Day 6 ... a trip back to where it all began

Today was a day I had been looking forward to for some time ... a chance to revisit our old stomping ground in Hongdae and to see Eastern Social Welfare. What I hadn't counted on was how incredibly emotional (distressed and saddened) I would be.

We left Insadong at about 10 and headed off to catch the subway ... with a change of trains at beautiful City Hall ... one of the oldest subway stations in Seoul. We switched to the green line which was the first line we ever travelled on. 

Arriving into Hongdae was so familiar. We came out of the subway and Ian and I both immediately knew where we needed to head.

We walked along the street towards the Donggyo-Dong Rotary. A familiar walk and arrived outside the Agency. We stood on the street looking at it. We hadn’t made any contact with post-adoption services as Kim did not want to. 

We wandered around to the back of the building and the security man came to speak with us and invited us in to look through.  So we did ... we climbed the familiar stairs but so much has changed. There are no rooms to stay anymore, the baby rooms are all empty, Level 4 (where we stayed) is now a Seniors Day Care Facility. The only things that were familiar were President Kim's office and some of the signage on the doors.

As we wandered through I felt more and more anxious. Ian was standing on the landing at Level 2 and Mrs Kim came out. She looks exactly like she did 10 years ago. We stopped to briefly chat ... she shook our hands and Kim's  ...  I think she was as shocked and surprised as we were.

And so ... we headed out again. A last photo or two before we headed on our way, back towards Hongdae. Claire and I found a cat to pat but it was a little nervous 😓.

We walked to the TrickEye Museum. This is much like ArtVo in Melbourne (for my Melbourne friends). 3D interactive art. There was also a media interactive experience ... like the Lume. We had a wonderful time snapping photos and laughing at each other. We had thought we would also see the Ice Museum but it closed last year. Kim, Claire and I had fun playing in a massive ball pit! Even at 56 you can still be a child.

 

Lunch time sent us wandering in search of a Korean BBQ. Having found what we wanted we climbed the stairs, were shown to a table where the BBQ was lit for us ... and then the cooking and devouring began! An absolutely delicious lunch ... even if I did drop my bowl of jjigae all over my leg (and more importantly on Koko and Womby).

Having filled our stomachs (and given the furry kids a bit of a clean) we navigated our way to an escape room. We were all keen to have a go at solving one together while we were in Seoul. We had carefully selected the location that were available in English. So we picked LOST ... and boy were we lost! We failed to escape within the allocated hour …  but were only 3 locks away from the end. A fun activity to do as a family.

[I have no photos from the escape room ... as they made us lock our phones away before we entered].

Kim then led us to a bouldering gym where he could do some climbing. Unfortunately we were not all able to go in and watch him so Claire and I decided to head home whilst Ian stayed on to watch from the back.

(Ian here) As the rain set in, with occasional light flurries of snow, Kim and I stayed at The Climb in Hongdae. There are 3 separate climbing walls and my spot gave me a view of one of them. Kim started here and showed strength and agility in arms and legs that I didn't possess in my younger days. He moved smoothly (but not effortlessly) across and up the walls, clinging to tiny coloured holds in sequence. There were beginners and experts, each choosing holds and paths to match their physical and problem-solving level. And great spirit in the room. Fun to be a fly (not) on the wall.

 

As Claire and I emerged from the subway close to our apartment ... it was snowing! Lovely light snow flakes drifting slowly to the ground.  They didn't settle though because the ground is wet and it isn't quite cold enough (today was our first day in the positive digits).

And finally dinner back together in Insadong at small ... 4 table ... burger restaurant called Yankees Burgers. Absolutely delicious. A great way to end the day.