seoul in april
notes on this year's holy week trip, TWICE, Coldplay and Le Sserafim
Hey there friend, how are you? I’ve been meaning to carve out some time to write about our recent trip to Seoul—it’s been a busy month-and-a-half so far, so I’m coming here extremely belatedly. I hope I remember as much as I could—after all, that is what this exercise is for. In any case, I hope you find something useful here. -K
We caught the tail-end of Seoul’s cherry blossom season when we visited in April, arriving a handful of days ahead of C’s birthday, TWICE’s appearance at Coldplay’s Seoul concerts, and Le Sserafim’s concert at Inspire Arena. We thought we’d make an actual vacation out of it, scheduling ‘touristy’ stuff too, instead of just being in town for the concerts, haha.
Happy to report that we did succeed in this regard! We actually managed to sneak in an entire tourist day, during which we (1) fed Alpacas, (2) visited Nami, and (3) rode rail bikes. While the weather was less than ideal (oh god the trek up to the alpacas was slippery with melting snow and ice! + it was rainy af in Nami which made for less than scenic photos) NEVERTHELESS we had a lot of fun.
We also managed to visit a couple of museums1, drop by RM’s sister’s cafe in Seongsu, and visit Ana, who toured us around their campus2!
We stayed in Hongdae as usual, and we were able to go back to our favorite restaurants and cafes, as well as discover a few new ones. Notable: A whole-ass trek to Rain Report!
Anyway, some notes on the concerts we went to on this trip:
coldplay feat. twice (april 16th)
A concert for C’s birthday—again! Goyang Stadium is somewhat far from Hongdae—I wish we’d gotten a room in the area for the night at least, given how looooong and difficult the commute post-concert was3!
It was so worth it though. I completely understand now why people go to multiple stops to catch Chris Martin and the rest of Coldplay—they’re so damn good live! I was so teary the entire time. It was that good. Top highlight: Hearing Viva La Vida live, oh man. Also, also: That FIX YOU OUTRO LIVE. What a religious experience.
TWICE opening for Coldplay was expectedly amazing! We caught their soundcheck while queueing for our tickets—10 songs more or less, the hits and nothing but. We were lucky to have watched on Day 1, when the weather was pretty pleasant, because in the succeeding days it rained and the girls had to shorten their set to keep with the schedule. After their opening set, they came back midway through the show decked in Coldplay merch to sing their collab song, “We Pray”, which also featured Palestinian-Chilean singer-songwriter Elyanna. THEY SOUNDED AMAZING TOGETHER OK. Definitely a highlight of the entire concert for me.
le sserafim (april 19th)
Oh, the girls were lit! It’s our first lsf (can I just use this as second mention contraction) concert and can I just say we thoroughly enjoyed it! It was rainy af on that day, so I was personally a bit nervous considering the trip out to Inspire Arena near Incheon is about an hour from Hongdae. But thanks to free shuttles and a pretty chill crowd considering, the experience went smoothly. (Also, Face Pass? Seamless.)
C and I were sat apart again but at least we were seated on the same side of the arena, and considering the price point, our view was not bad at all! Was a bit nervous at first about recording not being allowed, but then everybody else was shooting anyway, so yeah. This was hands down the easiest recording experience I have ever ever.
I really enjoyed the transition from Unforgiven to Antifragile actually! The girls had such captivating stage presence, and I really didn’t know who to focus on because whoever was on screen was fantastic. I heard they’re coming to Manila in August and I definitely recommend catching them live if you can!!
Chaeyoung birthday activations
Oh, we were fortunately in town to visit some activations to celebrate Chaeyoung’s birthday! We saw her ads in the subway and peeked into an exhibit put up by her fansites. It was actually pretty good!
Anyway, to wrap this up, some links to useful stuff:
Leeum Museum has a permanent exhibition of ancient art that you can visit for free—just secure a reservation on their website.
Go have your cartoon portraits done - uncles_painting on Instagram.
We booked our Alpaca/Rail Bike/Nami tour on Klook, which was kind of convenient because its pickup point was near our accommodation (near Hongik Station Exit 4). We were transported via bus, each tour group was around 20 pax? We made a stop on the way to Nami for lunch (pay your own way). We chose a for-two railbike and added KRW 5k / head onsite.
Food stops we enjoyed, in Hongdae and elsewhere:
If you’ve reached this far—thank you very much! As usual, that must have been one hell of a ramble. Thanks for indulging!
XO,
K
It’s true—the Candybong is on display in a museum in Seoul. This diva!
Our step count for this entire trip, I swear. At some point, the exhaustion combined with the crazy weather (the temperature range, have I mentioned?!) actually got me sick—I had no voice toward the end of the trip! A pity since we tried a noraebang in Hongdae—we should do that again when we come back.
Literally caught the Last Train Home to Hongdae—as in they were turning off the lights at Hongik when we got there.
LOL order the ‘Jihyo set’ — they’d know what you’re talking about.
If you’re lucky, RM’s sister will be there behind the counter herself :) also, order their tiramisu!