About 9 minutes walk from the shiny bars, restaurants, DVD and PC bangs and 4 to 8 story buildings and bright neon of Shinchon is the far more understated ‘Hondae’.
Filled with tiny espresso and wine bars, excellent exhibition spaces and an equal amount of sidewalk restaurants and street food stalls, the streets that peel off from the main drags are full of these places that are instantly affordable, relaxed and groovy.
Iri Cafe
There are also many streets of clothes and tshirt shops as well as the ubiquitous ‘market’ (junk) fare I feel confident comes from the same suppliers as the QV Markets. I’m a little disappointed in the t-shirt situation though. I’ve seen millions of t-shirts with smart ass writing – my fave is a picture of a gnarly cat staring at you with the caption “If you want a friend… get a dog.” – but people here I think are so in love with the exoticness of the English language that I’ve not seen Korean hangul on a single t-shirt.
Exhibition & Street Art:
I recently saw an article in the Sydney Morning Herald outlining the 100 most expensive cities on the globe and Seoul came in second. I can only assume they weren’t spending much time in these districts. Cheapest Vs cheapest, this place is on an equal footing to Melbourne, if anything slightly cheaper.
A friend recently took me on an ‘exhibition crawl” through some of Hondae’s best galleries; click the screen-grab below to see a short video summary of my favourite at Zandari Gallery.
I think it’s spelled Hongdae, so named because of Hongik University.