Festival for coming true your desire.

This post is far overdue.  Since it's exam time, though, and I'm an expert procrastinator, now seems like the perfect time to play a little blogging 'catch up.'

From October 1 - 12, Jinju, a town in the southern part of South Korea, hosts the Namgang Lantern Festival, when the river lights up with hundreds of lanterns.  The story goes that many years ago, when the town was besieged by the Japanese, Korean military leaders sent messages on lanterns down the river to their home city.

Vroni had done some great research on different festivals around Korea and, for the past 5 years, the Jinju Lantern Festival had been rated as one of the top festivals - so Vroni, Susanna, and I were off for opening weekend!

We took the subway to Express Bus Terminal station, and the Express Bus Station was part of the subway building complex.  We found the ticket counter easily enough, and there were seats on the next bus - that was headed out in 15 minutes!  We grabbed some freshly made kimbap - yum! - and jumped on board.  And I fell in love with Korean express buses.  Instead of four seats across, there were only three.  The seats were huge, and they reclined to be almost completely horizontal!

Four and a half hours later, after some great scenery filled with villages in valleys, towering mountains, rolling streams, some napping, and a couple albums of Regina Spektor, we arrived in Jinju!  We found our way from the Express Bus Station to the center of the city because Vroni has a wicked sense of direction and I'm clever enough to tell directions by the position of the sun.  Found a hotel easily enough - and it was right on the river!  They didn't speak English at the reception desk, though, of course, so we got to use our extensive vocabulary to communicate - "See?" "How much?" 

Vroni and Mulan, shooting arrows!

We spent the day visiting a fortress on the cliffs over the river, shooting bows and arrows at the fortress (I now prefer to go by the name "Mulan," thank you very much.), and checking out the street vendors.  Little white tents lined the riverside filled with every type of food and non-food product you could imagine - cinnamon-filled pita bread, shark, eel, underwear, cleaning brushes, and dream-catchers!  That's what really got me - in the United States, it's a kind of running joke that the Native Americans worm their way into every fair or carnival.  Imagine my surprise when, in the middle of South Korea, there were Native Americans playing their mouth harps just like in the States! Crazy.

Festival food - yum!

I think that's shark on the left?

During the evening, we made some amazing lanterns of our own.  Vroni made a flower one, and Susanna and I collaborated on a very intricate fish. As they were wish lanterns, we wrote our wishes on them in our languages.  The Finnish, German, and English stood out in the sea of Korean!  We finished  just in time to watch the fireworks!  The fireworks were great and utilized many hearts. Koreans are much more vocal than most Americans while watching fireworks; they were cheering and screaming and shouting with glee! After the fireworks, we stared at the amazing lanterns for quite a while.  The lanterns were in every shape imaginable - dragons, traditional Korean ceremonies, a panda, some dalmatians, the Statue of Liberty, athletes from the Olympics... and their reflections were beautiful upon the water!  Throughout the day, we were pretty much the only westerners to be seen.  People would come up to us and offer us tea or ask where we are from or just say "Hello!" or "Yepuda!" (which means "pretty").  Being the object of such curiosity is a new experience for me, but I couldn't get over how nice everyone was!

Our new friends!

For example, wandering around at night, we passed the "religious" tents.  A man came running after us and pulled us back, where a group of people made us try some rice cakes and then had us sit down while they served us some tea.  A man, who was apparently some important religious man at a temple, took an interest in us and started speaking to us quite a bit - all in Korean.  A woman translated some, but he kept going on and on so much that she couldn't keep up!  They took us out to dinner to try some traditional Korean food and drink rice wine.  The rice wine is served in bowls and is a cloudy, milky color.  It was strange to be toasting a religious elder with bowls of rice wine!  Not quite something I imagine doing with the Catholic priests...

To finish the night, and really show how much we love each other, Susanna, Vroni, and I took a walk through a bamboo forest that turned out to be couple-land!  Check out the pictures below for some of the otrociously amazing and strange kitsch that greeted us!  Yes, they ARE doing what you think they are doing!

Sleeping on the floor, Korean style!

 

I slept ondol style that night for the first time.  Which basically means I slept on a blanket on the floor.  But, overall, I'm glad I slept on the floor - it was the final piece in a totally Korean weekend!  The next morning we wandered around some more, checked out a famous silk store, ate lunch, and took the bus for home!

 

You know you're in Korea when...

