My Day at a Cat Cafe

Dreams DO come true! I finally went to a Cat Cafe.

My friend Marjan was visiting from Minnesota and this was our second weekend in Seoul before she left to head back home. Going to a Cat Cafe has been on my Korean Bucket List since I even knew such a thing existed. Luckily, we were shopping around Myeongdong and when we needed a break I saw a sign. I knew this was a sign, figuratively and literally. We had to go in.

Taken with Instagram

The rules of the Cat Cafe are simple:

1. Go up to the 4th floor via stairs or elevator
2. Enter
3. Take in the glorious view of cats draped everywhere around the cafe
4. Pay 8,000 won per person
5. Choose your complimentary beverage (typical coffee shop drinks offered)
6. Find a place to sit and store your belongings
7. Play with cats for as long as you want!

The cafe had a great variety of cats: they had a Scottish fold, a hairless cat, various fat cats, and a Persian cat with a very unfortunate haircut. There was even a board in the front with information about each cat, the breed of cat, it's name, and other various information that was written in Korean.

Upon entrance I freaked out. I squealed at a pitch I didn't even know I was possible. I then proceeded to run around the cafe like a crazy woman and took self portraits of me and cats that were half asleep and allowed me to exploit them. It was amazing. My inner 13 year old and taken over my body, and there was no stopping her. After a green tea latte, she finally calmed down. You basically just chill out and enjoy your drinks while watching cats sleep and play. You can purchase treats at an additional cost (about 2,000-4,000 won) that you can feed the cats with. I recommend doing this, because some of the cats flocked over to me as soon as I ripped open the packet of tasty seafood. You cannot pick up the cats or hold them, but you are allowed to pet the cats to your heart's delight!

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

This cat cafe in particular was awesome. This was my first and only, but I heard other cat cafes can be dirty, smelly, and sometimes the cats aren't well taken care of. That was not the case here. It was clean, smelled nice, cats were well groomed and well fed, there were many platforms for the cats to climb and jump from, and there were many secret cubbies for the cats to sleep in and hide from people like me.

If you want to check out this cat cafe, all I can tell you is that it's in Myeongdong in Seoul and it's near a Pizza Hut and maybe a Guess store. My best bet is to walk the main streets and look for a sign, or a person in a cat outfit. Good luck!

Sign on the entrance

I would also like to note, that I am not a crazy cat lady! I love all animals. There are even dog cafes in Korea you could check out, though they aren't as common as cat cafes.

Seoul Searching

I finally went to Seoul last Saturday! It was not what I expected. I had always pictured Seoul to be a big metropolitan city with big skyscrapers, but was just all apartment buildings. Everywhere.

After a 2 hour bus ride, and a 30 minute subway ride, we found ourselves in Insadong. Insadong was a really cool arts district with cobblestone roads and lots of shops with traditional Korean paintings, pottery, and sculptures, along with tourists traps with "I Love Korea" t-shirts and key chains. When we reached the main shopping street on Insadong it started pouring so we took cover in a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant, where we both enjoyed jigae, a Korean stew.

Umbrellas everywhere in Insadong

When the rain calmed down we ventured back out to the main street.  We stopped at this really cool shop with scrolls that the shop owner hand painted, they varied from landscape paintings, to paintings of flowers or birds, to sayings written in Korean script.

There were also a lot of street vendors making and selling various foods. We stopped at one stand with two Koreans guys who were making a desert called kkultarae. They started with a big block of honey, then put a hole through it so it was like a donut of honey, then the guy continued to wrap the honey in loops so he ended up with thousands of strands of hardened honey that were dipped in flour. With those strands, they stuffed jam or chocolate and nuts inside so it was like a little pocket with the filling. They were so cute and friendly and had such a cute song to go along with their demonstration that I had to buy it. For my fellow Persians, it tasted a bit like Pashmak, but slightly thicker and sweeter.

The Korean vendors making KKultarae

After Insadong we went back on the subway to check out Myeong-dong. Myeongdong is a shopping district in Seoul with lots of local shops and international shops. They had a Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Zara, Puma, and get this: a four-story Forever 21! It was like heaven's gates opened right in front of me. Myeongdong was incredibly crowded and had random people dancing and dressed up in animal costumes, a 'magician' who blew bubbles to the crowd, and a group of old people singing songs. There were a lot of foreigners here too, which was a big change from Inje.

Creepy pig who scared me

Umbrellas and people everywhere in Myeongdong

Overall, Seoul was pretty cool, but a little dissapointing. There's still so much more to see in Seoul so I can't really judge it now, and the rain and miserable weather put a damper on everything.

The Forever 21 with four floors!