Koffee & Kpop

Since I was out and far from home when visiting Blue Bottle Pangyo, I decided to go even further with my friend Amy and view the newest Starfield Library, located in the Starfield Mall, Suwon.

Most of the mall is dog-friendly with the exception of the restaurants and cafes. The mall is massive and sparkly and very easy to get lost in, but don’t worry–you can scan a QR code located on the floor of some stores and it brings up a searchable map on your phone.

The first thing we did was stop in at Molly’s, a pet store. Cat ownership seems to be significantly less popular than dog ownership in Korea, but Molly’s stocked a bunch of cat goods, from food to litter to treats… of which I had to buy a few for Merlin, of course. I bought him a catnip lollipop and silvervine popsicle. He played with the catnip lollipop for like ten minutes before he grew bored with it, and we’ll see how he likes the silvervine popsicle at a later date.

Then we wandered around the food court before deciding on Salt House Deli. Unfortunately, at the time we went, the salami sandwich was sold out, but the jamon fromage sandwich and potatoes were really tasty. It’s hard to find a good sandwich in Korea, and Salt House accomplished it. There are other locations as well so definitely stop in if you come across one!

But there was only one reason I wanted to go to Starfield Suwon, and that was the Starfield Library, an even larger, even more impressive library than the Starfield Library located in the COEX mall in Seoul. The library occupies floors 4 through 7 and this day it was extremely crowded and pictures were hard to take.

Starfield Libraries are both library and hang out spot, and Starfield Suwon also has a cafe called Vinyl where you can pay to have a drink and listen to a record. The architecture is truly stunning, and there always seems to be something going on at Starfield Libraries. The one in Suwon had a separate library for children, and it was heartwarming to see all the kids and their parents lounging around, reading books together or separately.

There are a few caveats: sadly, not all of the books are real. Some of the harder to reach books are just decorative. But that’s okay! Because there’s still tons of books! You also can’t physically check out a book from the library, so if you get sucked into that Joseon Dynasty BL historical romance book, you’re going to have to visit a bookstore to purchase it or another library to check it out.

I had a great time walking around the mall, watching Amy purchase her first bath bomb from Lush, and being dazzled by all the books and lights, but it was a little overwhelming to be there on a Sunday afternoon. If you decide to go, go early!