Off to Jinju

This time of year in Korea is lovely really.  As the weather has cooled down people are out and about trying to make the most of their free time before weather gets terrible.  I've been warned multiple times that the winters in Korea will be very cold.  So with that thought in mind after teaching Saturday morning I hoped on a train to head off for Jinju where the annual lantern festival was being held last weekend.  The festival was voted the best in Korea for 4 years in a row until 2009 when it was canceled because of an outbreak of the flu.

After a 2 hour train ride I arrived in at Jinju station.  There were a lot of other people traveling here for the last weekend of the lantern festival.  A word of warning to all who are heading to Jinju there are two Jinju stops one is the arboretum (which is literally in the middle of nowhere) and the other is in the city of Jinju...

I walked from the train station to the river where the festival was being held.  The website had said it was a 5 minute walk but it actually took me more like 40 minutes... Not really a terrible walk but there was a lot of traffic and it was a ways from the train station...

Across the way is a rustic castle of sorts that is incredibly amazing to walk through.  It was open to the public so after securing a place to stay I hiked across the bridge to explore before it got dark and they lit the lanterns.

Walked through the giant entry way into the main courtyard.  The place was huge!  

After walking through the giant entryway you walk across the courtyard and then through a very congested much smaller doorway.

I finally got here after a bunch of other doors!  Impressive right?  It was massive and there was a stone moat around it with little bridges for you to walk across!  Very lovely area I'd love to go back when it isn't as crowded...

As the sun set they finally lit all of the lanterns.  I hadn't even realized how many there really were until I was up in the castle...

These lanterns were massive in size and a lot of them were moving which was beyond amazing!

This was the entryway to a bridge you could walk across to see the lanterns up close.  The bridge was supposed to be a symbol I guess?  It really swayed though especially with all of the people using it... At one point this girl was walking with her boyfriend and stumbled and I believe she meant to grab her boyfriend but latched onto me instead.  She was so embarrassed she took off running and almost fell on her face a second time leaving her boyfriend behind screaming "sorry, sorry, sorry."  As he ran after her lol....

On of my personal favorites!  This and the dragon lantern!

The little floating objects are wish lanterns.  People made their own lanterns and wrote their wishes in them then released them into the river....

The bridge all lit up!  This side of the bridge had a bunch of lotus flower lanterns.









All in all I really enjoyed Jinju but I really felt like the Andong mask festival was more impressive to see.  It had more activity and the location wasn't as congested.  The lantern festival at Jinju is definitely however, something that is worth seeing if you are in Korea in October.  Well it's past my bed time so I'm off have a lovely night world.

The Andong Mask Festival part 2

After riding the shuttle bus up to the center of Hanoe village we started walking.... Yes the dancing was REALLY out there.  It was incredibly beautiful up there though.  Surrounded by mountains and trees I imagine living up there must be impressive.  Perhaps a bit isolated though...

This is apparently where old masks go to... well be rather creepy actually...

Rice fields.

Some rather disturbing scarecrows decided to join the festivities by donning masks of their own...

Of course we felt the need to run out there and take photos with them...

A river that wrapped around the village.  There was a rather impressive rock cliff that people could hike up.  Sometime I'd love to go back and hike.  To many other activities this time around...

Downtown Hanoe Village.  It was amazing to walk around and think that people lived here.  Then I felt guilty... Bet they really hate this time of year...

This village really had some truly spectacular houses.

Traditional Mask dances!  They were actually quite lovely even if I couldn't understand what they were about...

I think he was a monk... Or a scholar...

Little shop selling souvenirs of the festival.

Picture of the village from a dirt road that ran parallel  to the river.  Looked like something out of a historic drama...









After we left Hanoe village we rode the bus back to Andong village where we were staying in a hotel for the night.  It was rather late when we got back so we decided to try jimduk made with Andong chicken.  This is supposed to be a specialty dish that the region is famous for.  I'd had jimduk in Gyeongsan and it is one of my favorite dishes.  It is a spicy dish with glass noodles, vegetables and steamed chicken.  A rather healthy and delicious meal in my opinion!  We visited until the restaurant was closing.  A couple of very drunk and rather hilarious Korean guys stopped to try and talk to us, it was entertaining.  Apparently one of them had been/wanted to go to Hawaii.  At least that was all I could gather from that conversation.

