Our Seoul Apartment | Catching the Sunset from the 30th Floor

Our tiny Seoul apartment, located about 30 floors up, came with a view of the city against a backdrop of mountains. The space was just big enough to fit a bed, a tiny couch, a table, a flat screen TV, a tiny table with two dining chairs, and a compact kitchen that folded into a closet. In total, we guessed our apartment to be, at most, 400 square feet, but with a view that stretched out forever beyond the oversized window, it hardly seemed to matter. It was more than enough for our needs.

On our last evening in Seoul, we rode a 45 minute subway to Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in an attempt to finally get our hands on some cruffins. We arrived an hour after the cruffins had been “released” and the shop had been completely ravaged of any and every baked good. Dejected, we sulked around the corner, picked up a couple of salads from Bad Farmers, and rode all the way back home to eat our dinner. In the end, it worked out for the best. We ate our surprisingly delicious (Korea isn’t exactly known for salads) salads, watched some Korean cooking shows, and enjoyed our view of the city from our little room on the 30th floor.

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In between watching fireworks, exploring the city, and stuffing our faces, we spent a lot of time in our Seoul apartment, gazing out our picture window, watching as the city blinked alive with lights as day slipped into night. We consider ourselves to be most at home when surrounded by nature, but there is an undeniably vibrant energy that I find addictive about city life. Looking out onto a sea of streets, shops, apartments, schools, and restaurants, one becomes instantly aware of the diversity of people who not only surround you, but who also make up the fabric and heart of the city. Sometimes urban life drives us crazy, but mostly, there is a strange comfort in knowing that we are all in this together.

DETAILS

Seoul Apartment on AirBnB | LOCATION: Mapo-gu, Seoul | COST: $65-70/night, 2 night minimum | DESCRIPTION: Small apartment in older high rise located right next to a subway line a few stops away from Hongdae and Mangwon. Free parking is available (one of the main reasons why we chose to stay here) although you kind of need to be able to communicate with the security guard in order to get your parking validated. Overall, we thought it was the perfect amount of space for two people. The actual listing can be found here. If you don’t already have an AirBnB account, click here to get $35 off your first rental.

Mr. Holmes Bakehouse | COST: ~$6/cruffin, limit 2 per person | DESCRIPTION: This popular SF bakery’s first overseas outpost is in, of all places, Seoul. Their specialty cruffins (a muffin made with croissant dough) are released twice a day with their weekly flavors updated on their IG feed. A friend of mine told me that she had no problem getting a cruffin, not even a line, and all the blogs/reviews I read seemed to support this. Given this information, we didn’t really see the need to arrive hours early or wait in line. I don’t know if it was because we attempted to go on a Sunday evening, or if it was because it was a Korean holiday, or if cruffins have become super popular since my friends/blogs visited but we arrived less than an hour after the evening cruffin release time and there was like nothing at all to eat in the store. Like I don’t even know why it was still open because the display cases were bare. Hopefully this isn’t the norm.

Bad Farmers | COST: ~$13-15 for a salad | DESCRIPTION: It is so hard to find salads in Korea (or in Asia in general) that don’t involve shredded cabbage and a sweet miso dressing of some sort. So far, buffet style restaurants have been our best bet, but even then the salads have been kind of bizarre, and almost always too sweet. Bad Farmers’ salads are more in line with what we are used to eating – a large leafy salad (no cabbage) with a variety of savory ingredients. They even had a version of cobb salad with avocado and salmon. The salads aren’t massive, but they are a welcome change from Korea’s oftentimes meat-heavy cuisine. In addition to salads, Bad Farmer’s also has soup and a variety of juices on their menu. | VERDICT: Kind of pricey for the size, but a good healthy option to break up all the bbq and pastries that Korea is obsessed with these days. Recommended.