Seoul's nightlife - Hongdae & Itaewon

Every big city is known for never sleeping. Seoul is no exception here either. Luckily, the topic of Corona has subsided a bit, because Seoul's nightlife was among the most affected, because everything here was also forbidden and banned. But after two years you can finally see more life on the streets again, the street performances have returned and you can kind of speak of normality here again - so I came at exactly the right time! I'll give you a little insight into two well-known party and shopping districts in Seoul - Hongdae and Itaewon.

When I recently went shopping in Hongdae with my boyfriend Jonas and his uncle, I walked them around like I was a Korean Siri. "오른쪽으로 가세요", "please turn right". Jonas' uncle said just for fun: "You know the area better than I do." He wasn't entirely wrong, in fact, Hongdae is the area I've been the most out of in Seoul, while I haven't seen other areas at all including Gangnam, which is definitely still on my list! But Hongdae attracts me to something completely different than partying, although it's said that you can do that pretty well here. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm less of a party person and more of a cafe person. And nice cafes are a dime a dozen, especially in Hongdae, which is why I have been drawn to this area quite a few times, even if it costs me 45 minutes from my Airbnb each time.

Aside from all the cafes here, Hongdae is just a good place for having fun in every way. From arcades to bars, karaoke rooms, clubs, restaurants, photobooths and most importantly shopping, there's a whole lot your heart desires here. If you want to have fun, regardless of how you define fun, you will definitely find it here. Hongdae is by far the place where I've spent most of my money - right, for shopping! I didn't just save my money for traveling, but above all to shop for Korean fashion here, which is so incredibly great. The Koreans just have style, I see that every time with my boyfriend, who is German, but style just flows through their blood. From cute, sometimes a bit too short skirts to high-waisted pants, bomber jackets, lots of cord (cord pants, cord jackets, etc.), cool caps, accessory glasses - even the jogging outfits look stylish here. Nobody can combine it as cleverly as the Koreans. It reminds me of the one evening when I spontaneously decided to go shopping after sitting in a cafe for ages and were given super good advice by a Korean lady. Curse her for giving me such good advice that I tried on outfits that I never thought would suit me and I was practically "forced" to buy them! Joking aside - I wanted to buy it because it's just fun. And I'm sure some of you will want it too when you're here, I promise you that. In my defence: in Germany I have been very reluctant to do so over the last few months because I wanted to use the money for Korea. Now that I'm here, the leash can be let go, after all so far I'm only here once and I don't know when I'll be back.

In addition to all the shopping shops, which all stretch back a long way through a single street, there is also an extra street with lots of bars and clubs and also the well-known street "홍대걷고싶은거리" ("The street where you want to go"), which is also known for its street performances, among other things. Various artists perform here with cool dance interludes, singing performances or instruments. People all gather around and watch and support the artists all the time. There is a lot to see here, not to mention the delicious street food, which I actually tried here for the first time. If you want to get a little insight into street food, you can read my post about Busan: Busan pt. 2 - Market & BTS Edition

Another thing I really enjoy about Hongdae are the photobooths, which are really plentiful. In these shops, costumes and hair accessories, even curling irons and flat irons are provided free of charge so that you are perfectly equipped for your photos. Old, classic and, above all, narrow photo booths, as you normally know them, are given a new touch here in Korea. The separate, large rooms in the Korean photobooths, together with the modern photo machines, enable you to shoot the best photo strips or photo cards. Because here you can take several photos and in the end decide between the best ones yourself, as well as select and design filters and backgrounds. With a QR code, the videos of yourself taking photos can then be downloaded afterwards. Here not only the people and the pictures, but also your Instagram feed can be equipped at best.

Visiting Hongdae, especially in the evening or at night, is a must! Not only are there streets full of performances, shopping, pop-up stores, malls and parties, but also "quieter" corners, e.g. parks around and lots of cafes, especially in the street "동교로41길", e.g. the Yeontral Dabang and the Cheongsudang Gongmyeong Cafe, which I already mentioned here: The Cafe Culture in South Korea or the "Sleeping Forest" Cafe and much more.

If you are in South Korea in autumn, you should not miss the beautiful season by taking pictures and especially not the Halloween season in Itaewon. It's a big celebration here. And so of course I didn't want to miss this either, because for the first time in two years the party doors were opened again after Corona had thwarted the plans for the time being. So of course a lot of other people decided to celebrate Halloween in Itaewon for the first time this year. Well, you've probably already heard what tragedy had also happened here, and I'm not unmoved by it. I will also write about this at the end, but for now I would like to report quite objectively and neutrally about what I experienced and how I organized the partying.

As I mentioned before, I'm really not a party person. I left the young, wild years behind me a long time ago, my peak phase was at the age of 17/18 and at the age of 23 I now feel quite old. But every now and then you have to let yourself go and remember how nice it was to party back then. Not only do you get to know a lot of new people who you may never see again, but with whom you have many new, somewhat different conversations and you can just switch off and dance. I certainly didn't miss it and didn't need it anyway, but considering that Halloween is celebrated big here, it was a motivation for me to dress up a little, make myself pretty and see how people really celebrate here in Seoul .

Nothing demotivates me more than walking around forever looking for a good bar with good music. I've heard from others before that many clubs in Korea play rap and hip hop, which isn't my idea of ​​good music at all. So to avoid all the searching and stress, I decided to book a pub crawl through Airbnb. Not only are the bars and clubs pre-determined and you don't have to worry about anything, but it also makes meeting people a lot easier, because many others also book such tours. It also saves you the cost of entering the clubs, which is expensive, and you also get free shots once per bar and a free drink from the hosts. I booked the tour here for €17.75 per person: Absolutely: Seoul Pub Crawl & Party My boyfriend Jonas and another friend from Germany named Lorenz were there, too.

