The meeting with the foster family could not be arranged, but we still wanted to travel to Daegu, enjoy a meal and take some photos of Lyv's birth city. AND WE DID!
We met our lovely Korean guide, now friend, near 10AM on Tuesday. She came to our hotel to meet us which was very kind as we had yet to attempt the Seoul Subway system. We left our hotel and headed by subway (an interesting adventure) to the Seoul Station so we could catch the next bullet train to Daegu. We were too late to sneek onto the 11AM train, so we shopped a bit and visited with our new friend while we waited for the noon train to Daegu.
The trip from Seoul to Daegu on the bullet train/KTX takes about two hours with speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. It was a beautiful day for this trip that cuts South Korea in half diagonally leaving from Seoul in the NW and ending in Daegu in the SE.
South Korea is a beautiful country. It really is covered by short mountains with little plains/valleys for planting in between. We saw a lot of rice and soybeans growing on our trip and even a little corn. It seemed like the bigger cities and smaller villages kind of ran together with not a lot of undeveloped or unfarmed areas. The trip to Daegu would have been COMPLETELY worth the time and money had we only seen the beautiful countryside and turned back to Seoul on the next train north.
When we got to Daegu the first thing we did was purchase our return tickets to Seoul. We would be on the 6:12 train. So we had 4 sweet hours to spend in Lyv's birth city. Second on the Daegu agenda was lunch. =) Our friend had googled "best traditional Korean restaurants in Daegu" which lead us eventually to a unique, small, Korean restaurant with perfect food. It took a few phone calls from our cab driver to the restaurant in order for us to find it, but we made it. (The taxi cab was the nicest one I'll ever ride in. Leather EVERYTHING.) We were so very hungry and we were quickly served the most delicious Bi Bim Bap we will likely ever eat.
After Lunch, Ji Yeon asked what else we hoped to do. We said just walk the city and take pics. Our dreams of meeting Lyv's foster family not being a reality, our aims weren't that high.
We ran quickly into a Hello Kitty Diner. How cute was that! Ji Yeon said that Hello Kitty is a Japanese thing (as I recall), but it is huge in Korea. Next, we hapt across a shop with adult Hanboks for sale. Hanboks are traditional Korean outfits worn for special days like birthdays and weddings. We really hoped to get Alyvia a Hanbok from Korea, So in that moment it hit me . . . Find Lyv's Hanbok in Daegu. Get her Hanbok from her birth city!!! Now we had a mission. Find the perfect Hanbok for our daughter in Daegu.
At this point, we had about 2 and a half hours left before our train headed back to Seoul, so we needed to get tracking. Ji Yeon asked in a shop or two where we might find Hanboks in Daegu and the consensus was that there was a "mall" where you could find various vendors selling LOTS of Hanboks. The mall wasn't really close but not too far either, so we hoofed it and found it. We had to walk down a traditional Korean shopping district to find the mall and it was amazing. The atmosphere, the smell, the people. . . Amazing. This mall was really like an old Sears store with 3 or 4 stories, one floor of which was JAMMED (think two foot aisles, short ceilings, your basic clausterphobia central) with vendors selling Hanboks and other fabric (think bolts and bolts of fabric). With Ji Yeon's help (bargaining for prices and telling me when to walk away), we finally found the perfect Hanbok for Lyv. And we were stoked.
Side note, we had left John outside the mall and had he tried to find us inside, we would have been seperated FOR.EVER. It was like a maze of fabric and sellers and o my!
We did make it back outside, we even found the same door. Whew!
On the edge of the shopping district, we found our first Pororo stuff. We bought stuffed toys for the bigs and Super nanny then headed to a safe place to hail a cab back to the train station. This cab was not as nice and the driver was definitely not the safest man I've ever ridden with. He used his horn A.Lot! Just sayin.
We took the very fast and enjoyable trip back to Seoul on the KTX. We enjoyed more conversations with Ji Yeon. We really hoped to be an encouragement to her as she was to us. We even got shushed by the attendant on the train. I think we were enjoying our trip too much.
Anywho, Sweet Ji Yeon dropped us safely at our hotel and took the subway 30-45 minutes back to her apartment around 9PM.
Please, See God's hand of provision all over this day. Please, praise Him with us for guiding and protecting us. . . for going before us and using Ji Yeon to help us so very much. A guide and sister . . . now friend. God was very very good to us on our Tuesday in Korea and we went to bed simply grateful for His continued grace and provision for our every need . . .
