They got a shipment from the 1800s

 After breakfast, we headed out to a Wetland Preserve known for its array of birds. An expansive park, the ideal way to see it is apparently to rent bikes and bike the trails all the way around.  But before we get to this, one more video of the car process because we can’t stop laughing about it. This time, it’s the turntable.  Last one, promise.

After pulling out again, we head toward Upo Wetlands, past a Forrest of housing skyscrapers. There are no suburbs or subdivisions of single homes or even low rises.  Every development is around 40 to 50 stories tall, and they’re actively building numerous ones.  Construction cranes are everywhere.  We will have better pics tomorrow when we ride a cable car up the mountain, but here’s a taste:

We arrived at the wetlands one minute after opening time, but the entrance was blocked and roped off. Excited to get started, we went into the gift shop to ask about rental bikes. After a very difficult communication process, we finally used a translator device to communicate two items. The park was closed today. Avian Flu. Yeesh!  Some folks were defying the entry guard and entering anyway.  We were NOT those folks. Disappointed but without avian flu, we left in a hurry.  

On the way there we saw an Insect and Fossil museum, and decided with our new spare time we would stop. It looked like someone’s house, but we were curious. The man charged us $2 per person to get in to a creepy and bizarre wonderland of taxidermy. Pictures trump words here:

The owner followed us and watched us look at every exhibit. He didn’t speak English, but he clearly enjoyed watching us interact with the exhibits. He did indicate that he had done all of the taxidermy and even which animals were roadkill. He was as proud as a new parent.  

After touring the bottom floor, we thought we were done but no. He indicated we needed to go upstairs. I worried we were going to be killed, stuffed, and mounted ourselves, wondering how long before someone reports us missing. Luckily, it was just a huge insect display. The man had the most expansive personal collection of native insects imaginable, including some deadly ones. We were able to understand that he was a local teacher, and his daughter taught at Oxford. Although we realized too late that there were signs prohibiting pictures, he never complained. I think he loved watching us enjoy it. Joel did mention that a good portion of that museum would be highly illegal in the US, including the stuffed lion cubs.  

Back to town, we decide to put off hiking for tomorrow and explore the city instead.  First, we stopped at a cat cafe to play with cats. This cat cafe started as a shelter for abandoned cats. They turned it into a cafe to fund the rescue operation. After sitting in the cafe for awhile, cat personalities and hierarchy started to emerge. Some cats were prohibited from being given treats.  I think those were all the bad bully cats. Only the low ranking cats got treats.  Being there left us missing Bacon and our dogs, but it was a fun afternoon treat. 

The city has a massive shopping district that is pedestrian friendly and endlessly entertaining. We wandered until our feet gave out, even in our comfy sneakers.  

Our wandering brought us to the Hyundai shopping cube, an 8-story cube of shopping entertainment. The food hall was a cultural study in itself. It included a bonafide Texas Roadhouse, right behind a sushi go-round.  

The real stunner was the clothing. Jane and I went to look at some dresses, to see if anything suited her. Wow oh wow, it did not. 

Jane said “they got a shipment from the 1800s”

Jane said, “My rich husband died of mysterious circumstances.”

Me: “and wow, these are expensive!”

Jane: “because they’re antiques, mom”

They were in the $300 range for the tops and more for dresses. I knew Korean women dressed conservatively, but this is just too dreary.  Even Ann Taylor was weeping. I do like how they wear sneakers and socks with dresses, though. I could get on board with that. Oddly they wear flats of heels with shorts. I’m out. 

We wandered back toward the hotel for a well-earned nap. 

You may have noticed that we didn’t have any ancient monuments pictures. You’re right!  That starts in two days when we enter the ancient Capitol of Korea (Joseon). In order to not overdose, we are building our anticipation.  Jane in particular is craving shrines, temples and palaces.  All in good time…

After a nap and rehydration, we got hungry for lunch/dinner. We headed out to a Chimac restaurant, for which Daegu is famous. Chimac is Korean fried chicken and beer. The name of the city Daegu actually means chicken, and it’s been a famous chicken town for ages. We had no idea what made Korean fried chicken different than Kentucky fried chicken, but we were hungry and ready to evaluate. 

Our hotel sent us to this place, which was decorated like the outside of a sidewalk cafe. 

First they served us some sort of snacks. They were off to a slow start; Jane said they were dog treats. 

Then came the beer. Oooooh, it was so cold it almost felt icy. The flavor was oh so mild and its alcohol content was on the low side. Now we were warming up to this. They only had a single kind of beer so I guess they had to do it right. 

We ordered two dinners for the 3 of us so we got some sides. The rice ball was perfect, just seasoned rice done well. These rice sticks in red pepper garlic sauce were interesting but a distraction. 

Finally, the big moment came. Chicken!  One covered with 3 sauces and the other just straight chicken covered in green onions. The green onions had some sort of light sauce on them. Flawless, simply flawless. There was way too much, no sides needed. We have ruined Jane for fried chicken. She’ll search the rest of her life trying to recreate that dinner. I think they’re coating the chicken with a garlic pepper onion seasoning paste before they bread it. It was moist and ketchup would have hurt its feelings, likely why ketchup was a notably absent condiment. 

With a giant sack of leftovers in hand, we decided to go fishing in a basement. The system had a scoring mechanism based on weight of fish caught. You compete against the other fishers in the room.  All sounds real clear cut except they didn’t speak English and we had to figure that all out by context clues. Google translate is better at Korean than Japanese thanks to a phonetic alphabet, but it still doesn’t translate the unspoken context that we don’t understand. When we arrived, I was terrified they were going to try to make us take that fish home. Or clean it.  

We fished right up to the wire of our 1-hour buy in and both of them each caught two fish. Man are those fish trained. They have a bunch of tricks to get the bait off the hook without getting caught. 

Saturdays are dessert day and we didn’t find anything we wanted, but today we did. We picked crookies (Jane named them; no clue what they’re really called). Crookies are croissant cookies. 

After a long evening, we sat down to try our crookies, only to be greatly disappointed. It’s exactly a croissant plus a cookie, which is a dry and weird mouthful. We tossed those. Maybe we will find something else we like. 

We tried some ice cream but that was hideous too. A pint of real ice cream is about $16 here, but the cheap ice cream is gross. Surely we will find a proper dessert somewhere. 

Off to bed. Resting up for bigger adventures tomorrow.