Feb 4; concert, cafe, and clubbing

Day 25
Our final day in Hongdae started off with our first and only visit to Sinchon, or what I’d like to call shopping paradise. Sinchon, I wish I discovered you sooner.

graffiti in korea by the JNJ Crew

hottdeok take II

The man was nice enough to make fresh ones for us =)

Because time (and my money) was running out, we headed back to Hongdae to catch the free concert at the book store featuring some Korean indie bands.

dude with nice voice and his wingman to his right

Milktea! My personal favourite and one of the greatest things I discovered in Korea

They played our (Catherine and I) favourite song and even did a cover of ABBA’s Honey Honey and Corinne Bailey Rae’s Put Your Record On. I leave this here for your listening pleasure:

They asked where we were from and seemed to be very enthusiastic at the fact they had foreigner fans. Meeting them was just that wonderful cherry on top! 

Here we have Asian Pat Carney and the dude with unique voice and jacket

We met with some Korean buddies for a final farewell and went out to dinner at a restaurant where the guy gave us a free dish! Although it was a meat dish, the thought of it being on the house was so nice.

Tanjin, her buddy and Aery.

My seafood rice jjampong - mashisoyo!

Apparently Korean boy band Super Junior visited the restaurant. 

On our way out of the restaurant, we stumbled upon an audience of students and street performers  There were tap dancers, musicians, and a singer who sang Stand By Me (damn, Korean people can do anything!). The atmosphere that was created by being surrounded by friends and like minded people who wanted nothing more but to cuddle up in their blankets, enjoy the company of good people, and enjoy the music was just so magical. My kind of place. Oh, I wish I could have had more time in this area.

We walked into a music store and there were two things that caught my eye:

Marianas Trench in Korea?

Fall Out Boy in Korea?

Kristie trying on some glasses that Rupert Grint wore (?)

Korean clown on stilts trying to advertise something...

After saying goodbye to our friends, we headed off to the Hello Kitty Cafe! Yay!

eating our dessert
Photo Credit: Catherine

Surprisingly, it was not as couple-y as I expected.

While we were waiting for the Dutch girls, I heard the most beautiful busker’s voice ever. He sang Sunday Morning, The Scientist, something from the Beach Boys, and a song I haven’t heard of but it was all just sooo wonderful. I wish I could share his voice with the world, but all you get is the word wonderful….Oh Koreans, you can do everything.

Annyways, the final stop of the evening: Harlem.

As you can see from the sign, it's a hip hop night club. YG is an agency that owns the club and many popular KPop bands such as 2NE1 and BigBang. YG is equivalent to what we know as record labels, so like Universal or Fearless.

Music: mix of English and Korean music, but mostly English songs. Some of the artists that were played were LMFAO, Far East Movement, Pitbull, 2NE1, 2PM, BigBang, Timbaland, and Timberlake.
Synchronized dancing and Shuffling: During Pitbull’s Hotel Motel, the majority of the people on the dance floor were doing theses weird things with their hands. They had a dance to the song! It was like synchronized dancing!! It was really dorky...in a cool kind of way.  Also, shuffling! I had never heard of it before and everyone was doing it. I need to keep more updated.

People: There were a mix of foreigners and Koreans but mostly Koreans. There was also a small gang of Korean people in Addidas track suits. strange...

Wristband Policy: For 15000 won, you get access to 3 clubs (Harlem, M1, mb), the whole weekend to party, and a free drink.

Verdict: funfunfun. I can officially say I have clubbed to KPop music.

<3

Korea, I’ve never had so much fun with crappy music.