Shopping, Eating & Exchanging Money in Seoul – Sungshin Women’s University and Myeongdong (Day 5)

It is said that any subway stop in Seoul that has the word ‘university’ in it would usually be a haven for shopping. I believe this is true!

After taking a short breather at our hotel, we ventured out to the shopping area near Sungshin Women’s University. Besides shopping, our other main purpose for coming here was to visit Capi Capi Loom Loom (카피카피룸룸 카페) Café aka Seoul’s only Rilakkuma themed café.

Unfortunately, we came all the way here only to realise that the café has CLOSED DOWN. *SOB SOB SOB* Super devastated!

Sigh.

To get over our bout of disappointment, we sought refuge in retail therapy.

This area surprisingly has great shopping! The ‘feel’ of the place is much like Hongdae or Edae. Many of the shops cater to the young and cash strapped, with trendy fashion at very affordable price points. We bought two very gorgeous long sleeved silk blouses for 20,000 won each. What a steal!

After our brief stop at Sungshin, we made our way to Myeongdong in the evening.

crowded streets of Myeongdong

As we were running short of Korean won after our 4 days in Busan, we immediately went in search of money changers. There are several money changers near the China Embassy (Exit 5 of Myeongdong station - see map below) and they all offered slightly better rates than Singapore. Perhaps next time when I come to Seoul, I’ll just not change any money beforehand and come here with only Sing dollars! All of the shops we asked accept Singapore dollars. Phew!

Where to find money changers in Myeongdong

  

Most tourists come to Myeongdong to shop up a storm, but personally I didn’t like it very much. Although it is a must visit for any first-time visitor to Seoul, after a few times, I can’t help but feel that Myeongdong has become too commercialised and too congested with tourists. Many of the shops that you see in Myeongdong have branches elsewhere anyway so there is quite little draw for me here. It is also not true that cosmetic brands give you more freebies in Myeongdong. I bought my Innisfree and Nature Republic skincare and cosmetics from several other places during this trip and I managed to walk away with plenty of freebies too.

And by far, the most irritating thing about shopping in Myeongdong is that the salesgirls from the cosmetics shops will tend to lurk beside you and badger you to enter their store. Once you fall into their trap and enter the stop, they follow you around like a hawk even though you don’t need help. They will often also try to psycho you to purchase their most expensive product in the shop and make you feel bad if you gravitate towards the cheaper lines. There was even one overly-enthusiastic salesgirl who grabbed my arm while I was walking on the sidewalk and tried to physically pull me into their store!! That totally put me off Myeongdong and I don’t think I’ll come here to shop anymore! There are tons of better places to spend your money in Seoul!

The only thing that really caught my eye was this....

Kim Soo Hyun - he's everywhere!!

For dinner, we popped by Hans Deli, a western food restaurant which has a wide selection of pastas, pizzas, baked rice etc. Seems like I always end up at Hans Deli whenever I dunno what to eat! There's always English menus here which make choosing food a breeze!

Took the subway back to our hotel at night and what a surprise we saw! 

Wow. Crazy fans of CNBlue actually paid for a subway ad to wish their favourite guitarist a happy birthday!