Hongdae

Waiting for the train.

Today I went to Hongdae, which is the nickname for the area where Hong Ik University it. This is a popular hotspot for young Koreans and Americans alike. I heard the most English and saw the most foreigners that I have seen yet, I think. I was meeting up with Abby, who is a girl I met on the Discover Korea trip. She is here in Korea for 2 years while her husband is stationed here in the US army. They are living on an army base near the DMZ about 3 hours East of where I live.

Some music at the subway.

What is nice is that every subway stop has different exits that are each numbered. This makes it really easy to meet up with people. The 3 of us met at a popular meeting spot, exit number 9. We walked around the area shopping, eating, drinking and just checking out the area. It is mobbed with people when you get off the subway. The area is just filled with bars, clubs, restaurants and shops.

Pickles, gummi bears and pretzels sure beat bread before the meal!

Abby and me with our cotton candy.

There were a bunch of Ho Bars.

I did quite a bit of shopping. Now that I know my Korean shoe size I can see this being dangerous, especially because my shoe size is a very popular size here J . Also, I’m not sure if this is just in the little shops, but a lot of things are sized “free size”, which I don’t think can be much different than a size small.
From what I hear you can spend hours at Hongdae at the clubs. I don’t believe they close and I hear it’s very easy to stay until 6 or 7 in the morning. Now, in my old age I certainly can’t do this so luckily I made the last subway home. The train was so ridiculously packed that every single person on the train was touching another person. Now, this would probably bother me ordinarily, but since I was in the middle of the train all the people around kept me upright when the train was moving!