Cafes, Cafes, and More Cafes

Before I begin, I just want to preface this post by saying that I’m not a coffee person. Never have been, maybe will be, but as of right now I’m not a big coffee fan. That being said, in my three weeks of being officially in Korea, not counting quarantine, I have been to

more coffee shops than in maybe my entire life. Okay that’s probably an exaggeration, but I’ve definitely been to plenty of cafes since being released from quarantine.

Cafe culture seems to be a big deal in Korea. No matter what time of day it is, you can always find a good amount of people in cafes. My friends and I have quickly picked up on that and used that as our go ahead to visit multiple cafes within the same day. Need a break from walking around in the Korean humidity? Go to a cafe! Just got finished with dinner and need somewhere else to go? Go to a cafe! As cafes are such a relaxing place to enjoy good drinks and conversations with friends, it makes a lot of sense that they're consistently busy. However, I’m also curious if cafes are this busy because of COVID since more places are closed and cafes are places that people are allowed to meet. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s been fun to see how popular cafes are.

It’s also been fun to try new drinks. Since I’m not a coffee drinker my options at cafes tend to be teas, juices, smoothies, or ades. I’ve tried a little of everything and have not been disappointed, although sometimes I am surprised at what my drink turns out to be when I order something that doesn't have a picture to go with it. My favorite drink that I’ve had so far is a matcha latte. I tried matcha in the States, but was never too into it, but now I cannot get enough of it. So delicious!

There seems to be a cafe everywhere you look here; each day as I walk through my neighborhood I discover another cafe. There’s also a cafe for everything! Each cafe has its own unique style, similar to the U.S., but here they even have animal cafes. Some friends and

The gray cat under the table was making us laugh. Such a grumpy looking cat.

I stumbled upon a cat cafe and I swear there was another cat in the room every time I turned around. At first, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about having like 15 cats in a cafe with me, but it was actually really nice. It was almost like animal therapy and my friends were very excited to be around cats because they missed their cats in their home countries. My friend also said she discovered a parrot cafe near her house; I’m so curious as to what that would be like, but also slightly scared. Parrots flying around a cafe? Not sure how it would work, but sounds intriguing.

So to sum it up, Korean cafes are delightful and I’m probably going to spend a lot of time and money enjoying them. Who knows? If I keep going to all these cafes I may even eventually become a coffee drinker too. We'll have to see:)