Burgers, Chocolate and Scrabble - What a Sunday

 Woke up a little tired and emotional last Sunday but the sun was shining so we dragged ourselves out of bed.  Where to go though was a problem.  The problem was based on food.  Feeling a little over boozed and under nourished, the regular dose of kimchi and rice just wasn’t going to cut it.  There-in lies the problem.  Where to go in Daejeon to get something to eat if you don’t want Korean food.  We had three options:  Stroll to Gung Dong or Dunsan-Dong and hopefully find somewhere satisfactory or jump the subway to Eunnangdong and similarly keep our fingers crossed.  We ruled Dunsan out quickly enough, comparing it to a Temple Bar of sorts.  Eunhang-Dong was next to go for fear that the hunger grumps would get us after a half an hour on the subway.  To Gung-Dong it was without much hope that we’d find something totally satisfactory.

The River on a Nice Sunny Day

As I said though, it was a lovely day, there was a slight nip in the air but the sun was shinning and there were plenty of people out and about, strolling along the river bank.  After crossing the river and coming up to the road just at the edge of Gung-Dong, Nick let out a little yelp ‘Play Burger! What’s that?’  That’s a burger joint in Dunsan I remember hearing good things about is what it is! ‘Yes! Let’s go!’  Delighted with ourselves, we were too excited to wait for the green man to cross the road and ran across to various stares and the odd car horn beep!

After such initial excitement, opening the door of Play Burger and going in, could have been a massive disappointment but it wasn’t.  It was like we’d just stepped out of South Korea and into a cosmopolitan European city cafe.  Very Exciting!  The first such place we’ve been in since we’ve been here, which incidentally is almost exactly four months now.  The menu was just burgers, not that you’d expect much else given the name of the place.  No explanations, just the names of each one in an altogether too cool for school minimalist menu, but with lovely friendly prices to boot!  The menu said they were committed to using the freshest of produce and that everything was made in-house and judging by what we were presented with they weren’t lying!  I don’t think either of us spoke for about fifteen minutes apart from the old yelp or exclamation of joy!  A burger too big to pick up, crammed with goodies, a massive green salad, a couple of hash browns and a re-fillable drink all for just over a fiver! 

 Nick Lookin' Chuffed With Himself!

The Best Burger in Korea

After eating and drinking our fill we headed off in search of a coffee, feeling pretty content with life!  Little did we know the day was going to get better!  We found this tiny little cafe with kitch decor and a bit of a French feel to it.  I ordered a hot chocolate not really feeling like a caffeine hit and my god was I glad I did when it came.  It was a cup of melted chocolate with a little jug of steamed milk to add to it.  I was tempted to leave the milk out of it altogether!

 The Spoon Was As Delighted As I Was!

I Put Nicks Spoon into My Chocolate Too So He Could Join the Fun! 

We were trying to think of what we’d do next, eating and drinking had been well and truely ticked at this stage which made thinking of something a bit difficult.  I had a vague memory of someone telling me about a cafe near by there where you could sit and play board games so we headed off in search of said place.  We found it, but it was shut.  Done and dusted, never to open again.  Big sad face.  A spanner in our almost perfect day.  Until we turned around and saw it across the street.  Delighted once more, off we went hoping we’d find a game of scrabble, in English and not Hangul.  We did!  I ordered a couple of drinks, Nick went off in search of the facilities, we snagged the game of scrabble and plonked ourselves down at a table.  Next thing I knew, Nick was saying he was hungry and it was 8pm!  What a day!    

Serious Scrabble Face!