Iced Cafe Mocha At CNN Cafe in Gangnam!

                (Crossing the Hannam Bridge on a bus)

A couple of weeks back, my good friend Woosung promised to share with me a hundred Korean ballads, which he enjoys in his phone. I told him some of these K-pop songs we hear everywhere can be irritating. It was time to listen to slow, real music. He then told me he would be happy to share them! 

                                                                  (Gangnam!)

And today, a chilly Saturday, I crossed the Han River to meet  up with him in Gangnam as I needed to get from him a USB full of Korean ballads. We agreed to meet up at a cafe, which I heard of but never been to: the CNN Cafe!

Every morning, when I turn on the TV, I always make sure it's CNN News I hear when I roam my apartment to prepare for the day. It's always a good start for me to be updated with what's happening around the world. And today, I had another excuse to cross the river and spend a lazy afternoon in a cafe which just doesn't serve breaking news, it also serves iced cafe mocha!

       (The view of Gangnam street from the cafe window)

CNN Cafe in Gangnam (I think they have another branch somewhere) is just a few meters from Exit 11 of Gangnam Station, and it's on the second floor next to the YBM entrance. I felt immediately comfortable when I entered: the place is spacious with lots of tables, seats by the window, electrical outlets everywhere, a couple of desktop computers that one can use for free and of course, a flat-screen TV showing, what else, CNN News!

A few minutes after I got there, Woosung came with a gift of a hundred songs! Thank you, Woosung! Now, my ears won't be tortured anymore by these K-pop songs. Ha-ha-ha! 

As he told me earlier he couldn't stay for long and had to be somewhere else, I wanted to spend a couple of hours in the cafe to continue reading a controversial autobiography of an ageing Philippine politician that my friend Fay bought for me in Manila, and especially handcarried by another friend, Cielo, to Seoul. (Thank you, Fay and Cielo!) Since most of the customers around me were studying and reading, I decided to join the club. The dinner birthday party of another friend was still a few hours away; I still had time to spend with a book, an iced cafe mocha and CNN.

I think I liked it here, if only their iced cafe mocha was in a bigger cup. CNN's news coverage is always impressive, but their coffee was not, actually. Their cafe is actually more conducive to studying and reading, and not for an after-lunch chatting with friends. After all, next door is an educational center.

                                  (A typical Gangnam afternoon traffic)

I hope to visit CNN Cafe some other time when I cross the river. Maybe to read. Maybe to blog. Or maybe to meet up with a friend who's sharing another hundred songs with me again. Ha-ha-ha!

                    (Crossing the street to take a bus on 
                       my way back to Hannam-dong)