snapchat filters are so pretty! ;")

The outlet was pretty small as they only focus on selling 3CE products. If I was not mistaken, there was another level either downstairs or upstairs which was the cinema. It was not open to the public so I did not question the staff. I bought myself the long wear eye crayon in iconic which costs 15,000 won. So in love with the pigmentation and long wearing as the name suggests!

This is the OOTD I was referring to if you are looking for the location tag on my Instagram!

LINE CAFE

Next cafe stop was LINE!! A place where you must go if you are a fan of these adorable characters! Actually, not a fan also should go and explore! This cafe was not far from Gingko Avenue and the exterior is so big, you confirm will not miss it! If you need the exact location, you can find it with this OOTD I took with Sally on my Instagram. I wanted to take a shot like how Sehun posted with brown on his Instagram but I did not have guts hahaha. Moreover, do not be surprised but there is a queue at the entrance of the place to take picture with brown. I suggest going to the cafe in the morning when there are lesser people!

We ordered an ice cream to share and it cost 3,800 won. Not too bad for ice cream! It has a strong vanilla milky taste but I honestly bought it for taking pictures.

BANJANG TTEOKBOKKI

This restaurant is located also at Sinsa Station, Exit 8. Joanne watches WGM Sungjae and Joy so that was how she wanted to go to this eatery. It has a cute concept of school lunches and the price range was affordable. 

I remember walking straight from exit 8 and the it was on the left next to Olive Young! I got some information from this blog post: https://bnbheroblog.com/2016/03/19/banjang-tteobokki/

We ordered the tteokbokki hotplate and an additional lunchbox to share. To be honest, it was too much for the both of us! It costed us 16,500 won in total! The tteokbokki was pretty spicy though but nothing beats Vivapolo's kimchi spaghetti hahaha!

FNC, SM AND JYP ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES

I found this map off google to help me get to the companies! First, you alight at Apujeong Rodeo Station, Exit 2 and follow the blue line on this map! Along the way, there was the kpop star road and several random street maps at the side too so keep a lookout for them!

UPDATE: I'm not too sure but CUBE underwent renovation or shifted so they are no longer at the existing location!

Some pictures I took of the companies' exterior.

Of course, my OOTD infront of SM.

There were so many cameramen and crew outside of JYP so we waited for about 45 minutes before.... TIFFANY CAME OUT!! I was really not expecting her at all coming out from JYP but I'm guessing she was having a schedule there! I was surprised at her petite frame actually! She came out to grab coffee from Dunkin Donut then headed back up. I managed to greet her in Korean and she replied me in English!! <3 We could not believe our luck!! I caught her coming out from Dunkin on Snapchat too! Isn't she pretty?

Then it was about 8pm and getting late, we settled dinner at School Food (If I recalled the name of the restaurant right) located near JYP. My ramyeon costs 1,300 won. Definitely a good place to go if you are on a budget!

Check out the other posts of #jojintoseoul!
Thanks for reading,
Jinny

#JOJINTOSEOUL COEX Vivapolo Kamong Han River

If you followed me on Snapchat or Instagram, you would know that I recently just arrived back from a week at Korea! I traveled with my very good friend, Joanne and had a blast of a time because we really went to so many places to the extent that we have nowhere new to head to in the last few days.

We booked our flight through a promotion on Scoots website early this year. The flight consist of transfer at Taipei. It was so tiring and I barely slept on the plane because I was not used it. On 25th May, the flight was at 12 p.m. and my dad fetched the both of us to the airport at 10 a.m.. We checked our luggage in, grabbed some McDonald's since it was going to be a good long 4 hours flight to Taipei. We did not want to starve till the second flight which was when we had ordered in-flight meals beforehand.

Took the usual mandatory OOTD,

I did not bother to apply any base makeup at all since we will reach Korea at night. 

After the arduous flight, we finally reached Incheon airport! 

Here was us waiting for the Airbnb apartment owner to pick us up.

So after she came with a huge black taxi to fetch us to her apartment, she explained that we were going to have a change of accommodation because there was an issue regarding some psychopath. Long story short, we were very lucky and will be safe in the apartment she brought us to. Due to that, we had some change of plans in our itinerary but nothing too drastic. 