The night was originally planned to be three bars and then a club, but due to the crowds we skipped one bar, otherwise it would have taken too long to get there. Meeting point was from 20-21:30 in the first bar called "The Craic House" just outside the area, near the subway station right on the main street. Before that, I went around the corner with Jonas for dinner so that we were well equipped for an evening of alcohol. Arriving at the first bar, we received our wristbands, which we used to identify ourselves as a group and also served as a kind of entry ticket for the clubs and bars, as well as an introduction from the two hosts on how the evening is going to run - of course, passport control is a must , so don't forget your ID! In this bar we also made our first contacts: there were a few Germans in the group, Asians (Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.) as well as Swedes and Koreans who could speak English surprisingly well and even a few words of German. A colorful and mixed group of approx. 25 people that definitely guaranteed a cool evening!

After we had left the first bar, we went straight into the middle of the hustle and bustle. It was already crowded before, but as we walked through the narrow streets where all the bars, clubs and partying are just beginning, it suddenly got crowded - so crowded. Slowly, holding hands or holding each other, we pushed our way through the crowd trying to get through to the nearest bar. There was no thought of the impending disaster on Saturday, but admittedly it wasn't as crowded on Friday as it was on Saturday and everyone still admired each other's costumes without worrying, we laughed together and thought of nothing bad. However, it was already so crowded that I couldn't really admire the streets. All I noticed was that it was teeming with clubs and bars; And not only down on the ground floor, but mostly above it on the first, sometimes also the second floor. So there are often clubs that are above the bars and from which you could take a look at the crowded streets. From up there, we also observed all the creative costumes from the Super Mario brothers, to Daftpunk, to aliens, cops, wrestlers, figures of Toystory and much more.

Arriving at the second bar called "Bronz x Lazy Cat", things really got going. There you slowly felt the alcohol and got to know the others in addition to the even quite good music. We danced, laughed, drank shots together and talked about where we come from and what we do here. Our group was a mix of young (19-24) and older (till 35) people, but we all got along very well. Sometimes, you talked to one person, then to the other and suddenly you were dancing with the strangers from the table next door. After 1.5h we went to the last club called "SUS", that was around 11pm. Then Itaewon reached its peak with even more crowded streets than before, which only started to calm down around 2am. Up a flight of stairs on a side street, another flight of stairs and then we were at the club and danced until 3am with a view over Itaewon, alongside a mix of pop and electronic music. The club was small, but I liked it because it suited our group. Here I got to know some other people who I will never see again and don't even know their names, but will keep the funny memories in my head forever. People do crazy things when they're drunk and as long as everything has its limits, you can even enjoy it and laugh along with it. Here a guy danced with a lightsaber, I twerked with a midget male, met a woman named Kelly whose number I saved on my phone but can't even remember. Next to me, the Swede approached an Asian woman who was 10 years older than him and Lorenz, fully drunk, had to interrupt their hot dance routine every time, which I felt a bit sorry for the Swede. At some point, I went to the bathroom and noticed that I was suddenly wearing a ring that Jonas told me the next day I got from some girl in the bar, of which I even found a photo of on my cell phone, but I just can't remember. And unfortunately, I lost the ring. That and so much more funny things happened.

Between 3 and 4 in the morning Jonas and I then made our way home. Taxis are expensive of course, but it was the easiest and most comfortable way to get home. But expect prices like 50,000 - 60,000 KRW, about ~45€ - at least riding to my area Sillim-dong.

I have to say that I was deeply shocked waking up on sunday morning to missed calls and multiple messages from friends on my cell phone asking "Are you alright?", still completely unaware of what happened. Next to me, Jonas phoned his mother and uncle, who even reported us missing to the police because we didn't answer for so long (we had slept in). Meanwhile, I then googled what had happened, especially after seeing the Instagram story of my friend Celine who was in Itaewon on saturday and said "she's fine, don't worry." What had happened?!

Then after I found out everything, I was down for quite a while. Not only because it is absolutely horrible and unimaginable what happened there, but also because it could have happened to us and also to my friend Celine. It's absolutely scary to think about that the day before you were partying in the same area and had an absolutely amazing night, while the day after others wanted to have a nice night too but will never come home. It's scary knowing how close we missed it and that my girlfriend was even in the middle of it and thank god she wasn't hurt. It makes you really aware of how quickly life can be over and you often don't even expect it or see it coming.

Celine said that it was incredibly crowded everywhere, even on the buses and trains, so that even there you were almost crushed. So how bad must it have been for the victims in the crowds? From a certain point on, all you could hear was ambulances, the whistles of the police officers and panic; but also many people who just kept partying and laughing as if nothing had happened. I think I would have broken down mentally in the middle of it because I certainly couldn't celebrate knowing that people just died next to me. Quite apart from the fact that most of them were made up with fake blood and injuries due to Halloween or that others were laying drunk and motionless on the floor - the confusion must have been great here, at least Celine has told me so.

And at the same time I am incredibly grateful that I'm still alive and try to distance myself from the horrific images and the thoughts associated with them, because unfortunately you can't undo what happened. But I'm not feeling good at all after this. I pray for all the victims who lost their lives and all the grieving, left back families and friends.