It's located just stops away from downtown, also one of the university populated areas. It can be compared to Bugis in Singapore, because there is a university nearby and is almost always crowded with youngsters. hahah.
It is really one of the best shopping areas in Seoul, I say. There are so many things to see there, and IT'S THE PLACE TO FIND CHEAP STUFF! My friends and I went crazy shopping there. haha.
-terminology-
1000 won = SGD 1.10
daehakyo - University
계란 kye ran - Egg
빵 bbang - Bread
unnie - sister (used to address female strangers who appear older)
*refer to above for terminology!*
This place is rather straightforward, just exit from Exit 2/3 to reach the main street that leads to Ewha University. I really don't understand why they have two exits there on opposite side of the road because the street was as tiny as a lane, so one can just jaywalk across.
This is only the start...
The place is very simple, a little more laidback than the downtown. Small shophouses line the main street and the trees that line the main street also made it pretty!
A small stationery shop selling overpriced stuff. Nice to browse, tough on the pocket.
For those who would like to buy skincare, Ewha is a good place because they hire a lot of overseas students who can speak both Korean and Chinese/English so you are likely to receive understandable tips if you are looking for specific products.
The big brands like Face Shop, Etude House, Holika Holika, Nature Republic and Skinfood are everywhere in Seoul, so you can find all these outlets along the main street on Ewha as well.
Exterior of some of the cafes that dotted the street.
Even though Ewha is a small place, and the main street is rather short too, we spent about 2 hours trying to reach the end of it!! Mainly because we were stuck in a lot of those skincare/makeup shops.. There were really so many things to browse.. haha..
And finally when we reach the end, we see Ewha Women's University and I was quite surprised at how modern it looked at the entrance.
To save us more time on shopping, we kind of skipped touring the public area of the University.. I hope to go there and see2 look2 again if i get to go back! I remember people saying the campus is very pretty.
We were quite hungry so we started looking for food.. Seriously, just enter any restaurants, pick any item on the menu, you are still gonna get something quite decent~! Korea is a place of good food man!
Janice and I shared a biggg plate of fried rice for lunch and omy it was super duper delicious
After our lunch, we embarked on the next street, which was just adjacent to the street where Ewha University marked the end.
Most of the time, we just kind of split up because we were too engrossed in our own shopping to wait for each other. haha. shopping more important than friends =p
And i found a really interesting street stall!
The stall made something similar to the pancakes we have in local Mr. Bean, just that there is only one flavour!
EGG! It was called 계란빵 kye ran bbang/egg bread (pancake).
So it was just like cooked egg wrapped in the pancake.. Selling at only 700 won!! It's one of the cheapest snack I've found in Seoul.
The crowd really raised my curiosity so i bought one to try...
I tasted heaven!! it's really such a simple snack but it tasted so good! The pancake was really scotching in my hands. It is crispy on the outside and a bite into it will release a really nice fragrance. After biting off the pancake layer, you will see the cooked egg inside and the delicious taste of unflavoured egg was nice too!
I don't see this snack anywhere else so if you want to try some egg pancake, you got to travel to Ewha!
I think this should be a popular snack amongst University students..
Anyway, Ewha area is a really confusing place, especially if you are following a map. There are so many small lanes to cover, so you should give yourself a whole afternoon there to make turns here and there to make sure you don't miss any treasures.
I didn't take much shots of the shopping there, and the reason is obvious - i was just looking and buying stuff! lol I really spent a bomb at this place, not because it was pricey but because i bought a lot!
There were so many good bags going at 10000 won and I was really biting my fingers to stop myself. The clothes were very stylish and at least 20-30% cheaper than downtown.. They give crazy discounts too, especially if you act "hard to get", but remain polite.. We managed to rip about 40% discount from the original price by being really friendly and act pitiful to one of the unnies in the shop. hahha. This trick works really well.
Oh one interesting thing about shopping in Korea. All shopkeepers will address you as "unnie" (bigger sister) even though you are evidently younger than them. I think it's because all customers are like "bosses" so they are to be addressed greater than the staff.
We became tired quickly after covering another part of the area so we went to this waffle shop for our teatime..
I liked the place a lot, simple and nicely decorated.
the food there were all very reasonably priced! And no GST or Service charge like Singapore.. We got to enjoy waffles and coffee at really cheap prices!
The ice cream waffle was delicious!!
The coffee milk shake was the best too!!
View more photos of the waffle shop at the end!
Look at how tired Janice was...
Photogenic street!
Finally, we cleared the entire area... And then we found another mall! 0.0 Omg. Haha.. it was Migliore if i'm not wrong, but the place was kind of newly revamped so there were hardly any shoppers and the prices there were a little more expensive.
Anyway, we spotted a pretty church from faraway and we decided to check it out! This time, the tired shoppers like Felicia, Charissa and Janice headed home whereas the still-energetic Pui Sheen, Tee Jun and I decided to walk in the direction of the Church!
Really didn't regret going there! It was really quite pretty on the outside (we didn't go in though).
Sad thing was that there were many electric cables and poles so it was damn hard to find an angle without the cables in the way.
The colour of the sky was pretty nice too!
Anyway, we realised we were at the Sinchon area after walking away from Ewha.. Scroll to the map above, and you will see that actually the whole area is pretty much connected and Sinchon is also populated with another University, Yonsei Uni!
I cannot fully describe THE PLENTIFULNESS of the food there!!! There were so so so many food stalls and restaurants there! It was really hard to settle for a place...
Since Tee Jun was craving for Jap food, we went to a random Jap shop for its cheap offer.
Cute Pui!
I didn't expect much from the bowl so the taste of the Oyako don really came as a pleasant surprise!
The egg sauce was just nice in its flavouring and I really enjoyed it so much!
After dinner, we walk the night streets of Sinchon and we passed by this stall which was crowded with customers too!
Apparently, it was selling barbeque chicken sticks... It took really long to complete one set of sticks as shown above... There were so many things he added! Sauce, fish flakes, nuts, and many many more...
It was interesting just looking at him cook it.
It was about 2000-3000 won and i must say, IT'S DAMN FREAKING WORTH IT!!
It was so delicious..Every ingredient he added all blended so well together.. The chicken meat was so tender as well! The spicy sauce was really quite spicy though, but i really loved it!
That marked the end of the day at Ewha well!
Another day, Felicia and I revisited Ewha for some last minute shopping and I was craving for the same chicken sticks, but i tried another stall which was just at the exit of the subway.
Definitely wasn't as good, but delicious too!
In summary, Ewha was a really fun place, especially for young girls to shop.. there isn't much stuff for guys so Sinchon might be a better place because there is endless food there! Visit Ewha before going to places like Dongdaemun and Myeongdong!! Must go!