One thing I love about Korea is their really accessible subway and makes it so fast to get to anywhere! If you are going to Korea, I highly suggest downloading this app called "Subway". It is a blue icon and I rely on it so much whenever I travel to Korea. It allows foreigners to easy make sense of the transfer lines and you can just search the stations instead of painstakingly look for them. There are so many different colored lines, Singapore subway is nothing compared to theirs.

COEX
The next day, we walked to COEX which was about 20 minutes. Outside the building were these cuties and we had to take pictures with them!!

It is obvious who my bias in EXO is ;") This place is a must go for SM fans!! 

On the second floor they sell so many merchandises but I did not purchase any. 

They had EXO standees everywhere, I had to take pictures with them! (Oops sorry junmyeon, I chose jongdae keke)

I love all the artist from SM, it is my little unrealistic dream to be one of them~ Here are some pictures of the interior of the building.

On the third floor, there was a SUM x Emart where they sell food with the artists endorsing them. I purchased EXO jjajangmyeon and Fx onion and cheddar cheese chips which were pretty good!

For those curious about the EXO jjajangmyeon, there will be a future post about it soon! There was a cafe too where they sell food and cutely designed bottles with lyrics of random SM songs printed on them but I did not buy eventually. The decor was so cute and they had the artists raid the area with their signatures and doodles!

VIVA POLO

Next stop, we headed to Myeongil Station for Viva Polo! It was at Exit 1, just walk straight and turn right and you will the restaurant next to a noraebang! It will be useful if you do know how to read korean to get around the places in general.

This is the address: 

1631 Yangjaedae-ro, Myeongil-dong, Gangdong-gu, Seoul

(서울 강동구 양재대로 1631)
This is the subway map I took.

It was literally a mini shrine when you enter the narrow stairs to the second floor, chanyeol everywhere!! If you love this cutie, you must go there!! His mum is the sweetest too, she showed us to our seats and took our orders~ I ordered the kimchi spaghetti and Joanne ordered the pomodoro. If you cannot take spicy food (or even if you can but not too well), I suggest NOT to order the kimchi spaghetti. This dish had chilli seeds sprinkled all over and my stomach was burning after painstakingly cleared the plate. I swear the girl behind me ordered this too because she was coughing so badly. However, if it was not that spicy, this dish is perfect with the fusion of western and korean all together. 

Joanne's crab pomodoro was really good on the other hand. She ordered it because it was kyungsoo's favourite (guess who her bias is LOL). It was tomato based and not spicy at all! Although I must say you have to use your hands to eat the crab meat, other than that, I will order that if I ever head to Vivapolo again! 

KAMONG CAFE

After that fulfilling lunch, we headed to Kamong! Being a jongin bias, it was a place I had to go!! (and try my luck if his noona was there) Alight at Seoul National University of Education or in korean it is 교대역, Exit 1. Walk all the way straight after about 5 roads then you will see it at a corner on your right. Look out for its cafe logo at the side popping out of the building!

This is the address: Seocho-daero 64-gil (서초대로64길)

The drinks were so good even Joanne said it was comparable to starbucks standard~ I ordered a choco mint and she ordered a mocha. There was even a jongin signature on the counter tile!! Sadly, I did not manage to see his noona.

HAN RIVER

After that, we alighted at Express Bus Terminal Station (Seoul Subway Line 3,7 or 9) to do some shopping which is also the station to get to the Han river. Sadly, I do not have any pictures of the area but it is so worth it to go!! We took up about 2 hours to only complete half the place. There were many clothing and shoe stores, not much of bags. I bought so much from there, even more than Ewha University where I normally do all my shopping at.

To get to Han river, get out at Exit 8-1. Go straight for 250m, turn right at the 4 way intersection then continue going straight for 400m. I have a map below! Generally, just follow any of the many couples heading there too especially when you are going to catch the 8pm or 8.30pm banpo rainbow fountain timing. We managed to tail behind two girls and caught the 8pm one.

Isn't it so picturesque? <3 Highly recommend to use a proper camera to capture the moment and when the sky is not too dark yet! The fountain lasted for about 30 minutes. We brought some kimbap which we purchased at the Express bus terminal station. Having kimbap with such a lovely scenery was so relaxing! I really wish we have somewhere like this in Singapore.

More of the other days I spent in Korea in the links at the side!

Thanks for being here,
Jinny