I’ve always heard and read about Hongdae being the “trendy” hub of “pop culture” in Seoul. Arts, music and entertainment, from mainstream to indie to underground… you name it, this place seems to have it. But this is more on the hip side, so the crowd is pretty much younger. That, in itself, is quite daunting, for some reason. But I still thought I should check it out, to see a piece of it, even if a small one, in a short amount of time.
The Hongik University Street aka “Hongdae”
Hongdae refers to the area around Hongik University, one of the several universities you will find in the Seoul metropolitan area. Which is why Hongdae is synonymous with “Hongik University Street”, since it covers the maze of streets, or the neighborhood, that surround the university.
The name Hongdae was actually derived from the name Hongik Daehag (‘university’).
How to get there, you ask?
Take Subway Line 2, Gyeongui-Jungang AREX for Hongik University Station, then get out through Exit 9.
It’s quite overwhelming once you surface, because the place looks so massive and, yes, disorienting. Our first order of business was to look for a street featuring some street art (or validated graffiti, as I’d like to call it), and we quite had a hard time and… yeah, found ourselves walking in circles.
So you know what we did? We retraced our steps and looked for the Tourist Information Center and made inquiries there. The kind lady gave us a walking tour map, complete with illustrations, then gave more detailed instructions how to get there.
But even without the map, there are a lot of things to see and feast your eyes on while walking around. Like this one.
Yes, that’s a One Piece restaurant. If the facade does not tell you that, then I don’t know what else will.
At that time, eating was not yet on top of our list of things to do (it was only 10:30 for pete’s sake~). It was already quite the treat looking at the storefront, if you ask me.
Apparently there are two streets with these wall arts in Hongdae, and this was the first one we went to. It was a bit far from the main road, and a bit deserted when we were there. I did hear that these spots get more crowded during the weekends.
I realized this was actually a residential street, which partly explains why it is a bit quieter than I expected.
The murals or paintings on the wall range from the provocative to the mundane. Some have clear messages while others are more underlying, perhaps with the intention to make the viewer think deeper. If you’re up for it, that is.
We then left that mural street an walked straight to the intersection that leads to the wide gate of Hongik University. I’m not sure if non-students are allowed free entry past the gates, because we didn’t really feel like going in or checking it out.
But from this vantage point, we could tell the campus is quite huge.
While Ewha exuded a more serene and calm vibe, Hongik felt more bustling, probably thanks to the vibrant and almost electric atmosphere on the streets outside.
We crossed the road to the other side and walked past the Hongik Children’s Park, where the Hongdae Free Market, basically a flea market, is held every Saturday. In this flea market, artists put up an exhibition of their art works and creative individuals sell their handmade crafts and items.
Incidentally, it was a Saturday when we were there, so we spotted some of the artists and entrepreneurs starting to set up their tables on their spots around the Park. But there were only a few of them, since it was still mid-morning, and this place comes much more alive mid-afternoon until late at night.
Then we found ourselves on the Hongdae Walking Street, a long stretch of street where musicians and performance artists put on their own shows and do some busking. Again, too bad we were there too early, because the busking and street performances actually start later during the day.
The Cute and Quirky
Ateliers and artists often choose Hongdae as their base, and they make sure to remain faithful to the vibe. Of course, it follows that there are also tons of shopping and dining places in the area.
And the cute just refuses to let up.
Like this building. What do you think it is?
It is actually a chicken restaurant. Actually, the sign on the door says “Korean TV Fusion Chicken Restaurant”.
I couldn’t tell from the outside that it’s a resto, much less one that sells chicken. 🙂 (And we know Korean fried chicken is DA BOMB.)
Then we saw this sign indicating a coffee shop inside the building.
It’s the Meerkat Cafe. So I am guessing there are meerkats inside. Preeeeety interesting, but this place only opens at 12 noon until 10 at night. So, yeah, there was no way for us to take a look inside.
And look at those usagi or rabbits perched atop that sign! It leads to an Italian Izakaya.
An izakaya is a Japanese pub, basically, or a place where people can go for casual drinks usually after a long day at work. This place piqued my interest, though, because it is an izakaya, but apparently an Italian one, located in a Korean city. Whoa there.
I’m not exactly sure, but according to the map we had, we were at the Picasso Street, or the Hongdae Mural Street.
The earlier mural street we went to had paintings that were more… structured, should I say? The ones here are more free-spirited, I feel like, as if the artists just wielded their paints and brushes and let their senses guide them.
And unlike the previous mural street, the buildings here weren’t residential, but mostly commercial, featuring stores and dining places. There was even a batting area, you know, those net-enclosed spaces where you get to wield a baseball bat and hit at a ball coming right at you. Looks fun. And good for anger or stress management.
We just kept wandering through small street after small street of these murals, we were no longer sure where we were. But hey, as long as we can still find our way back to the main street, we were good.
Hongdae is so lively and youthful you can feel it in the air. There’s loud music playing almost at every corner, as if the sounds of the crowd and traffic are not enough to tell you that you are in the middle of a thriving, bustling youthful hub.
Seriously, even those papers stuck on walls do not look out of place.
I did mention shopping is also one of the reasons why young people frequent Hongdae, didn’t I? That explains why Hongdae is also a fashion hub.
I did notice, though, that the prices of the clothes are around the same as those in Ewha, although there are more options here.
Just a tip, though. Some of the clothes, the trendy ones, especially, we spotted at the Namdaemun Market, and they were cheaper by at least a few thousand wons.
I wanted to check out the Chuu flagship store in Hongdae, but the maze-like streets were daunting, on top of the crowd that was already building up as the day progressed.
This is where I kinda realized how crowds can be quite stifling for me. Still, it was interesting to finally get a glimpse of Hongdae by day, although it would have been interesting as well to see it at night. I guess my “tita” tendencies were making themselves known, because I was not at all sorry to leave all that noise behind.
But not before getting a serving of some seollongtang at a restaurant close to the subway station first. 🙂
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