Ewha, Hongdae, Sincheon

So back on Sunday I spent the day around Ewha and the Hondae area with BK. I think what makes living here interesting is that you can visit different areas of Seoul and discover something new. Although, I would say anywhere in Korea pretty much looks the same with the usual gray buildings plastered with signs. But there are certain pockets here and there that stray away from the usual.

First Stop: Haircut in Ewha:
I have realized that I can take the #1 Line (Blue Line) and get into the Eastern part of Seoul much faster than if I take the light blue line #4. I think you get to know the ins-ands-outs of the subway system here after using so often. Before I use to be really intimidated by Line #1's complicated system, because there are rapid trains and also many destinations.
So getting to the Ewha area was a snap. Inside the Ewha subway station...
I had in mind what kind of haircut I would like to get. Since I have naturally curly hair I am usually somewhat nervous before I get a haircut. Especially here in Korea, due to that most people have straight hair.

Last year I went to Eunha BNC and so I decided why not go to the same place twice? The stylist's name is Ma Ree. She recognized me from last year and that was a good feeling. I showed her a picture of what I had in mind and explained to her how short and so on.

I would say she did a proper job and didn't butcher my hair. But I would give her negative marks for doing the job pretty quickly. Also she had her assistant blow dry my hair in the end, who did it so much that my hair turned out really frizzy. Ah well you take what you can get here.

Interior of the salon...the waiting room area..

After my haircut BK and I realized we were hungry and contemplated on where to go. On our way he found a store selling snacks for cheap and checked them out.

I told him that I knew of a Greek place in Hongdae and so he wanted to go there.

Hongdae: A Run Around
It wasn't too difficult getting to Hongdae since it was nearby, so we took a bus. When we got off the bus we realized we were on the wrong side of the street so we had to take an underground tunnel to get to the other side. Going through the tunnel you are bombarded by the lively and colorful graffiti on the wall. It was awesome to see, considering I have been wondering where the exploits of the youth culture were hidden.

It turns out that when I finally found that Greek place the sign was still there but the restaurant had changed. So now we were left to find something else. BK recalled that he had been in this area before and so wanted to find a place he heard of. However, he didn't really know where it was and his memory was from 5 years ago.

So when he finally found the area it wasn't there. We turned around, went down a few side streets and finally came upon a restaurant to go in for lunch.

Zen Hideaway Restaurant:
One word: posh.

Very posh! But enjoyable. I was a bit nervous sitting down as I knew from the looks of this place that it would be on the expensive side. But BK seemed pleased and so I relaxed. It was a Zen themed place anyways! How could I not calm down?

The interior was plush with hardwood table and comfy chairs. There was an outdoor seating area as well along with a pond.The menu was pretty extensive. Going from pasta dishes, pizza to Thai plates. We ordered and shortly there after came a nice bread and olive oil appetizer.


BK ordered a Sangrila and its taste was sweet and tangy all at once. I think Roboseyo has been searching for the best Sangrila in Seoul so I would suggest to him to go here and try it out.
My choice was the grilled chicken salad, which wasn't anything cheap so we were expecting it to be good. And it was pretty good with fresh ingredients and tangy fruity salad dressing. None of that mayonnaise stuff on the salad thing here.
BK ordered a spicy Thai noodle and shrimp dish. Sorry the picture came out blurry. I tried some and the taste was quite unique in a good way. Spicy but not overwhelming with some tangyness to it.Lunch was quite relaxing and we realized that next time we would like to try the outdoor seating.

Where to next? I suggested a few weeks back that I wanted to go see Slumdog Millionaire to BK, but it hadn't come out yet. Before meeting up this day he checked the show times online and suggested we should go see it. So that is what we did and to do so we headed over to Sincheon.

Sincheon: Meandering and Movie
However we were a bit too early and had an hour or so to kill before the movie started. First we went around the theatre area and checked out the arcade. BK played a testing game that tests your strength. However I don't think he did very well.
We played a few more games and I got this picture of the snack bar's interior.
Afterwards we rested at Starbucks. BK and I both have iPod touches but his is the new one. Mine for some reason won't connect to the wireless easily here, but his does. So he mused about this in front of me.

It was time to go to the movie and so we left and enjoyed a really great film.

So I will conclude by saying that I highly recommend Slumdog Millionaire along with checking out the Hongdae area.