cats and coffee

Most of the cat café blogs that I have read start something like this: “Let me start off by saying that I am a dog person…”  Well I don’t consider myself a cat person either. None the less I accompanied my friend to the only* cat café in Daejeon.  You basically pay 8,000Won (your first drink is free) to sit and watch or play with cats.  It does seem a bit bizarre but hey, this is Korea… The world’s first cat café opened in Taiwan in 1998. The trend soon spread to other cat+coffee loving cities.

The décor in this café is fun and colourful – I kind of liked it. It seemed like a great place to bring your kids, they can play while you gossip with your friends.

As for hygiene: You take your shoes of at the door and you are offered hand sanitiser before you touch the cats… these aren’t alley cats, they are freakin’ celebrities…

Here are more pictures of the cats:

A cat fight waiting to happen…

Lazing in the sun.

“You looking at me?”

The star of the spectacle has to be the Sphynx. Btw I am also not a fan of animals wearing clothes…

The café is on the 7th floor but I don’t think the cats can be bothered with the view.

Directios:

It’s relatively easy to find. If you  are standing at the main corner entrance of Time World Galleria, walk towards the Paris Baguette/Mc Donalds sign. Turn right at the first street and walk past Zara until you see Starbucks.  The cat café should be to your right – the entrance is to the right of the Starbucks coffee shop. Enjoy!

*If there are others feel free to correct me.

we went hunting

I was told that you could find some decent second-hand clothes in down-town Daejeon.  Two weeks ago we went bargain hunting at the Jungangno Subway Arcades. Boy did we find some good deals – T-shirts for 5,000Won (R45). We eventually continued shopping above ground in the Jungangno Market.  In there we found a 2nd-hand burrow of awesomeness. When you walk in you find dresses and tops from 3,000 Won – and most things are in good condition.  But as we ventured deeper into the shop we found fur. Real fur coats. And when we asked “how much?” the lady proceeded to type  15,000Won (R124!) into her calculator. The prices range from 15,000 – 50,000Won and you can find fur in most of the second-hand stores. I was told that the second-hand shops buy the clothes for 3,000 – 5,000 per kilo… so feel free to bargain your way down…or at least try. These are some of the things a came home with – the chiffon dress was 5,000Won, the brown fur coat 25,000Won and the black fur coat was 30,000:

I also got this fur waist coat for 10,000Won – it only has fur in the front. I thought of wearing it with my bohemian dress.

It had some damage to the collar, thus it was so cheap. Luckily I had a fabric rose that matched the colour perfectly.

I don’t know if I’ll ever wear these, but at that price I could not resist. I can always sell them or give them away… My mother joked and said that green peace would hunt me down. But I’m recycling an old coat – I don’t buy new. I buy a coat made of animals that are already dead, if the coat ends up in the trash the animal would have died in vain.  I made this diagram to illustrate my post-rationalisation:

sunday at the dam

I am very lucky to have a co-teacher who is taking me all over Daejeon and showing me sights and shops I would not normally have found.  Thank you Lorelie!  Like two Sundays back, I was still in bed thinking I’d take it easy for the day – this was the day after I visited the Hanbat Arboretum so I figured one sight-seeing mission in Daejeon was enough.  I received a call from Lorie asking if I’d like to join her at the Daecheong Dam. So glad I said yes!  The drive there was amazing in itself. The roads were lined with pink and white cherry blossoms – having missed out on seeing many blossoms at the Jinhae Festival this was a welcome sight.  The dam itself was great. Ideal for picnics on weekends. I don’t think the dam is open for recreational boating but lower down in the river I did see people with canoes so there’s another thing to do in summer when the temperature reaches 34+. Also it is open to visit at night.  In summer they have light and water shows – something I would definitely want to see.  Check out this blog for a photos of what it looks like at night.

The view from the dam wall.

Boats on the water – sadly I think most might be for maintenance of the dam – though I could be wrong. Here’s hoping.

The blossom lined roads to the dam – this road had no cars because they closed it so people could take pictures – traffic to the dam was pretty hectic. We went there by car but you can get there by bus:

From Daejeon Station: (Bus #102,103,311,313,511,514,52,60,63 go to the stop at Daejeon Station where you need to catch Bus #60)Catch bus #60 going towards Okcheon~ see the road sign… (It only comes every 80 mins, if you miss it there is a wonderful market to explore right by the bus stop). It’s about a 50 min ride so stay on the bus all the way to the end, the bus stops for 10 mins at the end so get off there. There are bicycles to use (free of charge after signing in at the office). Below is a picture of the stop to get off at *Chan Seang*, as well as a timetable fo the times that the bus returns to Daejeon.Bus #71 & #72 also go there, and can be caught from  Chugnam National University bus stop in Yuseoung.

