I’ve been telling people the next time anyone asks me what my hobby is I’m going to say cafe hopping. Mainly because i’ve received that question 10000 times since exchange started, not surprisingly, and I always gave lame answers.
So far I’ve been to a little under 10 cafes in Korea? Been busy the first week with administration stuff and i only have two free weekdays and yeah ._. But trying to get into the habit of it!
Sogang has a few cafes inside the campus and I’ve been to two of them! Cafe May is really awesome because of its convenient location and also its nice affordable coffee. You can get a caffe latte at 1900 won which is about $2.50! Super cheap and nice! We hung out there a couple of times after class. I was googling for images of Cafe May but ah there was nothing 😦 will try to get a shot if i get the chance to! It’s a really popular cafe here in Sogang because of price location and ambience~ also speed, they take orders and make them really fast!
I’ve also been to the International Cafe which is at the Business building, it’s quieter and less of the cafe feel. But it has a bagel set consisting of a bagel of your choice and english breakfast tea for only 2200 won ($2.70) which is super worth it! It’s also a place where I see people studying a lot. They also have board games for you to play with! They call themselves the International Cafe with the promise that they will not speak Korean lol.
Right outside of Sogang, just next door from the main gate, is Coffee Break. I think it’s kind of a chain cafe but I haven’t seen it around so I might be wrong. It started off with one floor but expanded to the second floor and it’s really huge! It seems like a nice place to study! No pictures unfortunately ugh i need to get into the habit of taking pictures inside cafes without worrying about getting judged HAHA. Korean sim cards don’t let you turn off the camera shutter sound so i guess it’s a little tougher.
Just opposite the road near Coffee Break is Caffe Bene. It’s also kind of a chain cafe but oh gosh i love th einterior so much! So cosy ❤ Of course a little more pricey on the coffee price but what can I say, cafe hopping is an expensive (and fattening) hobby to begin with.
Remembered to take pictures this time!! I went with Jasmine during my long break and we didn’t want to go far so we just crossed the road LOL. I learned my lesson that i should probably explore my own area first and not keep thinking i have the chance to go there any time and thus should venture further if there’s time… because chances are i wouldn’t get to visit the nearby cafes at all hahaha. That’s what happened when i lived in Hongdae for 10 days and only visited one cafe ._.
Cosy seats!
More cosy seats and environment!
It was a good studying period because of the ambience and I sneaked in Kimbap to eat like how i always sneak in Old Chang Kee back to Coffee Bean in Singapore when I want to stay long periods at the cafe but dont’ really want to eat elsewhere. Hahahah. That officially kickstarted my Korean language revision and learning.
Another cafe I’ve been to is A Twosome Place. This is a pretty large chain cafe in Korea, there’s a really huge outlet near Sinchon station near my school, but I’ve only been there to look for Zenn. The one I went to was at CJ E&M building for music shows, and during morning periods they have an affordable breakfast set for 5000 won (sandwich + coffee). I say affordable because their cafe latte cost 4400 won haha so it’s just plus less than a dollar for sandwich. Unfortunately without that breakfast set the sandwich itself cost almost 5000won in itself.
Yet another chain cafe I went to is Hollys Coffee. Their coffee isn’t that expensive, similar to A Twosome Place, and the atmosphere was comfortable. Zenn and I sat there to talk for an hour plus!
A long time ago, early in the time I first came to Korea, we went to this very small homey cafe called Damso. Man their coffee was so expensive (6500 won for a latte, equivalent to almost $8) but the place was really nice for a long chat away from the noisy streets of Hongdae.
I haven’t talked about the coffee in particular in all the cafes haha… i’m a fan of coffee personally, the classic latte grew on me very gradually and became a favorite very quickly, but i’m no expert HAHAHAHA like tbh all cafes make good coffee and unless you really screw up the coffee i will like it. Some may be a little more bitter, some a little more sweet, but honestly as long as I like the taste I never take notice of that difference enough to remember or talk about it. I will only remember very particularly with flavored coffee like Mocha etc. Like Caffe Bene’s Mocha Frap was super sweet which wasn’t to my liking. But lattes are usually all good.
Note to self: Take more pictures of cafe interiors/exteriors since you don’t even talk about the coffee!!!
Another note to self: Organize an index for cafe hopping
darmawanders 