Busan International Fireworks Festival

This past weekend we headed down to Gwangali beach for the Busan International Fireworks Festival.  This festival was scheduled to last three days - Thursday, Friday and Saturday - with fireworks displays every evening. We were really excited to head down to the beach to see how spectacular these asian fireworks shows were!


We headed to the beach around 5:00pm on Saturday as we had heard there could be quite the swarm of people prior to the start of the show (8pm). Needless to say, we underestimated the amount of people that were headed to the beach! The closer the subway train came to our exit, the larger the crowds boarding the train became! Every stop had Korean guards trafficking people onto and off of the subway train. The train became so crowded that the Korean guards could not fit a single tiny Korean onto the train! We were crammed in there like sardines. Once we finally reached our exit and made our way up to street level, we were again shocked at the large crowds of people bee-lining it to the beach! Once we made our way down to the sand, all you could see was people rushing up and down the main drag scrambling to find a seat on the beach, on the sidewalk or on the road! It was madness! Luckily, some of our goods friends had extra room down on the beach for us, so we headed down there with them!

The view of the bridge was spectacular that night as it was fully light with spotlights and other coloured lights. Now, if this was Windsor, we would all be sitting down by the Detroit river, freezing our butts off, waiting for the show to start. Well, in Korea, they know how to do things right!  They had set up entertainment screens in four different locales across the water infront of the bridge. This allowed for them to broadcast live music events for the eagerly waiting spectators. The entertainment was amazing and it definitely helped ease our patience as we waited for the fireworks display!

The fireworks eventually started and the theme for this show was "Sail around the world". Every ten minutes or so the giant broadcast screens would light up with a short introduction about a different global region - Asia, "America" (bah, what is "America" anyway??) Europe, etc. Each fireworks presentation was choreographed with music, which was appropriate for each region (and somewhat stereotypical haha). The combination of music, choreographed fireworks and spotlight movement definitely created a more dynamic and captivating show than any fireworks display back home. They didn't really focus on the loud "bang" effect of a fireworks display, instead, it was more creative and dramatic. There were quite a few different effects that we had never seen before! For example, they had fireworks that would shoot into the water, float around for a few minutes, and then burst into the air again! They also had flying fluorescent birds that would zoom throughout the sky and randomly light on fire! The third, and I think the most creative part of the show, was when fireworks started to stream out from underneath the bridge, creating a raining effect.

The finale of the show consisted of the biggest fireworks I have ever seen! It was spectacular!

Jinju Lantern Festival

Last weekend Svein and I decided to head over to Jinju for the Lantern Festival.  The floating of lanterns down the Namgang River in Jinju takes place every October and symbolizes the military efforts during the battles between Korea and Japan. Korean soldiers used to fly lanterns high into the sky and along the river in order to communicate with other Koreans soldiers outside the area.

So, Saturday morning we jumped on a bus for only 7,000\ (about $7) and traveled 1.5 hours to Jinju for the festival. Once there, we decided to roam around the Jinju Fortress, which gave us some amazing views of the city. We also decided to tour around the silk factory store where we saw quite a few beautiful silk pieces.

Scattered along the riverbank we found many little vendors selling various types of food and knick knacks.  Although most of what we found under the tents was more or less dollar store items, we were lucky to have stumbled upon this place for it had begun to downpour the second we stepped inside. As the rain continued to collect ontop of the tents, the street vendors felt it as necessary to empty this rainwater into the middle of the tent and splash the unfortunate bystanders. It was quite interesting to watch as the tent vendors expressed no empathy for those getting drenched in water.

By this time it was starting to get dark, so we headed down to ooh and ahh at the bright and colourful lanterns on the Namgang river. The colours of the lanterns seemed to pop out against the black sky, which really made for a stunning display.

We also decided to create our own lantern at one of the lantern making tents. We decided to stick to a basic lantern design as we were told lantern making could take quite some time. So, the following picture is Svein with our lantern in one of the very cool lantern tunnels at Jinju.

Thankfully they were kind enough to let us take our lantern home, instead of hanging it at the festival! So, now our lantern has become a nice new addition to our home decor!

Blazers, Lazers and Subway Soju

So, if Chuseok wasn't enough fun, we were lucky enough to put up our fine friends from China - Nikki and Nate - for the week! They arrived on Friday via the KTX from Seoul and we thought it would be a good idea to show them the area around our place - Pusan National University. There's a great shopping core in this area as well as many coffee shops, bars and restaurants. It's pretty nice to live in an area that is catered to people our age.  We never have a hard time finding somewhere to eat economically or just sit and people watch.

Anyways, the weekend got off to a good start when we decided to go and check out the Nampo-Dong area, which consists mainly of the Jalgachi Fish Market and the snaking vendor markets throughout the Nampo-Dong area.

Throughout the hustle and bustle of the market, we stumbled upon the slap chop man!! This man, however, was the korean version of the slap chop man! He was excellent too! Although we had absolutely no idea what he was saying, his gestures were right on! I guess you can never be too far from home!

Later that night, we decided to meet up with a bunch of our EPIK friends! The bar we decided to go to was not just any bar; it was in fact a German bar. Who would have thought! A German bar in Korea? Well, cheers to the man who opened this bar because we found THE best beer in Busan at this very spot! The Hurshimchung Brau Haus was the name and they more than succeeded at making a delicious pint! To top it off, they even had live music! You would think they'd be playing German music, right? Oh no, remember, this is Korea! You never know what you're going to get here! This bar had a Russian 6 person band! They were playing hits from Sunny and Cher to Kpop! They were amazing!

After quite a bit of beer consumption, we decided to head down to Kyungsung (another University hot spot) to continue the party. So, we jumped on the subway with a bottle of Soju. This was the first time we had brought alcohol onto public transportation as we had been somewhat hesitant in the past. You see, in Korea, you can drink anything, anywhere. You name it, you can do it. So, we decided there was no better time than now to break open a bottle of soju on the subway. We tried to conceal our beverage, however, it probably made it even more noticeable. We had quite a few judging looks from fellow passengers on the subway. Needless to say, I can see why most people don't crack open a bevy on the train.

Once we got to Kyungsung we met up with everyone at Kino Eye (one of the foreign bars that we have been very loyal to). This bar always plays great indie, dance and alternative music. Nikki was definitely a fan of the dance music, namely, gaga. For those of you who know Nikki, you'll be interested to know that Nikki + Soju + Gaga = watch out! Let's just say that we have never seen her dance like she did that night. Later, we decided to shake things up a bit and head over to our late night destination - Ghetto.   We seemed to develop a strong infatuation for lasers this weekend and Ghetto provided the perfect setting.  It was pure lasers, all night long. Now, you may think, why are they so crazy about lasers? Well, we don't really know the answer to that one. We can only blame it on the Soju. We also decided to wear blazers because it rhymed with lasers. Obvious decision.

The majority of our time at Ghetto consisted of an extreme amount of dancing with large crowds of Korean boys.  This was Nikki's favourite part. The Korean boys loved her as much as she loved them. I have a feeling she may be considering switching Asian countries next year!
So, all in all, the weekend was great! We were able to see our friends from back home, who we hadn't seen in awhile, as well as our new friends here in Busan! Hopefully next weekend we will discover some new hiking destinations and lay off the booze - well, maybe a little Hite beer for the top!