...you go to the university dining hall and the main dish for the day is "rice capped with octopus in sauce."

Yup.  Tentacles, suckers, and all - enjoy!

Gyeongbokgung

Chuseok (Korean harvest festival comparable to Thanksgiving in the United States) was on Wednesday, September 22 this year.  I wasn't fortunate enough to experience a true Korean Chuseok (a friend and I went to dinner at the only restaurant we could find open - a fried chicken place!), but I wanted to visit a very Korean place in order to keep in the Korean holiday spirit.

Gyeongbokgung (or Gyeongbok Palace) was the main and largest palace build by the Joseon Dynasty.  Translated into English, it is called "The Palace Blessed by Heaven."  To celebrate Chuseok, Gyeongbokgung hosted some traditional Korean games and discounts to those wearing traditional Korean clothing. Susanna and I paid 3,000 won for entrance and hung around for a few hours - and it was definitely worth it!  Everything had a very Korean feel to it, and the day was beautiful!

Hanging out a palace, though, caused a slight identity crisis - I definitely think I'm a princess! 

There are always mountains
watching over you in Seoul.

Susanna and me

I'm playing some traditional Korean game - trying to get the silly arrow into those tiny cups!

changing of the guards ceremony

Jeju-do, Day 4: The Day that Dreams Came True

I am afraid that I've watched Roman Holiday one too many times as a child.  I always have had this fantasy of exploring a new city seated on the back of a scooter - running over sidewalk cafes and Italian women with their daily baguettes.  While my fourth day on Jeju-do involved fewer policeman than Audrey's Roman jaunt, I got to cross "terrorize a city on the back of a scooter" off of my bucket list!  I don't think I stopped smiling all entire day.  

Off the east coast of Jeju-do is U-do ("Cow Island," named thus because its shape resembles a cow), a tiny island featuring white, red, and black beaches, lots of seafood, and bucolic communities.  After a lovely lazy morning, Philip, Max, Gerchie, and I took a noon ferry bound for U-do.

Upon arrival, we immediately set out to accomplish a goal that had been talked about since the inception of the Jeju-do holiday idea - we were going to rent scooters!  Being a beginner at this whole driving-a-tiny-motorized-vehicle thing, I convinced Philip to share a scooter with me.  And, after a little bit of haggling, we secured three scooters for five hours for 33,000 won a piece.  And we even got some sexy helmets.  We'd heard horror stories about the difficulties of renting a scooter - the paperwork, insurance, driving identification, etc. - but we just handed over the money and a single form of ID for each vehicle.  We hopped on our scooters and began to drive on the tiny road meandering along the coast.  And that's when I fell in love.

I felt like I was flying. Philip was a good enough driver (or so it seemed to me!) that I could just sit back and enjoy the ride without worrying (too much) that I was going to die.  And so we were speeding along a tiny road with green grass and a stone wall on one side and black volcanic rocks leading to a cerulean sea on the other side.  And we were going so fast, but we were so exposed to the sun and the wind.  And it felt like flying.  And everything was so beautiful.

Then they got this brilliant idea to let ME try to drive it!  I was pretty uncertain about my driving skills, having some problems biking on busy city streets, but I am never one to pass up an exciting opportunity!  Max has a motorcycle of his own back in Austria so, when Philip couldn't figure out how to turn on our scooter, Max hopped on the back of mine and tried to teach me! 

I got off to a slightly rocky start, not quite mastering the idea of twisting the handle s l o w l y when I wanted to start.  But, thanks to Max's patience and a bit of time, I began to get the hang of it.  And then they let me drive on my own.

So there I was.  On an island off of an island off of the south of South Korea. Living the dream.  And having way too much fun.  The feeling was incredible.  The scenery was incredible.  And I just fell in love with U-do and my little orange scooter.  The picture below gives you an idea of the homes covering U-do.  Each roof is painted a vibrant color and each house is surrounded by a stone wall.  On the other side of me was the sea.

Eventually, Philip even trusted me enough to get back on our scooter.  And,  I am very proud to say, I didn't kill anyone!  I may have run into the middle of the street when I was unable to make a sharp turn... but that's neither here nor there!

Of course, Philip kept telling me what a good driver I was.  Unfortunately for him, there are pictures that prove he thought otherwise of my driving skills!




