Star Wars Coffee in Hongdae

What do you get when Starbucks, George Lucas and a plagiarist walk in to a bar… Star Wars Coffee!

Our contract in Seoul was coming to an end, so during our last two weeks we were purchasing items we wanted to take back home and seeing places we had not yet seen. I was searching online blogs and come across a blurb about Star Wars Coffee in Seoul. I love Star Wars and I love coffee so I figured this would be another fun weekend adventure.

The next Sunday Krista and took a trip to Hongdae 홍대 (Seoul) with our friends Ben and Sel. I had no idea where exactly this coffee shop was but I figured it couldn’t be too hard to find it. For those of you who have never been there, there are hundreds of small shops lining the main streets and hundreds more tucked inside alley ways, it was not going to be easy trying to find this place.

But.. GOOD NEWS! We stopped in at the Tourist Information Centre and asked about the coffee shop. The girl working there knew exactly where to go and pointed us in the right direction. Up the street, take a left, keep left down the alley instead of the main street and you’ll see it on your left. Lo and behold.. there it was!

We were first greeted by a menu sign with a cut-out of Darth Vader holding a stack of cups and C-3PO holding a paper cup of coffee. First up on the menu was Darth Vader’s Espresso for 2000 won (1000won=$0.87USD). R2-D2 Espresso Macchiato W3000. Chewbacca Cappuccino W2500. C-3PO Americano W2000. Yoda Café Mocha W3000. Yoda Caramel Mocha W3000 and a Darth Maul Espresso Con Panna for W3000. See any spelling errors on the board?

At the front of shop was a small counter with a coffee grinder and espresso machines. On the one side sat a 24 inch flat panel monitor and a Darth Vader helmet on the corner. The rest of the shop was filled with collectibles of all kinds. There were Nintendo figurines like Mario and Luigi. There were Spiderman, Batman, GI Joe and of course Star Wars too. At the back of the shop there was a rack misc clothing.

If Krista said no, I’d let Darth Maul iron my clothing for sure.

Some of the more interesting items were the paintings near the front of the shop. There were spoofs of the Simpsons, Guinness Beer and even Van Gough.

I asked about getting a Star Wars Coffee t-shirt but they said they were all out for the year. I showed my dismay and mentioned that we wanted to purchase 4 t-shirts. He thought about it for a minute and decided to bring a few more in for us and we could pick them up next week.

Earlier I mentioned the Darth Vader helmet on the corner of the front counter.. well what fan could resist trying on the helmet and having a light sabre dual? So that’s exactly what Ben and I did.

Oooh right the coffee..! Yeah the it was pretty good too. The table, chairs and umbrella across the alley was what made it most enjoyable. All in all, it was a fun afternoon exploring Hongdae with Ben and Sel.

If you’re in the Hongdae area, stop by and enjoy Darth Vader’s Espresso or Storm Trooper’s Official Latte. And remember.. May the froth be with you!

We’re in Canada!

Ok so we’ve been in Canada for quite sometime now, this post has been a long time coming. We departed from Seoul on September 3rd for Chicago to attend a friend’s wedding, it was an awesome wedding too! On the 6th I flew home to Regina to start a new job. Krista flew to Minnesota to spend time with family and friends for a month and a half.

Before we left Korea, Krista’s immigration paperwork was approved to land in Canada and become a permanent resident. On October 12th she crossed the border and received the final stamp of approval! Congratulations to Canada’s newest Permanent Resident! (also a shout out to Josh, Matt and Pete, we’ve all imported an American girl )

Things have been great in Canada so far, we’ve got a little bit of snow but the temperature has been decent. We have only been home a little while but we greatly miss our friends and students in Seoul. There are plenty of blog posts I need to catch up on, I think the stories and photos will be a wonderful reminder of the amazing year we had overseas.

Stay tuned!