I don’t concentrate well in my apartment. The cats see it as a personal challenge to spend as much time as possible with their butts on my keyboard or Korean study books. I can hear the washing machine and dishwasher whispering ‘empty meeeeee,’ and the vacuum cleaner looks at me accusingly.
Okay, so I also have an incurable case of wanderlust, which having brought me to Seoul, also means I cant seem to resist the urge to be out and about at all times.
So I have been carefully curating a list of the best coffee shops and other spaces where it is acceptable to hang out for extended periods of time with a laptop. In the UK, with the exception of perhaps Starbucks and Costa, you would be getting some pretty dirty looks from the staff after a couple of hours having only bought 1 coffee.
Not so in Seoul. Most chain cafes such as Starbucks, Ediya Coffee, Hollys, and A Twosome Place seem to encourage it, with charging plugs and big communal tables as well as individual seats. Fast free Wif-fi is also laid on.
My favourite location-wise tend to be Starbucks, as they have the windows looking out onto the popular places, such as Gwangwhamun Square, but I don't really rate their coffee.
Ediya Coffee near my apartment is another favourite, although it does look out on to a busy intersection. The Book Lounge in Blue Square is a solid choice too as it has an entrance fee which means you can stay all day with the sole purpose of working or reading. The jazz piano playlist is irritating though (headphones are a must for the laptop nomad).
So far my favourite find is a Baskins and Robbins. Sounds odd, but the beautiful branch in Hannam/UN Village is a five storey haven of loveliness for working. During the weekdays only of course. It tends to be crawling with small sticky children and families at weekends so is best avoided at all costs.
Their coffee is good, they do salads and bagels, or ice-cream of course, and I prefer the 5th Floor loft where I can stare at tree tops and people watch the Starbucks opposite (currently a man asleep on his briefcase in the window, bless him).
The reason I chose a part-time Korean Language course was so I could be in when my son got home from school (never an option when I was a teacher in the UK), but also so I could focus more on my content creation.
I am soon launching a website based around independent female travel as well as keeping my blog updated and attending university. All in a caffeine induced haze of course.