He's just glad he survived. :)

We spent most of the day biking around from beach to beach.  The island was quite small and could be circled in only an hour or two, but we took our time.  We stopped to marvel at a lighthouse; to swim at the most gorgeous seaweed-filled, sunny, white-sand lagoon that I've ever seen; to eat island specialties of black-skinned pig and seafood rice colored black with squid ink; to swing next to the sea; to pose next to the island sign (see below - it says U-do in Korean!); to walk on a white coral beach; and to eat frozen yogurt. And I was happy happy happy.

 

 

After a very long, very sun-filled, very happy day, we caught the last (or next-to-last - we weren't quite sure!) ferry off of the island at 5:00 PM.  To top off the absolute perfection of the day, our ferry ride home was graced by a double rainbow!  While we were looking at the two complete rainbows, a Korean girl came up and asked where we were from. I replied "Miguk saram ee-ae-yo" (I am an American person!), and she asked to take a picture with us!  So Philip, a double rainbow, and I were immortalized in the film of a very excited Korean girl.

Sweaty, tired, and utterly happy, we finished the day by hiking up Sunrise Peak for the sunset. We toasted each other and our adventures, and I watched the sun go down on a perfect day.

 

Jeju-do, Day 3: Buses, Caves, and Beaches

Day 3 began at a leisurely pace.  I didn't crawl out of bed until 9.  As the others still were sleeping, I decided to wander around Seogwipo.  Stepping outside made me sweat from the sun's intensity, so my water bottle and I went for a walk.  As a hydrophile, I headed straight towards the wharf.  People were just beginning to prepare for the day ahead.  Jeju-do is famous for citrus fruits, and elderly Koreans set up stands ever 100 meters or so.  A few stately elders rode worn bikes past me.  At the wharf, fifteen old women squatted on stools around a bucket filled with water and oysters? clams?  They would fish out a rocky chunk, banging it against the ground and hitting it with rocks until the treasure inside was revealed.  While they worked they cackled and screamed and chattered away. 

I had been drawn towards a fascinating looking bridge (you can see it in the rear center of the previous picture), which, I was surprised to find, was a footbridge leading over the rocky coast and breaking waves to a walking path that meandered along the coastline.  I was the only one walking the path, possibly because of the oppressive heat, but I was in bliss, clambering over rocks jutting into the sea, being surrounded by sea and sky on 4 sides, and hearing only the cawing of birds and the crash of the sea on the rocks.  Thank goodness our hotel was so centrally located - what a great way to start the day!

When I returned, the others were stirring and we left shortly after to catch a bus to Ilchulbong (Sunrise Peak) area, where we planned to spend the next two nights.  The bus dropped us off on the side of the road after about 1.5 hours, and we ventured onto the peninsula to find a place to sleep.  We ended up at a great hotel that I recommend if you're ever in the area.  토마토 민박, or Tomato Minbak (a minbak is a private home that rents out rooms to travelers), offered giant, comfortable rooms with real beds, a kitchenette complete with a rice-cooker and stove, a sizable TV, views of the harbor and Sunrise Peak, two balconies, and a location 5 minutes from the wharf, 15 from the foot of Sunrise Peak, and 3 from the bus station - all for 35,000 won per room!  Call them if you're ever in the area!

After settling in we fought the urge to hit the beach or go to sleep again and Gerchie, Max, Philip, and I headed out for Manjanggul, a lava cave considered to be one of the largest in the world with the tallest lava pillar in the world.  We intended to take the bus, which would drop us a 40-minute walk from the cave entrance. The bus was a long time coming, however, and we considered the value of our time and effort and.... we took a cab!  It worked out well, though, because, although it was 10,000 won per person roundtrip, the driver waited for us while we explored the caves and was able to take us directly back to from whence we came without struggling through a language barrier.  And we saved 1.5 hours of walking in the broiling sun.

The caves were... cool.  Especially after the heat of the day.  I am privileged enough to have parents who love caves, so I've been to quite a few in my time.  While Manjang Cave wasn't extraordinary as far as caves go, it was my first lava cave.  What caused me to pause was knowing that, many years ago, boiling hot lava flowed where I was now walking.  And that was a cool thought.

 After the caves and the heat of the day, we wanted to go the the beach.  We discovered a bit too late that the black sand beaches of Ilchulbong are not for swimming, but had a lovely time walking over grassy hills and lounging on the sand while the sun set. After the sun set, laziness again kicked in.  We went back to the minbak to watch bad American movies and Korean English lessons while we massaged our sore calves who were punishing us for climbing a mountain of stairs the day before.