The Cafe Tag - BAUHOUSE dog cafe

Hey guys ! 

It's been quite a quiet month for this blog this far but I have a really reasonable excuse for that. I spent the whole last week studying for my midterms that were this week, and then I've also had like a bunch of other stuff going on this week. We have a lot of school things coming up again but I'll try to get some more blogging done this month ! This weekend I'm planning to finally take the evening trip to 압구정 (Apgujeong) and do some photo shooting for yet another "cityscape" post. Gangnam is one of my favorite places ever and it's incredibly pretty at night so I'm really looking forward to that. 

Anyway to today's topic! Few weeks ago I visited one of the places I've been wanting to visit like since 3 years ago when I first came to Seoul. Now that I've been here for quite a while and lately I've had a huge craving to just spend some time with some furry little friends (it has gone so bad I brought a street cat baby home few days ago, got bitten and then ran around hospitals for the next 2 days-) I decided to finally visit one of Seoul's dog cafes. The cafe we went to is called "Bauhouse" and we chose it simply because it was the closest one to us. 

Bauhouse is located near the Hapjeong station (Map in the end of this post) and really easy to find with signs and all guiding you. They have separated the cafe into two areas - small dogs and big dogs. You can walk around freely though as you like. There is no entrance fee, but you are required to buy one drink per one person. The drink prices start from about 5,000won and go up to 10,000 or higher, if I remember correctly. If you ask me, that is not a high price for being able to spend time around all kinds of dogs, from the tiniest Chihuahuas to big jovial Huskies. You are also welcomed to bring your own dog along with you to the cafe to play with other dogs, which I think is a super adorable idea. 

We ordered Oreo milkshakes and sat down on the chairs in the small dogs' area first and immediately got like 4 different cuties playing and climbing on us. We went in the minute the place opened so it was really quiet at first and the dogs' attention was 100% on us which was really nice too hahah. 

The decoration was pretty simple which makes sense because the dogs have pretty much free access anywhere in the cafe. They jump on the chairs and tables and sometime when their games became too wild they were just running around the cafe like maniacs. So the cafe pretty much plays by the dogs' rules. Of course there are a lot of staff members, about 5 or 6 guys, to keep the dogs in order and make sure they behave, but it was also nice to see how much they were given freedom in there to play and have fun. 

The dogs were all very playful and kind, they didn't seem aggressive or shy at all. Which is, well, obvious, but I'm used to the small ones more than to the huge ones, so it felt pretty intimidating at first to just go up to a completely random big dogs to pet them put they didn't seem to mind it at all. 

They also sell treats for customers to buy and feed to the dogs, which is a good way to get their attention on a busy day when there's a lot of customers, hahah! We didn't have that problem though because it was pretty quiet that afternoon. 

If you're not a dog person or generally just not fond of noisy places this cafe is definitely not your place (obviously), but if you are head over heels for dogs like me you're gonna love it. I'd recommend going somewhere around 1-2 P.m (Bauhouse opens at 1p.m) to make sure there's not a whole lot of people. Also the dogs are really enthusiastic and energetic right after the cafe opens. 

This little thing stole my heart. She was so incredibly tiny and fluffy I could've just sat there for hours hugging and cuddling with her. Next time I'm getting a dog, it will without a doubt be a Pomeranian one !

I have to say it was even a better experience than I expected it to be. Definitely a great time to relieve stress or just have some healing time for yourself. Besides interacting with the dogs just sitting and watching like 10 dogs playing around you is really fascinating and in a weird way really relaxing and it really gets a smile on your face. 

 HOW TO GET THERE:

Line number 2 (green line), Hapjeong station, exit 3. It's literally right behind the corner and there's even few signs to guide you so finding this cafe should be super easy ~

Until the next post ! 

xx,

Julia

Picnic day with class @ Seoul Forest

Hey guys!

If you've read my post about the  Ranee cooking academy or the Korea one-o'-one post about studying in a language school you know one outdoor class is part of our curriculum every semester. This semester we decided to, instead of going to do something and plan the whole day out and stuff, just go to Seoul Forest to hang out, eat good food, play games and get to know each other better. 

I've visited Seoul forest once before in my life. It was back in Spring and we had a small picnic there with my friends before our school started (wrote about it here). I didn't see much of the park that day because A. it's huge and B. we didn't walk around that much. But this time around I got to see a lot more of the absolutely beautiful park, and I gotta say, I think I'm gonna be visiting Seoul forest a lot during this summer. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking again, because I have them quite a lot, hahah~

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a duck's foot (with nails and all) covered in some sort of marinade. You are supposed to eat it. I didn't.  It was not very delicious. 

