This weekend was the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival. Nam is the name of the river in Jinju, and gang
is the word for river in Korea. Yudeung mean lantern. So this was the lantern festival on the Nam river in Jinju. We stayed with my friend, Lish, from my TEFL class, and she also had Michelle, who we met at the Daegu Body Painting Festival, staying with her. Gianni and I didn't have to get up that early on Saturday because the train was leaving at around 11am. We realized after booking train tickets that the bus is really the better way to get to Jinju, but it didn't matter too much. The train is comfortable and fast too. We arrived at the Jinju train station, which has a hanok style exterior, and we had to take a 7,000 won taxi ride to the Emart grocery store that is near Lish's apartment to meet her. We quickly dropped our stuff at her apartment and then went out for lunch. She took us out for dak galbi, which we realized is what we ate with Maria and Matthew before the movie. It is marinated chicken with fried rice and cheese. It was just as delicious the second time, but a bit more spicy. After lunch, we went down to the festival site by the river. Going to these festivals and things has made me notice a huge gap in the souvenir market in Korea. No t-shirts with Everland written on it, no mask dance t-shirts in Andong, and no lantern festival t-shirts in Jinju! This would NEVER happen at home. Very strange. I need to corner this market somehow I believe. 
We walked along the river for a bit looking at the lanterns that we not lit up yet because it was still light out. Then we started walking on the inside of the Jinju Fortress. The whole lantern festival is to commemorate a great victory against the Japanese that happened in Jinju, so the fortress was all decked out with lanterns as well. There were lots of lanterns of life in Korea, soldiers' lives, and battles. They were all very cool. The Fortress is also really big. We just kept walking, and it never seemed to end. We didn't go back to the Fortress at night, which is too bad because all the lanterns would have been beautiful, and there were really nice views of the river. Still, I got some nice pictures during the day. There were also some festival activities happening at the palace. We took our shoes off and went up to this building where there was some traditional music happening. There were also some older women pouring free green tea and giving out rice cakes. It was really nice. After that, Lish had a school function to go to, so she left, and Michelle went to go look for another friend of hers. 
Gianni and I wandered the fortress some more and found some really cool looking lanterns. I also got some really sticky taffy-like candy outside the fortress, which was tasty. We did a lot of walking around until around 5:15pm when we went to meet Lish for dinner back at her apartment. We met with some of her friends whom we had met when we all got dinner in Seoul, and we sort of skipped dinner and went to Cold Stones for ice cream instead! The guy was a little overwhelmed by how many foreigners walked in together I think, and he messed up the sizes for almost all of our orders! Oh well. It was still yummy. After that, we walked down to the festival. It was beautiful! We walked to the far side of the river where most of the activities were happening. On the bridge, they were selling roman candles, so we all got some and shot them off. The guys at least make sure you shoot them off right there with them watching or else you might take them and shoot them somewhere else and hurt someone. They were really cool. You shoot a series of little flame balls out the end of a long stick over the river into the sky. Afterwards, we walked along the far side of the river looking for food. I got a lamb kebab and a corn dog (the dog was a cross between almost a jerky and a hot dog) with potato chunks sticking out of the corn dog batter, and a waffle stuffed with some sort of strawberry whipped cream and honey. It was all very delicious! Did I need it? Probably not, but I was on vacation! I feel like that is my excuse with everything in Korea :) You could also make your own floating lantern. It wasn't like you could decorate it, really. You basically just taped together a pre-cut paper thing to make the ball shape of the lantern then tape that to a paper plate thing. I ended up buying mine pre-made for me. All I had to do was tape on a paper with my wish. In order to put your lantern into the water, you have to go through a lion's head lantern! It was really cool. A man lit it for me, and then another guy put it in the water. They look really neat when they are all floating away together. 
All of the lanterns were really cool. They had ones from all over the world, including a squirrel or chip monk playing hockey in a Canadian Olympic jersey....why not a beaver? I couldn't tell you. They had a Statue of Liberty, so I guess Korea is the only place people are going to be visiting the Statue of Liberty for a while! #governmentshutdownjokes. There were Russian nesting dolls also. We walked across a wobbly water bridge right next to a display of Disney lanterns that were really pretty. Not sure why Ariel's tail was yellow and her bra was pink, but I'll let it slide. Across the water was a huge fountain that shot water REALLY high into the air. On that side were some super hero lanterns and an elephant lantern that kids (and Lish!) could actually slide down. There was also a big heart lantern you could sit in and ones where you could write a wish on the correct colored paper for your Chinese year animal and stick it on the lantern frame of your animal to create a lantern. Mine is the horse...my horse lantern was kind of doing a really weird humping pose...I've never seen a horse do that before lol!
It was getting really really cold outside actually, so we decided to move away from the river and go to Noraebang. We've only been to noraebang here twice at the same place, but the one we stumbled upon was soooo sketchy! There was a spider in the bathroom, which made Lish's friend freak out. And the room itself had an interesting odor to it. Still, we made the best of it with our convenience store soju and juice! We had a great time with Lish and her friends singing all kinds of music. Everyone got really into it, Gianni included. He busted out some Linkin Park and surprised himself with how much he remembered. After an hour spent at noraebang for 20,000 won all together, Michelle, Gianni, Lish, and I decided to head back to her apartment because we were really tired.
In the morning, we got to sleep in a bit because Gianni and I didn't have to catch the train back to Daegu until 3pm. For brunch, we went to a Japanese place that has bento boxes. Bento boxes--I am told from Gianni--are like compartmentalized lunches with different things in each section. We ended up getting rice bowls instead though. I got rice with delicious tempura chicken covered in curry sauce. SOOO GOOD! Gianni got the same, except instead of curry sauce, he had an egg thing on top of his chicken. It was really good. We'll have a few more foodventure videos after this trip! The pictures are already up, so check them out.
We had a fantastic trip to Jinju with Lish and her friends. Thank you so much for having us Lish! I hope you come to Daegu soon!
2 comments:
Nice write-up Abbi! I feel like I'm famous, being mentioned SEVERAL times hahahahha I'm so glad you came and I'm glad I could host you two! Had so much fun with you and Gianni.. oh the laughs!!
Amazing pics too! :) I'll be up to Daegu soon!
Hey! We don't get many comments on here! Thanks Lish!
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