f e s t

So many festivals, so little time - but I'm not complaining. It's strange, because in most aspects of my life every thing feels incredibly normal. When I sit back and reflect, however, I remind myself of all the opportunities that I have to do really awesome stuff. Is it awesome just because I'm in Korea, and therefore it seems really cool by default? Maybe.

But at the end of that day that doesn't matter. What matters is how much I'm enjoying myself. And that's a lot. 

Korea loves celebrating things. Lanterns, garlic, seaweed. Fireworks, whales, apples. The list of various festivals I could attend on any given weekend is extensive. Sometimes these festivals pop out of no where. I'll be walking around, minding my own business, when low and behold my plans for the day have led me right into a fish festival. They are awesome. A reason to hang out with friends, be surrounded by culture, eat, drink, and interact with locals. Let me tell you one thing a group of drunk, elderly Korean men love; a group of equally drunk, foreign girls.

Busan Fish Festival

The first festival of the seasons brought us to Jinhae, where we wandered through train tracks and masses of people while admiring the flowers. It's a bummer these beautiful trees are only in bloom for a few weeks. Who's decision was that, eh?! 

Although not a festival, I took a trip to one of the most beautiful places in Korea: Seoraksan. It was on my list. After ziplining down the longest zipline in Asia, we spent the evening in a small city outside of the national park. Hot tubbing, eating. And drinking ensued. Did I mention I was with my best friends? I swear, I am so lucky to have Leena by my side. Now, not only do I have Leena - I have my Meygs. A ball of fire from California. They are drastically effecting my quality of life while here. Without them, I would be having a blast. With them? A damn explosion. An explosion of fun and happiness.

Seoraksan was perfect. Rainy, yes. But when did a consistent, light drizzle every hurt anyone? It made the landscape seem mystical, like I was in some sort of fantasy. We hiked up to Ulsan Bawi(rock), which is the "main" attraction in the national park. After making it to the top I wandered into the temple. I stood there in awe at how beautiful and peaceful it was. It took me a few minutes to finally realize that the room was carved into the rock. It was incredible. After a sweet little monk offered us some hot tea, we made our way back down to the bottom to enjoy a lunch of Korean Pancakes and Soju before heading up the cable cars.

As we reached the top of the mountain, the cable car was thrown into the clouds. We could see nothing around us except for the fluffy, grey fog. I felt like I was arriving at a distant planet, about to step off of a space ship. We weren't able to see any of the incredible views from the top, but it was still beautiful. The lingering clouds created a calming environment as our little group of friends gathered on some (off limits) rocks away from the heavy treading of Korean families.

View of the Han River in JeongSeon

The following week a group of us got together for a river picnic at Taewagan Park. Tacos were involved. Low and behold, a lantern festival was taking place at the park. After an old man nonchalantly placed one of his (10) pet birds on my head, we took a walk around the forest of bamboo and admired a few thousand flowers. Okay, sixty thousand flowers (at least, that's what I think the taxi driver said). 

Catchin' Up

Leena and I at Daewangam Park near my home in Ulsan, Korea

I have been a busy little bee since my trip to Japan. It seems as though I haven't had a chance to slow down, and I definitely haven't had a chance to blog. Instead of writing an individual blog post for everything I've done these past few months, I decided to sum everything up in one. No need to drag things on, right?

                                                                                                                                                              
I visited the DMZ and got to step into North Korea. As interesting as it was, it was still a tour. A touristy tour. The only really exhilarating part was when we were in the JSA (Joint Security Area). We got to look into the North and see the soldiers staring at each other at the line of separation, step into the conference room, and get a pretty cool history lesson. I would definitely recommend going on the USO tour, it is the only one that allows access to the JSA. Honestly, it made me want to peer deeper into the North. As unrealistic and unmoral as a tour may be, I can dream - can't I?

The Captain of Our Ship

I spent Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) on a little camping road trip with friends. After spending our day lounging at Gwangalli Beach and tossing a rugby ball around we hit up the jimjilbang for some much deserved soaking, bathing, and scrubbing. We camped on the beach that night in Busan, Korean style. Seolwi (my Korean angel) prepared a dinner complete with BBQ and Doenjang Jjigae, one of my favorite Korean Stews. Waking up to the sounds of waves crashing that next morning was so peaceful. Tranquility at it's finest.

