Day 2 in South Korea is another fangirling day for me!
My agenda was to visit Mino's café, as well as another food place that got SO popular after he visited it. Not exaggerating 😜 And I got to experience how in-demand it is.
For this day, I also got to meet an Inner Circle~ She's from Manila and we were gonna watch Mino's festival together too! While Tagalog is an awkward speaking suit, it was still nice to have someone who shares your language, culture AND fandom 💙
We decided to meet at our first stop...
GINGER BEAR PIE SHOP
🔹 Seokchon Station, Exit 1 or Jamsil Station, Exit 2
I got there first and it's also around 10 minutes walk from the subway, similar to YG Entertainment one. It's almost right by Seokchon Lake actually.
When I arrived, there were so many people already~ See? I was waiting for a bit, then decided to ask the nearest guy about the queue. I don't know why all the Korean I knew flew out of the window, and we started talking in English. He accompanied me to the staff inside. Thank you though, to whoever that was! 😅 Anyways, the staff told me to come back at 2 PM, and this was at 11 AM. Uhm??
When Hanna arrived, honestly, she saved us 😄 I didn't observe and even see the queuing machine right by the door (which the staff didn't tell me about too). So yeah, I used my Korean phone number to get a reservation. I then got a message that we were #82 and there were 33 teams before us. UH-HUH. Thirty three 🙂 So I said, "I think let's just go to Osechill and come back."
And that's what we did~
OSECHILL CAFÉ
🔹 Seongsu Station, Exit 3
This is Mino's café, or specifically, his mom's. This is already the 2nd location ☹️ Sad face because the 1st one opened during the pandemic, and they closed and relocated before I could even fly out and visit. Well, thankfully, the time has come to visit Osechill, wherever it may be located in Seoul!
When you go out Exit 3, just turn right and walk straight ahead~
We stopped when we saw the Ride the Beat Festival banners. This was the concert we were gonna watch the next day 💙 Annoying how Loco and Zico had to be on separate date with Mino 🙄 I wanted to see them too! (I did see Loco at AOMG in Manila, whew)
Their little black sign will greet you; just turn right and go into this pretty, cozy place:
We received the Ginger Bear notification here, that there were 2 teams left before our turn. And quickly, another one, saying we had 5 minutes to arrive before they cancel our reservation. Well, of course, we couldn't make it for that time frame 😅 So we just proceeded to the 2nd floor to explore the rest of the café, since we were already there~
Back to GINGER BEAR PIE SHOP
🔹 Seokchon Station, Exit 1 or Jamsil Station, Exit 2
We get another reservation, and what have you, we get #227 with 59 teams before us! But obviously, it's what we came for, so we wait then. First, we pose and copy Mino's IG post 😜
We then got some hot packs in a nearby convenience store, and we moved to another one with seats.
It's not that big of a place, so imagine Mino eating there with you at the same time 😭 By the way, it's kinda pricey here? We got the signature meat bun that Mino ate, and this girl got her garlic bread fix too.
GWANGHWAMUN SQUARE
🔹 Gwanghwamun Station, Exit 2
I was researching holiday happenings before this trip, and I came across the Seoul Lantern Festival. Gwanghwamun Square is incidentally one of the locations of Mino's Visit Seoul series as well. Okay, fangirl blah ✌️
Again and again, it was really realllly cold, so we went inside this theater building. There were so many people, mostly parents and their kids, and it was because there was a Nutcracker show. And I was like, "Wow, how can you be bored in Seoul? So many things to do." Like, there's also the aforementioned Seoul Lantern Festival outside. I always wonder how it is to live in a big city...
Anyways, we left after we got some heat and roamed the Gwanghwamun grounds~
I was bundled up but cold was srsly seeping in. To be fair, I may not exactly be prepared for winter, clothes-wise. I was wearing Uniqlo heattech underneath, but the coat, not thick at all. But my coats have definitely occupied, most, if not all, of my luggage, and the very culprit why I couldn't even shop more and bring home stuff that I wanted.
As I've said, Mino visited here as well 🥰
Sometimes, I'm just really glad whenever I'm with someone on this trip just so I won't lug my tripod around and shamelessly take photos while people look and wait 😄
Now, we were struggling to find this next spot but it was literally right in front us of then 😂 Another Mino spot, DUHHHH
Yassss literally Mino day~ That's what fangirls do, folks 😋
Most people from home applaud me for traveling solo, but to be honest, I wouldn't do it any other way, especially for my first time in South Korea. (Well, exception: my sister) But it wouldn't be as free and fun if I were to be with someone who was not a fan and / or a killjoy, you know? I know a lot don't understand the passion that comes with fangirling, but to each their own 🫶
Day 3 is watching-Mino-perform-in-festival day and I'll share my first concert experience in SK in the next post!
