Animal Cafes....

 Note: All the dates on these are now different than when we attended, and I am doing them somewhat out of order. We are back in Minnesota, but I still want to catch up and get this all posted!!


Seoul has a ton of animal cafes, and they are unique and awesome. Some we had plans to visit, some we tried and failed, and a couple we couldn't go to. Seoul has a raccoon cafe called Blind Alley, but you have to be 12 to visit to that was out. They also have a meerkat cafe, but you have to be 16! So much for that one! So we stuck to dogs and cats, and attempted a reptile...but more on that later!

The first doggy cafe Hudson and I went to was Bauhaus Dog cafe, which is in the trendy neighborhood of Hongdae. It was easy to get to by subway, and the staff was super kind and accommodating and spoke pretty good English, also. Since our Korean is fairly limited, we always appreciate when people are able to speak English, but its not a requirement at all. Im constantly amazed at how much you can get by with pointing and a smile :)

Bauhaus had two different areas - a small and large dog area. You pay for a drink, and then are able to stay for a certain amount of time. It says you need to pay more after that, but we never experienced that, likely because we were there on a weekday and it wasn't too busy.

The small dog area had lots of chihuahuas which Hudson loved. There were tons of lapdogs, and they weren't hesitant to come up and cuddle. I had my own little white fluff ball for a good hour, which we named Marshmallow. Lots of the doggies live full time at the cafe, and others come as a doggy day care situation. We enjoyed our drinks and petting the animals. We also visited the large dog side, and bought some treats to feed them for around $3.  Holy cow, the large dog side was crazy when you bring them treats! Those dogs do not hesitate to get all up in your business to get to a treat! We much preferred heading back to the small dog side! I will say that the staff in Bauhaus was awesome. We didn't see a single doggy accident while we were there, but they were ready for it with paper towels, spray and mops. They also took turns taking the big dogs out for walks, and others were grooming the dogs while we were there. This was not the case at the other dog cafe we went to.

We brought Chris back to Bauhaus on a different day and enjoyed introducing him to the little doggies. This was by far our favorite cafe!

On another day, Hudson and I went to Myeondong, which is a cool outdoor market/shopping area with a lot of neat cafes. One thing that Bauhaus didn't have was pugs, and since we were missing Buttercup we decided to give another dog cafe a try because it appeared they have pugs! So we first went to the cat cafe. We were there right at opening (1:30 in the afternoon), and had the place to ourselves for a good hour. However, the staff was eating their lunch while we were there so I had to point out when the cat may have missed the litter box, so to speak. I had also read online that you were able to feed the cats, but unfortunately there were signs saying that the cats were "on a diet". lol

The cats, as many cats do, tended to completely ignore us. There was one lounging on a table we hung out with, but in general the cats could CARE LESS that we were there, and were not interested in any cuddles or shenanigans. Hudson did play with a toy with one cat, but that was about the extent of our kitty interactions. Hudson did love seeing a cat with two colored eyes though, just like him! He also thought it was fun to see the sphinx hairless cats, but they stayed up high while we were there. It was a good experience, but we liked the doggies better.

With high hopes of some good pug interaction, we headed down the road to the other dog cafe in Myeondong. When we got up there, the worker immediately stopped us at the door and said that it wasn't safe for kids if kids are loud, pulled on the dogs, etc. She said they had dogs who bite. Poor Hudson was super scared, and when I asked her if children were not allowed, she said they were but that it wasn't safe. Then another worker came over to reassure us that it was ok, that kids were allowed, etc. We weren't sure whether to even go in, but decided to go for it. The small and large dogs were not separated, and the whole thing was a lot less enjoyable than Bauhaus. You again paid to get a drink and then could stay, but they gave you this pink blanket to sit on the floor with, and then hopefully the dogs would interact with you. There were more doggy accidents here, and while they cleaned them up quickly, we weren't really enjoying it. We did see the pugs and get some pets in, but none of them had the sweet personality of our Buttercup, so we called it a day and headed out.

Our last attempt at an animal cafe was a reptile cafe. Chris had seen it online, and I found a few blogs that said that Koopet was a animal store for reptiles that also had a cafe where you could hold reptiles and feed turtles lettuce. So excited...but then major disappointment! We got there and tried to ask the staff about the turtle feeding. Chris even pulled up feed turtles in Korean on google translate, but then the staff person brought us a jar of turtle food, LOL! We finally explained to him by pointing at the turtles, but he said no, so I guess they no longer have people feed the turtles. Bummer! Hudson was an absolute trooper on this, because its hard to get a 7 year old super excited he is going to feed a turtle, only to realize that it is not going to happen. Im honestly really impressed with his ability to understand that things sometimes don't work out in a foreign country.

Speaking of Hudson, I asked if he wanted to give his own review, and here is what he said:

"Bauhaus is the best one to go to in Korea. Cat cafe you can't pet the ones with blue scarves. Don't go to the reptile cafe because they don't have what you hear about on new reviews."

There you have it!

The big dog side was a little rougher, lol!

We took Chris to Bauhaus for a second trip, it was our favorite doggy cafe!

We named this dog Marshmallow. He had a name, but I couldn't pronounce it. Sorry, doggy!

Cuddling with four dogs at Bauhaus!

Entrance to Bauhaus, which was in Hongdae and super close to the subway line (about a block and a half)

Welcome to the cat cafe. Beautiful cats, no interest in people :)

This cat has a blue eye and a green eye! A cat like Hudson :)

This was the second dog cafe I mentioned above, not as good as an experience as Bauhaus, so we didn't stay long. Even Hudson and this pug look distressed!!! It was nice to at least see pugs, but wouldn't recommend this place

The reptile cafe. Koopet was a let down, but these turtles were happy

Look, but don't feed these turtles! 

Gyeongpo Beach

One of the things that was on my bucket list for our summer in South Korea was a trip to the beach. There are beaches on three sides, and as close as the Incheon airport where we flew in. However, in researching a bit more I wanted to get a sandy beach experience instead of a rocky or muddy beach, so we headed off to Gangneung. We looked it up on waze, our travel app, and it said it would take us 3.5 hours based on the time we planned on leaving. Google maps doesn't work for driving in South Korea, so this was our go-to for directions.

The next morning we left shortly after 7, and suddenly our GPS said it would take 5.5 hours. We were hoping this was a fluke, but nope. It took us just over 6 hours to get to the beach. It was a beautiful drive, but wow was it a drive! Even though South Korea is a small country, the traffic makes it seem much longer!

Once we got to the beach we found public parking and headed out to the gorgeous white sand beach on the eastern coast of Korea. Technically the sea of Japan, but also the ocean :)

The beach experience was awesome. They have inner tubes to rent for about $5, and we rented an umbrella for less than $10. The swimming part was roped off, and we watched people paragliding, riding behind boats, and lots of people enjoying the water. There were lots of lifeguards, though Hudson immediately asked Chris "why are they wearing their underwear, dad?" Speedo explanation to the rescue!!

Hudson had a fantastic time playing in the sand, going in the water to swim, and enjoying the beach! The beach closes at 6 p.m., and we certainly didn't want to hit traffic on the way home, so we drove a bit and saw some of the arenas for the upcoming Pyonchang Olympics - you can see pictures below of the hockey arena and where figure skating will take place! We then had a great dinner at a little tiny brewpub where we shared a couple appetizers, including amazing chicken wings. The coolest part of this was the waiting area, which was just a backyard with lights where they sold chicken skewers and people were just hanging out. It was fantastic, except for mosquitoes! We headed home after dinner and it only took us 2.5 hours to get home, which was MUCH better than the 6 hours it took us to get there!