After this some of us continued to a 노래방 (noraebang, karaoke room) for few more hours and then returned home. It was a very nice day, the weather was pretty goddamn hot even if it's not that visible in the pictures, and above all we were in one of the most beautiful places in Seoul that I know. 

So all in all, a very successful day I'd say! Already planning on another trip to Seoul forest on a sunny day just so I can lie under the trees, eat (over priced) fruits and enjoy the calmness of the whole park. The funny thing is, I've never been a park person before, but the longer you live in a big city, the more you start to appreciate these things on a whole new level..

I have my midterms coming up next week so this week I am going to spend pretty much studying. I do have few posts coming up later this week though, so stay tuned~ 

Have a good week, beauties. 

xx,
Julia

The Cafe Tag - ZOO COFFEE

Hello beautiful people !

If you know me even a little bit, you know I love coffee, cafes and everything related to that. In Korea the cafe culture is so rich and colorful I could spend all my days in cafes sipping pretty drinks, studying and doing some hardcore people watching (wait that's exactly what I do almost every day). However I've noticed how easy it is to just walk into the closest, familiar cafe near my home and sit there for hours.  Seoul is full of small, not well-known cafes with adorable themes or vintage decoration and whatnot. So to inspire myself to explore more and to also find cool places to suggest to you all I have decided to start doing these "The Cafe Tag" - posts. Sound good, yeah?

I'm gonna start with a "ZOO COFFEE" which is a place I've been meaning to visit for a few months already. It's a pretty popular coffee chain and has several destinations around Seoul. It's literally what the name says, a zoo cafe. Everything inside the cafes are designed to fit the whole zoo slash jungle theme. They also have stuffed zoo animal plushies around the cafe that are, at least at some of their cafes, also for sale. I recognized some of the plushies from my childhood, actually. So that was a weird, nice coincidence.

The cafe I've had my eyes on for a quite a while is located in Hongdae. The atmosphere in Hongdae's ZOO COFFEE is definitely something else. The cafe itself is not very spacious and big, so it makes you feel like you enter a whole new world from the busy streets of Hongdae. They also have this adorable outdoor terrace and the view from there is really pretty with like 2 huge trees right next to the cafe so you feel like you're in a jungle, hahah. Really makes you feel like you are in a completely another world just chilling watching the busy people down on the streets. And can we please take a moment to appreciate those trees they have placed inside the cafe ? They really add this relaxing ambiance to the whole space, and the slightly dim lighting just makes it all very calm and nothing like Hongdae usually is. 

On their menu they have coffees, smoothies, tea & other beverages. They also serve amazing looking waffles with whipped cream and berries or syrup, bingsu (Korean ice dessert) and zoo-themed cake slices (like a cake with zebra stripes, how cute is that?), sandwiches, Gelato, honey bread et cetera. Their "I'm Korean" - menu consists of Korean flavors and original drinks made using very Korean ingredients, for example red ginseng and black beans. 

The price range is your usual price range at most Korean cafes. The drink prices hover between 4000 - 6500 won and the foods and desserts can be up to 13 000 won. 

I should definitely bring up my coffee game the next time I visit one of these new cool cafes because ordering an iced americano is everything but original. But at least it's always definitely delicious and I did enjoy the atmosphere nevertheless with my super boring and simple order. We sat outside on the terrace for couple of hours while chatting and enjoying the nice view. 

The only not so positive thing I could mention about this cafe, as a social media addict who is always fiddling with her phone, is that they didn't seem to have any power outlets in their cafe. The reason for that might be that hey don't want people to like spend hours and hours there taking up all their seats because of the lack of the space and the fact that it is a theme cafe after all, but as a person who absolutely fell in love with the calmness of this place and would like to spend some more time there it was a minor disappointment. But in cafes like these you really should spend your time enjoying the experience and your company instead of your phone screen, right? 

HOW TO GET THERE:

The Hongdae ZOO COFFEE is really close to the Hongdae subway station, so the easiest way to get there is to take line 2 to Hongdae university and get out from exit 9 and it's literally right there, a one minute walk away. 

Have you ever been to any of Korea's zoo coffees or are you planning to visit them? Also let me know if you have any great go-to suggestions here around Seoul! 

xx,
Julia