Remember our trip to
Hongdae last year and how this fun and funky neighborhood immediately and absolutely swept me off my feet? I was so enamored by this place that I made a resolve to bring my husband here the next time we visit Seoul. That plan finally pushed through last winter when we revisited Hongdae on New Year's Day. Our main agenda was to visit the
Trick Eye Museum, as per Yue's request.
A 3D interactive gallery, the
Trick Eye Museum first opened its doors in Hongdae in 2010. The museum features paintings that make use of the
'trompe l'oeil' (trick of the eye) technique, which gives 2-dimensional paintings the illusion of being in 3D.
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| Trick Eye Museum in Hongdae. |
Everything in this museum is touchable, and guests can freely interact with the artworks and take photos to their hearts' content. Most of the paintings have sample pictures on how you should pose so that you can achieve the 3D illusion, and there are arrows and markers on where you should stand, sit, or lie down so that you can get the best shot.
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| Little Dragon meets Sea Serpent. |
Think fire coming out from the mouth of the sea serpent above, or stars glistening on the photo below. It's a shame that the app was launched two months after our visit. Our photos could have been even more awesome, and Yue would have loved the effects for sure!
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| My Moon Angel on the moon. |
Tickets to the Trick Eye Museum costs
18000 won (around Php 800 or $15) for adults and
12000 won (a little over Php 500 or $10) won for kids. Each ticket includes access to the winter wonderland
Ice Museum and the
Carnival Street filled with mini games.
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| These tickets can be used as discount cards on other Trick Eye Museums so don't throw them away! |
We entered both attractions, and here's a sneak peek of what we saw and did.
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| The Ice Museum! |
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| Eskimos. |
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| The Ice Train. |
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| Ice Panda. |
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| I wanna lay you down in a bed of ice. Haha! |
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| Enjoying the Ice Slide! |
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| Popping balloons! |
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| Mini-golf. |
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| Shooting buckets. |
Located on the floor above the Trick Eye Museum is the
Love Museum, which features '
sensual artworks'. Visitors are encouraged
'not to be shy' and interact with the exhibits by touching them and taking pictures with them. Tickets to the
Love Museum are
8000 won (around Php 350 or $7) open for adults only.
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| Love Museum. |
Of course, no trip to Hongdae would be complete without visiting my beloved
Churro 101, aka the best churros in the planet. We ordered two sets of our favorite
(Yue's and mine) Deep Fried Oreo Churro + vanilla ice cream, which my husband enjoyed as much as we did.
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| Still the best churros in the world. |
After our tummy-fill, we headed for the much-talked about
Cafe de One Piece. This themed cafe opened a few days after we arrived in Seoul and became the talk of the town right away. And I was not surprised at all.
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| Thousand Sunny! |
Aside from the fact
One Piece, the animated series from which this cafe is derived, has legions of fans, this huge pirate ship
(whose name is Thousand Sunny, by the way) is guaranteed to catch anybody's attention.
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| Ahoy, mates! |
My brother and brother-in-law are huge fans of the series and I wanted to visit the cafe in their behalf, and take photos for them to see. But alas, there was a long queue when we arrived! The only way to
'board the ship' is to fall in line and place your order as the ship deck serves as the dining area. There was no way I would stand outside in the cold for more than ten minutes, so we opted to take photos of the standees instead.
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| Monkey D. Luffy! |
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| Luffy, Brook, and Sanji. |
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| Nico Robin, Usopp, Nami, Roronoa Zoro. |
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| Yue's favorite, Tony Tony Chopper! |
Adjacent to the ship is the souvenir shop, where they sell official One Piece merchandise such as plush dolls, shirts, and even straw hats similar to Luffy's. Picture-taking is not allowed inside the souvenir shop, so here's a photo of what I bought instead.
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| Badges for my brother, and transportation card for Yue. |
We'll try to visit again this spring and hopefully, we'll be able to give their food a try. :)
To get to the Trick Eye Museum, take the subway to Hongik University Station Exit 9.
Go straight 150 meters, cross the road, and turn left onto Hongik-ro Street.
Go straight 120 meters, and turn right down the second side street
(in between Tony Moly and Bershka).
Continue going 100 meters to arrive at the Trick Eye Museum on the right.
To get to Cafe de One Piece, walk towards the main gate of Hongik University. The cafe is located beside Starbucks.
3 replies:
I've known a few people to visit Seoul. I think it would be so fun to see the culture and eat a little differently for a little while to experience something new.
I love that museum it seems like a lot of fun! It's always nice to take the kids to places like this one. I'd love to take the twins there someday.
We have a similar museum here in Manila and I think it's always fun! It's nice to get creative with the pictures as well. One Piece is really popular there's a cafe like that in Tokyo as well.
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