The Lantern Festival

Sunday was a planned Christmas shopping day. Spenser and I were supposed to meet up in Itaewon and do a bit of shopping before heading to Insadong. I got to Itaewon and tried a few times to get ahold of Spenser. I figured he had a rough night so I did my shopping and I figured he would give me a call when he got up. He ended up calling as I was close finishing up my shopping and we met up around 1:30 and grabbed some lunch.

After that, we headed to Insadong and finished off our Christmas shopping for the year. Now, I just need to make it to a post office in Korea and try to send the gifts home. After the shopping, we planned on going to the lantern festival, which we did. We killed some time and met up with a friend whom we met on the SHITY Hike from a few weekends ago.

The lantern festival was amazing. It was along a little tiny stream in Seoul. The stream is popular so I should know the name, but I do not. There were some beautiful lanterns/paintings, a boat that fired fire and had smoke coming out of a dragon's nose, as well as an array of cartoon characters and many other things.

After the festival, we looked for a place to eat and ended up finding a little restaurant down a side ally. We had a great time, good food, and drank one too many bottles of Makali. Nevertheless, as has always been the case, we had a great time! It seems like when I am with Spenser we do not really go looking to have a good time (ie bars), but it somehow ends up finding us. The ladies are the restaurant were fantastic and had a nice chuckle at our Korean. At the end of the night, the cook came out and waved her hands and shook her head to say no more. Spenser and I both asked for another bottle of Makali and the two ladies that were serving us came over and gave us another one. I got a hug with the one lady. The event doesn't sound that great, but it was just a great time.

(Me in Insadong)



(Before we got to the lantern festival guys were throwing people into the air using blankets. This is an action shot of me in the air.)



(The waterfall that starts the stream where the lantern festival was located)



(One of the designs)



(Some tigers)



(The ship as fire comes out. Remember, these are made out of paper and wires for the most part...)



(Tiger smoking a pipe and a bunny holding it)



(Traditional Korean Dress)



(Korean poles of some sort... If anybody knows anything, please feel free to share.)



(Myself, Spenser, and the Statue of Liberty in the Background)



(Another display - amazing!)



(Some type of warrior, it almost looks Japanese to me)



(They had mini crabs as part of the service when we got our food)



("The Hug")



(The amount of Makali we had to drink - you can tell it was the right amount just by the look on Spenser's face!)



(Trying to make sure we got on the right subway. The lady in pink was fantastic. She actually turned around and told us when our stop came up. I think she could tell we had a little to drink and was a huge help! Thank you lady in pink!)