What a Day to Be in Korea

This is my first post so I will try to keep it exciting.

We started our day with breakfast at our hotel. It was an interesting buffet with choices of french toast, shoestring french fries and pork dumplings. We spent the rest of the day shopping in Insadong.

Insadong is a market area filled with restaurants, antique stores, boutique shops and street vendors. It was only about a block from hotel, so it was very convenient. I had read in our travel books that the market vendors will barter with you. Both John and I were a little nervous to even try because of the language barrier. The funny thing is that I think we both ended up bargaining for items and didn't know it. I really hope that John likes the silk, hand embroidered toothpick holder that I got him for Christmas. Just kidding....I was impressed at how beautiful even the simplest knick knacks were.

One of my missions while I am here is to purchase at least 18 gifts for Elaina Si-Yeon to open on her birthdays and special occasions. I found a few special items for her today. I am excited that I still have a few days to find more treasures for our special little lady. I might even find a few trinkets for myself.

We stopped for lunch at a Korean restaurant. We were drawn to this particular place because of the front entrance as you can see in the photograph. The waiter brought us several small appetizer type dishes. I don't know the Korean name for the dishes but they were quite interesting. There were spicy tiny whole prawns (not one of my favorites..they were crunchy), kimchi (spicy pickled cabbage-a Korean staple), cabbage soup (liked this one pretty well), soybean sprouts and some sort of bony fish dish (not a fan of this one either). Both John and I did enjoy our lunch entrees. I had Bulgoki (flavorful beef with onions and other spices) and John had Bi Bim Bap (vegetetables, rice and beef in a stone bowl with a spicy red pepper sauce).

You might notice the photograph of two Octopuses on a restaurant sign. It made us giggle a little because they looked like drinking buddies. The other photograph is a view of the Insadong Market.

I hope you enjoyed my blog today. Stay tuned for Heidi and John's next BIG adventure.We are meeting our daughter and her foster Mom tomorrow morning.