After dinner a couple of us decided to be brave and try a jjimjillbang.  There were a couple of 24-hour spas near our hotel.  I'd definitely made it a goal to try going to a jjimjillbang while I was in Korea.  Well after last weekend that's one thing I can check off my list.  It was amazing!  Their was a steam sauna that was really great and then a giant tub with some kind of soaking salt in it.  So we spent nearly 2 hours in the jjimjillbang before going back to the hotel for the night.

The next morning we got up and wandered around buying souvenirs and such for people.  Then rode the train home.  It was a fantastic weekend!

The Andong Mask Festival Part 1

Well it was quite a weekend in Andong!  I've had an insane work week though so the pictures have been sitting in my camera waiting for me to download them onto my computer.  I really do need a new camera though!  So many of my photos came out blurry that it was a bit depressing.  It was really beautiful up there! Andong is a lovely area.  I don't think I would enjoy living there though.  They seemed a bit less tolerant of foreigners running around than Gyeongsan does.

We arrived in Andong and promptly went to the main "food street."  After a rather long train ride we were starving and it was lunch time!

Rather interesting stone mosaics of the masks were every 200 meters or so.  This is the bride mask.

We went to a BBQ place for lunch and had bulgogi. She brought us a ton of side dishes too which was fabulous.

My friend Kirstin outside of the restaurant after lunch!  It was so delicious!

We were then off to Hanoe village about 40 minutes outside of Andong by bus.  It was where one of the festival sites was.

Hanoe village is largely untouched by modern society.  The buildings and area really had a rustic feel to it.  I was amazed.  It was almost like walking into another time.

This was a rather impressive pagoda I thought...

We went to the Andong Mask museum for 2,000 won (around $2)!  I love that museums are usually really affordable to get into!  There were masks from all over the world it was actually rather impressive!

This guy looked happy to see us...

It almost looked like a funeral procession...











After we walked through the mask museum we rode the shuttle to Hanoe proper which is like 3 or 4 km from the festival site where they were having dancing and other various activities.

Hiking Gatbawi part 2

So I made it up to Ganam temple which is an incredibly huge temple.  It's been renovated recently apparently.  While I was up there I met a really great bunch of Korean hikers.  One family gave me pears while I stopped for a rest.  When I go again I'm definitely going to bring food so I'll have stuff to share.  I'd only bought some 7-11 onigiri and water with me this time. 

Welcome to Ganam temple!

The temple was huge!

If you want to meet some of the nicest people in Korea go hiking.  Anyone that could speak English wanted to come up and say hi!

Yes more stairs....

This is me... As I am smiling it is safe to say I haven't realized it's still like a million more mammoth sized stone steps to the top of Gatbawi yet...

I turned back around to take a picture of how far I'd come and this Ahjumma started laughing at me as she was walking down... Probably because I hadn't realized that I wasn't halfway there yet....  Then she started flying down those stairs using what I assume were here Ahjumma powers...

The view up here was beautiful!

Downtown Daegu at night!  I decided to stop in Daegu for dinner I was starving. I had a cheeseburger, it was amazing.  I miss cheese...

The fountain was all lit up tonight it was beautiful!










The bus off the mountain was full of hikers and I met a business man and some of his friends that were enjoying the holiday.  He spoke some English so he wanted to talk to me it was funny.  He wanted to know where I was from and if I was a tourist.  He thought I was a student when I told him I was a teacher he started calling me teacher when asking me questions.  The bus was the second to the last one back and it was really crowded so I stood and an older lady offered to hold my backpack with hers since she was sitting.  As I said Korean hikers are fabulous!  I had a great time, although my body is a bit sore today.  I'm hoping to get up Mt. Palgongsan on the Gyeongsan side (Gatbawi is on the Daegu side) soon!

Hiking Gatbawi part 1

So I went hiking over break, I rode the bus to Gatbawi on Mt. Palgongsan.  It was incredibly beautiful, the leaves are just starting to change.  Apparently in the next few weeks the leaves are really going to start changing I guess that means I will just have to go back! If I can ever move again... I kid, mostly...

The bus ride up was pretty lovely.  I also passed the Lotus Themepark... Not sure what you do there but it was interesting looking.

Finally I arrived at Gatbawi on Mt. Palgongsan.

This was at the starting area right after you got off the bus. 

They lure you into a false sense of security with those nice evenly spaced steps slowly making their way up the mountain... Little do you expect what is waiting for you...

He was bigger than the building! 

Not really sure how they get up there...

When they say hiking is Korea's national past time they really mean it there were a lot of people out enjoying the beautiful weather on their vacation.

Those stairs are looking a little less harmless...