Defend Your Stoop: Ihwa Mural Village / by Jaclyn Sison

Never stop exploring

  I was surprised that I had never heard of this place until I met Amanda.  While Sean and I were eating lunch, it popped into my head again.  We were going to take our usual trip to Myeongdong to try and find places to take photos, but we decided to switch it up.

  Ihwa Mural Village can be walked to from Dongdaemun Station.  It’s about a 20-minute uphill battle to this village, but the murals are well worth it… if they’re still there.

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  The walk there is already scenic in its own sense.  The city life of small apartment complexes and crowded street parking, with a dash of history in the middle.  You walk along side the Wall Museum of Seoul.

  Then you reach the top of the hill, and you find yourself at a small cat café.  We didn’t get anything at this café, but we did sit next to it and watch the cats as they perused through the crowds of people.

  There were maps located around the village showing you where the different murals were located, but to our dismay, the murals that we wanted to see had already been washed away.

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  There were a few small paintings left around the city, and I think my favorite one had to be this corner painting of sunflowers.   Just because they happen to be my favorite flower.

  After our long trek up and down the stairs of Ihwa Village, we decided to stop for some milk ice cream, and it was absolutely scrumptious.  It didn’t have a icy, gritty texture like most milk ice creams do.

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  To enjoy the rest of they area, we just took street photos and called it a day.  We headed back to Dongdaemun station to get ready for our $90 movie date to watch Captain Marvel, which was amazing.

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Check out the rest of our Ihwa Village Pixieset here!