- Welcome -: Seoul 2015

Yes, this mini series shall continue!
Today's post is from our second day in Seoul - Thursday July 23rd - and it's quite picture heavy so lean back and let your visual sense wander while I tell you our stories!

Today we met up for breakfast in the common room and afterwards rode the subway to Hongdae (홍대) once again. John was running out of clothes and wanted to find a department store and the girls were both really excited about going after I’d told them about what I’d seen the night before and what it was like there.
This was also the day that I manned up and took a decent picture in the elevator to show my friends at home that some place really do not have a 4th floor - instead it just says 'F'.

I had checked my weather app in the morning and it said that the real feel for today would be at 39°C so we sought inside whenever possible.

One of the stores we went to in Hongdae (홍대) was Artbox at:
31 Wausan-ro 21-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul.
(서울시 마포구 31와우산로 21길)

Looking right

Looking left

They had SO many cute things in there. I can't believe I didn't take more pictures ㅠㅠ
I have this one though because everyone were hyped about Bang Bang Bang at that time and I wanted to show it to Maria.

And this one because John and I had been talking about how funny the Japanese were with their banana handsets - and then we found this!

After having looked around a little we went to have lunch at one of the restaurants in the area.

The address for the one we went to is:

유가네 163-11 Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul.
(서울시 마포구 동교동 163-11 유가네)

At first we ordered a couple of different different dishes but the waiter told us that one was enough for all of us so we decided upon one and soon after he came back with a huge pan and fired up under the table's built-in grill.

Afterwards he came back with the compulsory kimchi (김치), a soup (which I think was cold), and some sort of vegetable (I think a salad) with a sweet green sauce (that tasted a bit of apple) on top.

He put leek, shrimps, squid, and a bunch of other stuff on the pan and began cooking away!

I think the experience of having your food made right in front of your eyes is very unique. I imagine this allows you to request it to be cooked to a certain degree (If you speak Korean, that is), which makes the food so much better since you can have it exactly the way you want. Also, it's quite hunger provoking to watch.

At some point the waiter went away and Philip decided to move some of the food to roast it some more. But nope! The waiter hurried back, took the spatula out of his hands, and continued cooking. We discussed if maybe Philip's gesture, in Korea, could imply that the waiter wasn't doing his job properly.
Anyways! He finished cooking our food and we were left to serve ourselves.

John also ordered some spicy rice~

Yaay time for pictures!

After lunch we were off to our actual goal for the day: The Trick Eye Museum!

If you'd like to go too (you definitely should!!), here's the address:

Trick Eye Museum B2 floor, Seogyo Plaza 20 Hongik-ro 3-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul.

(서울 마포구 홍익로3길 20 서교 프라자 B2 트릭 아이 미술관)

This was the first thing we saw once we got inside. As we were standing there, discussing her, we suddenly heard a female voice go off: "Smiiiiile!" the exclaimed as she winked with one eye and the flash on the big phone went off, startling us.

Alex and Philip got a challenge a real fighter

...until Philip was threatened by a knight

and Alex's head was served on a table.

This was one of the cooler rooms. I finally got to feel like a giant for a moment.

The illusion is more obvious in the others' pictures though.

Okay, I wanted to make little stories for all of the pictures but I don't have a creative enough mind for that so... just look at the pictures and imagine how much fun we had posing for and taking them.

Soon we found out that the museum was more than just fake boats and giant heads taking pictures of you. If you wanted, you could turn an entire room as it suited you.

Yes. Chilling by the wall.

There's something about this picture that I really like. You see Cindy looking into one camera and me looking into the person's to the right. It wasn't just a few of us walking around and taking pictures together. No. It was our whole group walking around together. And whenever any of us posed, the rest of the group turned to him/her and started flashing their cameras. Instead of this being another set up picture like the rest, you see this one in the making. Looking back at all these wonderful pictures, this is one of those that I can relate to the most.

Okay, enough sentimentality! Have some Aaaw in rainboots instead.

An important life lesson from the other side of the world:

O' the grace!

That man with the stick looks a tiny bit shocked though.

Philip had much more grace indeed.

A quick toilet break..

and then off to fight a dragon!

I swear the people behind this museum had something for the naked human body.

And wings! There are wings everyone in Seoul I feel!

Did you know that Cindy was part of the Olympic synchronized swimming team?

Or that Philip could not stop time but that time could stop him?

When I first did my research on this museum, this was one of the pictures that I saw the most.

Weeeee~

(I know this is not The Scream but hey... collaboration!)

Cindy respectfully poured tea for the King.

Meanwhile, Philip was busy looking down this guy's underwear.

And BAM! He too felt a sudden urge to pose in underwear.
To the right of this picture there was a 'door' leading into a mirror room. You can see some of it in Cindy's video between 4:16 - 4:59 (I'll post the picture by the end of the post).

When someone came to kick him out for in indecency, he made his great escape!

Camilla was quick to catch up though!

Cindy and I attempted to balance on some timber.

And Alex and John were just sitting over there showing off their afros.

Yaay another random picture without a story.

Oh look at them sexy legs~

This 'guy' was creeping around the corner ad as I passed him/it by only a few centimeters, I thought it was a real person and jumped away in horror. It probably looked really funny.

There was an Ice Museum located at the same floor as the Trick Eye Museum and if you'd bought a ticket for Trick Eye, you'd automatically gain permission for this as well. A girl working there stood in front of the entrance and handed each of us a blue poncho to keep us from getting too cold. Camilla and I being true Scandinavians didn't mind the temperature at any point but the others did have minor problems (you are going to see and hear this in her video as well).

Anyways! We got in and.. well... took a bunch of pictures there too.

This scene reminds me of something from a VIXX M/V. I think it looks really cool.

Majestic!

I thought this was beautiful. The screen of the TV actually changed and the 'stars' were glistening!

Alright, one last picture before we left! This was near the entrance.

John hadn't been too interested in the museum and he was legitimately asleep when I took this picture.

After waking up John, we went back outside and headed to the subway.

Now it was time to do something John wanted to - shopping. If I remember correctly we went to Myeongdong (명동) for this.

One of the stores we went into was called SPAO and they were having a collaboration with EXO so there were lifesize'ish figures everywhere. Maria is a huge EXO fans so I made sure to take a bunch of pictures to send back home to her.

The guys took a long time and we were just sitting around so we went into another supermarket to buy some snacks for later. They had a section with foreign foods and I was so excited when I found these cookies. Everything in that section was rather pricey though.

When we got back to the hostel in the evening, we put on some face masks that we had bought in Etude House and snacked. These masks are big so they can suit all faces but I guess our faces were too small end we ended up looking like monsters instead. I think Cindy was the one who pulled it off the best.

Maria messaged me and asked how the weather there was so at some point I went down outside the hostel to film the rain. It was raining so much and continued like that for the whole night. The next morning you could clearly feel a difference in the humidity.

Not until late in the evening did we get hungry. After hearing much about the Koreans' beloved combination of fried chicken and beer - chimaek (치맥) - we decided that tonight was the night and asked one of the guys in the reception if he could help us order. We told him what we wanted, he ordered, and short after it was delivered to the hostel. It was a fun surprise to see that Yoo Jae Suk (유재석) was on the packaging!

We got three different kinds: Normal fried chicken, fried chicken with a spicy sauce on, and some with a sort of powdered cheese and enjoyed it with some k-pop music in the background and a game of jenga before us girls went to bed and Philip and John went out.