Then we were off to Geoje Island for another round of drinking and beach camping. Despite being cramped in the back seat between two guys, I loved the road tripping portion almost as much as the beaches we visited. Jamming out to music, funny conversations, and Korean rest stops are my idea of a dang good time. We set up camp, did some exploring around the island, and settled down to drink and swim the day away. Seolwi had chicken delivered to the beach and we chowed down while watching the sunset. That evening was quite eventful; there were fireworks, sausages with cheese, and streaking ;)

I visited my Ride or Die in Daegu and we went hiking with Seolwi. Leena, a friend from Vegas, recently moved to a city near mine. Best coincidence of my life. Having a friend from home to share things with is a rare phenomena. Blending my "home" life with this fairy tale that I have been living makes it more real. Plus, she is my favorite person in this world and we have so many adventures ahead of us, I get butterflies in my tummy even typing about it.

I went to Global Gathering in Seoul. Man, I love Seoul. I wouldn't necessarily want to live there, but boy do I enjoy visiting. We ate a South African lunch in Itaewon with Andrea, the token South African, before we headed to Gangnam to do some (not so high end) shopping at Forever 21. Face masks, nail painting, yoga, and tea were in store for us that night in preparation for the festival the next day.

The festival itself was much different from festivals back home or in Europe. Just a big soccer stadium lined with food and drink stands with a big stage in the middle. It did the job well enough though. We were all there for the music anyways. We danced and sang and lost each other and had one hell of a night.

Kyoto

Fushimi Inari was an obvious first stop considering the little amount of time I had to spend in this fantastic city. So much to do, there was no way I was going to be able to see as much of it as I wanted. This place, however, I was happy to spend hours carelessly wandering and taking detours to see every torri gate and every fox I could feast my eyes on.

I love being able to take my time somewhere. Traveling alone is nice for that reason. I don't ever feel like I am inconveniencing someone. I can take a 10 different pictures of the same thing until I get the right shot. I can buy a bag of Japanese cracker treats and snuggle into a corner of shrines and eat until my hearts content. When posed with the question of following the path or taking a bit of the detour, I usually choose the latter.

I managed to get away from the majority of the masses of tourists during my hike around the top of Mount Inari.  I cut away from the path here and there, seeing what trouble I could get into. Towards the point where I was about to make a full loop there was a sign advertising an alternative exit which lead to another temple. It was easy to decide which way to go. There wasn't a soul on this path. The only people I encountered were locals. A lovely little woman who I had a very limited conversation with about her cats and a man riding his motorbike. Other than that, it was me and the wild wilderness.  I found a beautiful shrine which spent a bit of time at.

The path led me to Tofukuji Temple. I wandered the grounds for a bit before deciding I was starving and heading to an area of town where I knew I could get delicious sushi and pop over to a market/shopping area I was itching to visit. One really wonderful thing about this trip was that I actually had money to do things like EAT. When I was in Europe last summer I was on a very, very limited budget so I wasn't able to indulge myself eating mass amounts of food and treats - like I did at conveyer belt sushi. It was packed to the brim and I had to wait a bit to get a seat, but it was well worth it. Somewhere on the internet told me this is the place to eat, and they were right. I could have easily sat in there for hours gorging myself with loads of different kinds of sushi. You can read more about it here.

After sushi I made my way around the numerous shopping areas that were near the restaurant, Teramachi, Shin Kyogoku and the Nishiki Market. I was searching for a silk kimono style robe, it was one of the only things I really wanted to take home with me. I was happy to find loads and it didn't take me long to decide on one. I was trying to kill time, waiting for my lovely couchsurfing host, Tara, to get off of work. After getting my fill of shopping I took a look at a map and found a park/temple up the road a ways. I spent an hour or so here drinking blood orange juice, people watching, and listening to a man play his guitar. I met up with Tara and after chatting and having a shower she took m down to the river to shoe me around and have a few drinks. There was a light up festival type thing going on, the river was lined with loads of lanterns and silly drunk Japanese youth who were climbing down into the water making fools of themselves. It was a blast to watch them get in trouble and then get right back in the water.

The next morning I headed to the Arashiyama area of Kyoto. I asked Tara what there was to do other that visit temples and she sent me here, I was so thankful. She said something about a bamboo forest... which I don't think I ever found - but I did find loads of other cool things. I had the most amazing experience walking around a park right on the river. It was sprinkling all morning and at one point it started absolutely pouring rain. I just so happened to be at the highest point of the park overlooking a view that was just unreal. After I got my fill of the park I decided I wanted to play with monkeys. There was an extensive hike up to one of the top of the mountains to reach the "Monkey Park" where there were monkeys of all shapes and sizes wandering freely. At one point I was caught in the path of a monkey brawl. One monkey was chasing another making this horrible screeching noise. Then, his monkey friends came and had his back. I was a bit scared, not gonna lie. They sounded like they were actually having a heated argument.