Korea: Seoul: Hongdae Nightlife and Urban Culture
Hongdae
2018.06.30, I arrived in Seoul at night and I headed to "Hongdae" right away. It was a Saturday night, and I had heard that there would be a lot of things going on there. I didn't know what "a lot of things" were but as soon as I got there, I saw many people shopping, dancing, singing and eating street food (Korean food is awesome!) If you want to see Seoul's urban culture, you just need to go there.
Street Performances:
Performances everywhere. And the quality of the dancers? You guessed it, I WAS IN KOREA!!! Oh man... they can dance and some of them were even funny. One boy group picked an old guy and they did a sexy dance around this dude...poor guy... or a lucky guy?
So many travelers and girls were so into those performers!
Bars and Clubs:
I couldn't explore many bars but here are the bars I liked:
"Retro Game Bar"
If you are into games....or even if you aren't! It's just a good place to meet new people and play games together. They do have some "Retro" games as well as some traditional games like... cards lol and some new games (which I have no idea how to play.) It's like you visited your friend's house who has a bunch of different games and play beer pong all day.
*Tripadvisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294197-d12645875-Reviews-RetroGameBar-Seoul.html
"Thursday Party Draft House"
There are two "Thursday Party" bars in Hongdae.
The one I went to had many people that night. Maybe because "Live World Cup" was going. But I assume this bar always have some backpackers. It is a bar but since music is pretty loud, you can dance and dance if you want.
*Tripadvisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g294197-d4747365-Reviews-Thursday_Party_Draft_House-Seoul.html
"Vinyl"
This bar.....bar?? I don't even know if it's a bar, but I loved it. Maybe only a few people can sit inside (5 or 6 I think) but you can take out your drinks. Awesome atmosphere and my friends and I (that I made in Korea) shared our "boy dramas" that we had at the time. I'm pretty sure the bartender was getting sick of listening to the dramas XD.
*TRAZY:
https://www.trazy.com/spot/357/vinyl-비닐-nightlife-bar
"Clubs"
There are many clubs on the street. The one I went to (Hip-hop club called Madholic), I did not have to pay to enter.
I guess some clubs are free to enter for girls. (Sorry, guys!). I enjoyed it very much.
Museums:
Ok, we wanted to go to a "Trick Art Museum" which you know, they have cool paintings that trick your eyes... Well, we entered a wrong museum (we were on a wrong floor in the same building) which I cannot post pictures on here. The museum is called "Love Museum". If you are visiting Seoul with your family, I do not recommend this place to visit but for a girl group like us, we laughed a lot. Let's just say everything in the museum is very sexual!
*Tripadvisor:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g294197-d10794564-Reviews-Love_Museum-Seoul.html
You will not get bored in Hongdae. You have to dance, sing, walk, shop, eat and laugh, well that's what I did! If you have a chance, and if you are someone like me who loves Korean food, street food in Hongdae was really good. I will post some pictures here and hope it helps your trip!
(P.S. I am from Tokyo and for me, a taxi in Seoul was really cheap compared to Tokyo. This made me easy to stay out and make friends and good memories... or you can follow a cat!)
