Love For Long Weekends: Part 1-Lotus Lantern Fest

Long weekends are one of the many perks of being a teacher in Korea. I've had three in the past month. Not to brag or anything.

The first long weekend was for Children's Day on May 5th. Yes, that's right, all those times when you were a kid asking your parents why there was a Mothers Day and a Fathers Day, but no Kids Day to which they replied "every day is kid's day," you totally had ammunition to back up your argument..."but in Korea..."
Today the national holiday is often celebrated with parents taking their children to amusement parks. I, however, took the opportunity to spend another weekend in Seoul.

On that Saturday night I went to the World DJ Festival by the Han River. It was fun, but I could have done without it...just another night hanging out with drunk foreigners. Then on Sunday I went to the Lotus Lantern Festival (celebrating Buddha's upcoming birthday aka long weekend #2), which was so rad. A whole area near Insadong was closed off for the festivities. There were concerts, synchronized dancing, booths where you could make your own lanterns, a parade, and full Korean festival madness. Unfortunately I didn't have my G9 yet and was using a friend's older camera, so I'm not crazy about the pictures I took. Here they are nonetheless. Enjoy.











All the seats were full on our train back to Daejeon so we had to ride "standing." Luckily we found these pleasant garbage nooks. It's all about luxury.