Rocking around Seoul with Hello Kitty and Vegan Noodles!

Ooooohh Hiya!!!

Today has been one of my favourite days since I arrived here in S.Korea! I was up mega early this morning to go and crack on with some research and fabric sourcing in Seoul....
En route I hit up the Hongdae area to check out some of the fashion stores and have a general peruse around the area! I LOVED it here! There are some awesome little stores, plenty of independent boutiques and an outrageous abundance of really cute clothing and accessory shops! 
I guess I would most liken it to a 'kind-of' Seoul version of Harajuku...with a slightly different crowd as the area is located close to Hongik University so it's a bit more studenty and less 'Kawaiiiiii'~with tonnes of colourful street art!!!! I spotted some real gems there so hopefully at some point during my stay here I will have the time to go and do some hardcore shopping!!!!

Imagine my joy when LOW AND BEHOLD I ended up at the Hello Kitty Cafe!!!! I'd been planning on going to another branch in the city for afternoon coffee so I was super surprised when I spotted the Hongdae cafe all pink and sparkly, twinkling in the corner of my eye! Obviously I was straight in there....WHAT A TREAT!!!! Ever since visiting the Taipei Hello Kitty Cafe, I'm obsessed with tracking down ALLLLL of the Kitty cafes and word on the street is there are several around Seoul....so I guess this will not be the last time you see photos of this ilk!!!!

Sorry about the Kitty overload but, I can't help myself! I was way too excited!!! I mean I even got a Kitty face stencilled onto my drink....TOTALLY GOURMET!!!!! Anyway....after the hullabaloo of the cafe I took a walk to another area of the city called Sinchon to check out an art shop for some material supplies on the way....it was such a lovely sunny day today so it was nice to kind of get a better grasp of the city... found a couple of corkers on my way....

I finally tracked down some dreammmmyyy vegan food for lunch after pinpointing every branch of 'Loving Hut' in Seoul on my map! I've been hot on the trail of this AMAZINNNGG veggie chain ever since I first discovered it in Vienna....this one was called the 'Rainbow' cafe and it was great because they have a load of Korean dishes like kimchi (without the sneaky fish!), Tteokbokki and a load of clay pot dishes which usually I can't sample because of the meat factor!!! They also have a decent selection of stuff you can buy to cook at home like vegan instant noodles and soy items which I totally stocked up on as it's quite tricky for me here to find stuff that I know is veggie safe!!! So now I have noodles galore sitting on my desk!!!

Afterwards I then pretty much spent the majority of today at the fabric market in Dongdaemun, beginning to source the materials for my project..... eeeessshhh this place is HUGE.... one of the best fabric markets I have ever been to EVER.....floor upon floor of fabrics, trimmings, jewellery, ribbons, bindings, chains, rhinestones, buttons....you name it.... I found so many amazing things and now I'm sitting listening to Britney amongst a pile of swatches the size of Mount Fuji.... But...I'm going to save the fabric market trip for a separate blog as it totally warrants it's own post!!!!
Finally I shall leave you with a picture of the lovely red rose that I got today.....unfortunately this wasn't a gift from a hot boy in a K-Pop band....it was actually handed out as part of a special promo event celebrating 'White Day'....(the follow up to Valentine's Day that they do here!)
Love and Sparkles,
Emma
xxxx