Friday, October 15, 2010

2010 Hi Seoul Festival (Yeouido Along the Han River)

I didn't hear about this festival until the last day. I took an hour and a half train ride from Uijeongbu to Yeouido in Seoul, where there were already masses upon MASSES of people spilling out of the station and pushing through a very narrow sidewalk where street vendors sold their usual street food such as instant ramen noodle bowls, kimbap, juicy silkworms called beondegi, soju, beer, and fermented rice wine called makgeolli. Once you manage to push through and pop out of this crazy little sidewalk, where I myself felt like a squirming canned beondegi, you find yourself staring straight at the Han River with a Seoul skyline and green hills resting behind.

First of all, this day, October 9th, was probably the most beautiful day I've experienced in months...maybe even years. True, my eyes were still in shock from their recent LASEK surgery and everything seemed surreal. But if there were a top five most beautiful days ever, this would be somewhere way up there on the list. It was clear and crisp, cool and bright. I had a bag of chips in one hand, a makgeolli in the other and this insane world in my eyes.

Hi Seoul was a two week festival, where hundreds of artists of every kind came to show, and thousands...and  thousands of Koreans and foreigners came to see. Although I was only there for the last five hours, I saw artist-enhanced fish bicycles, art exhibits, sculptures, live music, and the great fireworks finale. Everything about this festival was colorful and beautiful, and it was all scattered along the Han River. So, with each performance and exhibit you see, you can move onwards down the river to see another view and another artist.

Along with this Saturday being one of the most beautiful days of my life, this day also held the most spectacular fireworks display I have ever seen. This show lasted nearly an hour, with extravagant explosions and colors. Every enormous boom was echoed by thousands of "Whoa's" and "Waah's" and "Ooh's" and "Ahh's". The audience's sound effects were as pleasing to the ear as the colors in the sky were to the eye.

By the end of the show, I was drunk off makgeolli, comfortably chilled from the clear October night, and content with life.

Korea, you get me every time. Keep amazing me!  



























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