sinsa dong

A Sunday Afternoon In Sinsa-Dong

9/1/2015

Yesterday after my dentist appointment I walked around Sinsa for a bit. There were so many cute cafes and boutiques that I passed because I didn't have time to check out. I woke up really early today, so I decided I would go to Sinsa again. Sinsa-Dong is an area of Gangnam with great boutiques and restaurants. The main place to be is Garosugil. Garosugil is less than a kilometer long, but its filled with trendy boutiques, vintage shops and restaurants. This is definitely a place for fashionistas!

Initially, I came to this neighbourhood to go to a cafe called Banana Tree, which is closed on Sundays but the website says it's open........ Anyways, since it was closed I walked to my next destination, Simone Handbag Museum. This area reminds me of back home and also New York City. Sometimes I feel like i'm not in Korea, which I kind of love. Naturally, I was being all touristy taking pictures and all.

Cool cafe

Then I finally reached my destination! From the side of the building, you can see the handle of the handbag.

Simone handbag museum

The museum costs 5,000 won, with it you get a detailed guide with all the handbags in it. Also, you get 20% off at the cafe in the basement. The museum is on the third floor and has two floors. The first floor has handbags from 1900- 2010 I believe and the top floor has handbags from the 1500s. You aren't allowed to take pictures in there but I'm a rebel and did it anyways.

handbags from the 1500s

There were a lot of handbags from designers most people know, like Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors, Chanel, Hermes....But I found the museum to be boring. Yes, there are handbags to see but you could get through the museum in 15 minutes or less. I think they could have done a lot more with the museum.

Garosugil Street

I read about a place called Cafe Oui, which is supposed to be a really trendy cafe. So I used my GPS to get to the cafe, only to find out it wasn't where it should be. So i'm guessing it closed down. Instead, I found a place called Lava, so I decided to go in. It was really fancy looking, so I asked to look at the menu. There were salads, pasta dishes and other things on the menu so I decided to stay. The girl at the front asked me if I wanted to eat on the main floor or upstairs which I was unsure, so she told me to go upstairs. I was in for a HUGE surprise. When I walked upstairs I was so surprised. It was like my dreams came true.

The decor here is just so eccentric. I felt like I belonged in the Medieval period. I loved all the chairs and the whole theme of this place. Although the name does not suit it at all.

Lucky for me I had the whole place to myself, so I just kept jumping from seat to see taking advantage and getting lots of pictures. My lovely server took lots of pictures for me too!

So I ordered the seafood pasta with olive oil. It cost 23,000 won. There was shrimp, mussles, cuttlefish and scallops. Best Italian food I've had in Korea so far! I was very impressed. The presentation was great, the food was great the atmosphere was great. I also ordered a house wine, which was a little pricey; 14,000. But definitely worth it.

After eating I walked around taking more pictures of the restaurant.

Bathroom selfie!

I stayed at the restaurant for about an hour and a half. Then while I was in the bathroom I noticed words in one of the rooms, so I went back to take a picture. So appropriate ㅋㅋㅋ.

I will need to go back to eat, but next time bring some friends with me. While I was leaving Lava my foursquare gave me a notice of restaurants in the area. I saw a place called Bad Farmers and it caught my attention. So I clicked on it. I saw that it was a restaurant that serves healthy foods and drinks, especially vegetable juices. Before I came to Korea I was religiously juicing and loved it. Since I've been here I haven't been able to do it. So, I was really excited to see this place, of course I went in. They only have two kinds of juices, blood orange and beet. So I bought one beet juice to try it out. It was quite delicious, yet expensive 7,400 won. These juices will probably have to be my guilty please because it was so good. I need more!

After I got my juice I walked around Garosu-gil Street. Everything is so pretty here. I bet in the summer it looks beautiful. Can't wait to see it! The last place on my to do list for the day was Cafe Talk by Nonhyeon station.

KBL

Cafe Talk was inspired from the Kakao Messengers emoticon characters. This cafe is quite popular, especially among couples. It also isn't as overpriced as other cafes have been, thank God!

It was actually quite sad, I was the only single person. The cafe sells lots of souvenirs, which I actually bought. Kakao is like BBM or snapchat of Korea. EVERYONE has it! I ended up buying a mug so that I have the memory of my visit there.

I couldn't stay at the cafe too long because I felt weird being alone with all the couples being affectionate and stuff. So I decided to walk back to Sinnonhyeon to catch my bus back home. It was about a 15 minute walk. So I just kept being touristy, since I've never really explored Gangnam very much. There's lots of great areas here. Now I know I need to do some more wandering.

This was the first Sunday since summer where I actually woke up early, went out and explored. I'm really happy I decided to do it because I had a lot of fun getting lost by myself. I was able to do what I wanted and see the things that I wanted to see. But, I ended up getting on the bus around 4 pm since I have to be up early during the week.