Check out FarmBoy and CityGirl’s blog post about their visit to the dam – it’s where I copied the bus directions from.

After the dam visit we went to a Korean BBQ restaurant somewhere in the mountains. It is close to the Four Seasons Family Restaurant and they recently completed construction on a spa there.  If anyone reading this knows where it is feel free to comment. It overlooks a smaller dam (ch’jeong-josuji) and it’s not that crowded because it is outside the city – I would never have found this place on my own.  I loved it. The food was amazing and when we left in the evening the fairy lights were turned on in the trees. A magical and romantic place. (Apparently also ideal if you are having an affair)

I now jump out of bed when Lorie sends me a text to go somewhere. Next week I’ll blog about my visit to the Zoo – with Lorie of course – and about the second-hand clothing shops in Deajeon.

a tourist in my own city

The pressures to see as much of Korea as possible in a year could make you forget to explore your own city. These past weekends I went walking around Daejeon to see what this city has to offer.  As it is not situated close to the ocean one would think that there is not that much to do – especially in spring ans summer.  I was pleasantly surprised. Daejeon has the Expo: Science Park, a large, newly refurbished zoo and the Hanbat Arboretum to name a few. The Hanbat Arboretum is a the largest man-made arboretum and it links the science park to the city centre. When I went over the weekend it was crawling with people, mostly riding their bikes and having picnics on the grass. The park also has these amazing steel structures that are used for concerts and live events – something to look forward to in summer.

This is the view from the East Garden looking towards the Science Park. I was mostly drawn and amazed by the cherry blossoms.

The West garden has many pathways – ideal for a romantic escape over the weekend.

The park also has a large Tropical garden – the entrance is free! So this is where you will find me in winter…

I will definitely be going here often in summer for a picnic or a concert or just a walk in the park. So glad I found this place.

Address :

155, Dunsan-daero, Seo-gu, Daejeon
대전 서구 둔산대로 169 (만년동)

Operating Hours :

April-September: 06:00-21:00
October-March: 08:00-19:00
* Tropical Garden: 09:00-18:00
* Last admission: 1 hour before closing

Closed :

Dongwon (East Garden) & Tropical Garden: Mondays
Seowon (West Garden): Tuesdays
* Remains open, if Monday or Tuesday is a holiday.

Directions :

[Subway]
Government Complex, Daejeon Station (Daejeon Subway Line 1), Exit 3.
Go 80m straight, and turn right at the 4-way Intersection.
Go 800m straight, and turn right towards the Peongsong Youth Center.
Go 700m straight to arrive at the Hanbat Arboretum on the left.

[Bus]
Take Bus 606, 618 or 911 and get off at Daejeon Culture & Arts Center (예술의전당).
Or, take Bus 104, 604, 301, 318, 705 or 918 and get off at Seogu Bogeonso (서구보건소).

 

a weekend in busan

They say time flies when you are having fun.  It feels like just yesterday that the I got off the bus in Daejeon for the first time.  As the weeks pass by, the urge to see more and more of South Korea gets stronger – I only have 46 weeks left!

The first place I went to outside of my city (yes, I call it my city because I feel like I belong here) was Busan.  A group of us went to experience the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival and then spent the rest of the weekend in Busan.  What a city! Amazing beaches, amazing buildings and so much to do!

We spent Sunday walking around the city – we started at the Busan Aquarium and ended at the Busan Cinema Centre.  I desperately wanted to see the Busan Cinema Centre, and wasn’t where google maps told me it was… We walked for 2 hours or more – I think my companions might have wanted to strangle me at some point.  On the way we saw Dongbaek Park, the APEC House and the most amazing tall buildings. We did find the Cinema Centre – or the Temple of movies as I’d like to call it. It was the highlight of my trip.

The APEC House in Dongbaek Park.

Amazing tall buildings.

The Busan Cinema Centre – I would like to still see it at night when the roof lights up with LED’s…

To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger and one of the most cliché movie lines of all time, Busan “I’ll be back“.