For the last month, my friend’s parents have been in the east, first they went to China via a stop in Seoul to pick up Rob, spending a week there before coming down t the East of Korea, to get a real taste of what there is here. They did quite a lot in their time here, but this weekend was their last weekend. Which just happened to coincide with the Lantern Festival – the precursor to Buddha’s birthday next weekend. We all thought it would be pretty cool to head up to Seoul and check out the festivities!
I arrived on Saturday afternoon where I met up with my friends. I’m always surprised how long the subway takes in Korea (and sometimes transport in general! ) and then the waiting. By the time we met up and had lunch it was well on its way to 3pm. Coupled with a quick trip to a couple of more western shops and it was suddenly 6pm! Shocking. I was supposed to be meeting a friend as well, so when the others went for dinner I headed off to meet Ryan, his brother, Stephen and their new friend, Henry. All avid photographers, I felt like the odd one out not wielding my camera around my shoulder. But soon we got into the Insadong area, where the streets had been closed off to cars and traffic, and all the floats were lining the streets instead. There were so many people, but it was great to take some pictures, and wonder around. Catching a performance or two, we just wondered around. When we were heading down Insadong-gil later on we stopped to watch a slightly drunk person dancing while the performers were trying to sing. It was pretty funny. I’ve seen this happen often in Korea, and I’m still surprised when no-one pulls them out of the lime light, and that the singers and dancers can just do their thing around them. We took pictures and debated whether this drunken person was male or female – arguing that there was no adam’s apple, or boobs, but then the outfit was masculine and the hair too. In the end I think we all agreed that it was a woman (maybe swayed by the voice, dancing and the fact that she tried to kiss one of the singers!!)
Grabbing some food at a really nice Italian place, we rested for a while before Henry had to leave and the three of us headed to the river. It was dark at this point, and the river had lights in the rocks, on the walls and in the little waterfalls – it was actually really cute! I made everyone cross over the river every time there was a crossing, and had an awesome time. There was an adoption photo gallery in one of the alcoves that was some of the best work I’ve seen in a long time. It was really emotive. We looked round it a couple of times before tearing ourselves away to see the rest of the lit up river before we all headed back to our respective destinations.
On Sunday I woke up feeling hungover. It was an impressive hangover considering I haven’t had a drink in over a week. I opted for the sunglasses and coffee look and as the day wore on I started to feel slightly more human. We took Rob’s parents to Dongdaemoon Market where we all bartered for the fun of it (the prices are so steep there!) and pointed out some very unflattering underwear. We watched some guys making candy, which was so tasty, and chatted to a couple of people. Then we headed to the Lantern Festival.
In the afternoon we split into girls and boys. The guys went and did their own thing while us girls sat down and created master pieces! That’s right; we got our creativity rolling and made some lanterns. It was pretty fun after we got over the fact that is took a lot of preparation. At the end they were all judged, but none of us won any prizes…such a shame :( hehehe. But they’ll be a brilliant reminder to a fun afternoon in the sun!
After a huge Outback dinner we headed to the festival. I tried to get as many pictures as possible, but none of them really came out. It was really pretty and interesting. The whole parade was about 90 minutes long and there was a lot going on. The lanterns were all handmade and totally stunning. The outfit were amazing as well. I never tire of seeing women in hanboks, and the monks’ outfits, too! WOW! If you want some more information on the festival head to http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=533471 where you can read a bit about the history and see some pretty pictures. (I’ll try and put mine up soon – but they might end up on face book sooner than on here!)
Other than that, I came home this morning to discover I forgot to take my trash out, so that was a bit disgusting, and everything else was fine! It’s so nice to be back!
I hope you’re all well and let me know what you’ve been up to.
