You’d think an Opera House would be the kind of thing that wouldn’t be hard to find. Particularly when the Opera House in question is, according to their own website, ‘shaped like a grand piano’. It’s not quite as bizarre as the images this concept may conjure up, but there is definitely something grand-piano-esque (without the legs) about the building,  as I was aware from the glimpse I’d caught when we drove past one time and a friend pointed it out. Last week Thursday I went looking for it and proved, quite conclusively that knowing what a building looks like, even one as distinctive as this, is no guarantee at all of finding it.

I had originally intended to go to the Opera House on Monday for a show but chickened out at the last minute, partly because I was tired but mostly because the task of finding a building I’d never been to first thing on a Monday morning was overwhelmingly daunting. This is why I set off on Thursday on a bit of ‘advanced recon’.

According to the Daegu tourist information website, I should have been able to reach the Opera House simply by taking bus #403 and getting off at the ‘Homeplus’ stop. This was particularly convenient because but #403 stops near my flat.

After 45 minutes of watching anxiously at each stop for anything vaguely resembling a ‘Homeplus’ (whatever that was) and a bus rapidly filling with people – I eventually stayed standing to get a better view of the names written on the stops – I found myself near Kyungpook National University in what I was fairly sure was the wrong part of town. I assumed I’d missed the stop in the bustle of the crowded bus, so I got off and crossed the road to get the same #403 bus going in the other direction. A quick look at the list of stops on that side didn’t turn up what I was looking for but I figured the ‘Homeplus’ stop could be called something else (as often happens), so I stuck to the plan.

While I waited, I had the most gorgeous view of a river and a park. I’m increasingly delighted by the long, narrow parks – complete with walks, exercise equipment, jungle gyms and the occasional basketball court – that run alongside most rivers and canals in Daegu. This river sparkled and danced in the weak, mid-afternoon sunshine, as children played and people walked and ran alongside it.

The bus arrived and I climbed aboard and determinedly claimed a seat with a good view of all the stops so that I couldn’t miss mine again. By the time we had wound our way back to the subway station that I normally get off at for Sam Duk, have traversed downtown a second time, it was clear that bus #403 does not in fact go anywhere near the Opera House. Disgruntled, I got out and crossed the road to see if I could find any sign of another bus that might take me there.

As luck would have it, my slow and careful deciphering of the list of bus-stops for the Rapid 2 bus (a bus none of the websites mentioned) revealed that this bus went to had a ‘Homeplus’ stop listed. Just to give a proper idea, Homeplus here spelt 험플러스 which ends up being something like hom-peul-leo-seu. I had just missed one of these Rapid 2 buses so I had to wait 15 minutes for the next one.

After crawling through downtown traffic we reached the right stop. Homeplus, it turns out, is a rather large (multi-storey) department-type store. Except not a department store. It’s actually Homeplus TESCO, so it’s an actual hypermarket.

Once off the bus, I walked to the traffic light/pedestrian crossing, from where I could see along a side-road and there, just a block away, was the Opera House. I went along the road just to make absolutely sure I was in the right place but it was, indeed, the place I’d spent the entire afternoon failing to find.

Since I was there, I popped into Homeplus to have a look, too. It looks like a great place to find reasonably-priced clothes. I didn’t find the groceries – despite large adverts for specials on things like cabbages – but I’m sure they must be there somewhere (in one of the 7 storeys). And maybe they’ll even have cheese.

Now that I know where it is, I plan to return to Homeplus and do a proper shop sometime. Now that I know where the Opera House is, I can finally get organized and make my way there for one of the many shows they advertise. And finally enjoy some of the high culture the city has to offer.