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Published: August 11th 2010
Seoul
badukIt was mid-week and a pretty average one at that, when my friends Amy and Austin told me that they were heading up to Seoul over the weekend for the long awaited Lotus Lantern Festival. I knew nothing about it, so looked up some information both to better understand and to decide whether or not to join them on this adventure. I was hesitant, because we'd be heading up very early Saturday morning on the 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Seoul, then coming back on the Sunday midnight bus, meaning we'd arrive back to Geoje at 4:30am Monday, then have to be at work a few hours later. Austin was particularly enthusiastic about this festival, saying he'd been looking forward to it since before even coming to Korea.
The Lotus Lantern Festival is a celebration of Buddha's birthday. The lighting of a lotus-shaped lantern in Buddhism traditionally symbolizes a display of religious devotion to performing good deeds and lighting up the dark parts of the world that are filled with agony. The modern-day Lotus Lantern Festival is designed to bring multiracial, multicultural crowds together through an array of festive programs. This year’s festival offered visitors the chance to make
Seoul
Palace a lantern themselves, taste temple dishes, observe the lantern parade and much, much more.
So, I opted in for the adventure and Saturday morning we were on the 6:30am bus! A friend from Tongyeong, Katie, decided to join as well, so we met her in Seoul at 11am when we arrived. We headed out to find a cheap motel for the night, which took a bit longer than expected, but we came across some beautiful temples and a park full of old men playing some sort of board game with stones, that I believe is called 바둑 or baduk. After snapping some photos, we found our motel, layed our stuff down and we're off to look for a Brazilian charascuria restuarant Austin had heard of, that is supposed to be phenomenal. When we finally found it a couple hours and starving bellies later, it was all reserved. There were two bus loads of Korean's in traditional dress filing into the restaurant. I was so hungry, but still it was a beautiful sight to see, so I didn't mind too much.
I'd let my friend Bryan know that I'd be up in Seoul, so him and his buddies from
Dos Taco
Amy and Austin with the awesome Margaritas! Yongin (just south of Seoul) planned on coming up to meet us. We decided to meet at the baseball stadium in hopes of taking in a game. So, with no luck at the Brazilian restuarant, we headed to a different area of Seoul, called Gangnam, to search for a restaurant closer to the baseball stadium. We were scouring the streets, looking for something not Korean, because when in Seoul you have to take advantage of the wonderful food variety we don't have the pleasure of on Geoje Island! We were searching for Mexican food and came across a nice little place called Dos Tacos. It was delicious!!! We had fresh guacamole, burritos, tacos, and awesome margaritas. With our bellies full and our minds at ease, we headed off for the baseball game.
We arrived at the stadium and met up with Bryan, his friend Jason and girlfriend Mina. It turned out that the game was sold out, but with many scalpers about, we began to barter. Now, the tickets to the game come out to a mere $12, so when the scalpers gave us a minimum price of $30, Bryan, Mina, Jason, Katie and I decided to decline. There
Seoul
Mina and I, out and about in Itaewon. are baseball games all the time in both Seoul and Busan, so it will be easy enough to catch a game in the future. Austin and Amy were determined to see a game, so they opted to shell out the $30 and take it all in. So, we split ways with plans to meet back up later. It seemed that we were having a rollercoaster of an experience, but I was just enjoying the company and going with the flow. So, Bryan, Mina, Jason, Katie and I headed out and about to have some drinks. We ended up having a great night on the town, involving late night drunken batting cages (yes I had bruises to prove it), foosball and other such party night shennanigans. Amy and Austin met back up with us after the game and they'd had a great time and some great photos to share. So all it all the somewhat rough day turned out just fine.
Sunday morning...or, um, early afternoon...Amy, Austin, Katie and I ran into Byran, Mina and Jason on the street, when Katie and I had decided to buy some street food. Amy and Austin were back on the hunt for the
Lotus Lantern Festival * Seoul
Drum and dance circle we came upon! Brazilian charascuria restuarant, but I'd given up on it by this point. So, we split ways and enjoyed an array of street foods for breakfast instead and it was wonderful! After eating and walking through the crowds, we made our way to the festival where the streets were lined with craft tents, food tents and tents selling many souveniers and other such goods. We browsed for quite a while, then made our way to the craft tents. Here we made necklaces and our own lotus flowers. Then before we knew it, there was a parade traveling through the street. We walked along side the parade for a bit, then decided to get dinner, before the big, nighttime parade began. We ate some delicious, traditional Korean food, before finding our spot on the street from which to watch the parade.
The parade was huge and awesome! The latern floats were large, detailed, beautiful and some were even breathing fire...which made sense when it was a dragon float, but the fire breathing peacock was a bit confusing. There were tons of groups walking in the parade wearing crazy looking costumes, traditional Korean dress and normal clothes. It was quite a site
to take in. We watched the majority of the parade, then took off before it ended in attmept to avoid a bit of the crowds. Bryan, Mina and Jason headed back to Yongin, while Katie and I met up with another friend from Tongyeong who was in town, Zibby. Us three girls got some drinks and chatted before heading to the bus station. Zibby and Katie got on the bus back to Tongyeong, while I met back up with Amy and Austin at the bus station for our midnight bus back to Geoje Island.
It was a fun and eventful weekend. Nothing went as planned, but adventures were had and I enjoyed it all! The Lotus Lantern Festival is defnitely a worthwhile event to witness and I felt my first celebrations of Buddha's birthday were a success!
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Danielle
non-member comment
They do know how to paaaarrttyyy
Hey sis, Awesome pics! Did you grab me a lantern? I want to celebrate my 40th BD (yeah girl-only 2 more years before you are forced to admit u have an older sister who is that old!) with a massive Buddha style street party! Fire breathing dragon and all! Gonna start planning that now. Im sure the city will have no problem issuing me permits. : ) How was seeing Mom and Nana and Cam? I bet hugging and kissing actual family after all this time was a hoot and a half! I know Mom and Nana are still recovering! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo Cant wait til I can hug you too. I really really miss you and these pics of you make me teary!! All my love and prayers remain with you eternally- Love, D xoxoxoxo