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.