The Streets of Gold!

So I had one of those out of body experiences, you know, where you think you see heaven and all that you love. I was in Daegu at Seomun Market. It was exhilarating! It's a combination covered market with some indoor shops interspersed. Everything you can imagine was for sale here; like a mega super - Mall of America (the biggest mall in the US in case you missed out some pop-culture!). We started walking and all the shops are honeycombed together but somehow grouped in categories. Like all the fish is together and all the chickens are together. Yes, they had live chickens or dead, plucked or not. The smell was.... let's just say we walked quickly. Then there were hundreds of clothing stalls, shoes for sale, and then we got THERE. This is where my soul floated from my body and hovered in bliss. It was the handmade dresses and hand knit sweaters and handmade fabulousness section. You can watch them create while you shop. And everything they had was absolutely beautiful. I did not take the following pictures because of course I didn't have my camera, they are from www.lifeinkorea.com/Travel2/taegu/59 . The first is a typical view of what you would see if you just looked down the street. It's a narrow passage to walk around in and scooters drive through here too so you have to be careful. One actually bumped into Emily's stroller, though he was going at a very slow speed so she wasn't hurt, but I thought Matt might end up in prison for a moment there. And while Koreans are normally very polite, if you get in their way in these markets they will push their way through. Notice the lady in the foreground sleeping; we saw several of them!

The below is a picture of where they make the traditional Korean dresses, called Hanbok. They have books out and I assume you pick your style (you can get a "fashioned up" modernized one) and then you pick your fabric. They're really beautiful. I want one but what on earth would I do with it? I would feel awkward wearing it since I'm not Korean. That may seem weird to some but that's just how I feel.

There are so many shops and you just walk and walk and I was lost. I didn't have a clue where we were in relation to where we started. And I'm sure we didn't see half of it. There are supposed to be 4,000 shops. Yes that's a four with three zeros. Beat that Mall of America!