Busan Sand Festival

All photos belong to my friend Dana. I was too lazy to pull out my camera.

May 2nd was the Busan Sand Festival and since we're fairly close to Busan (about an hour by train or bus, give or take a few) a few of us decided to go and check it out and then meet up with Busanite friends to party the night away. And boy, did we. Waking up was a lot less traumatic than the last time I was in Busan (I had the shakes last time due to dehydration and hunger) but it was a very lazy morning afterward.

Anyhow, so at 11 three of us (Corey, Andrea and I) headed out to Haeundae via train with arcade car seats. It was pretty ironic, because there were no more seats left in the regular cars so they sold us standing spots but we still ended up sitting pretty much the entire ride because they have like diner-style tables and stools against the sides of the arcade car.

After that rather uneventful ride (I played Solitaire on my iPod most of the time) that ended with glorious talk of video games (a subject I know practically nothing about haha) we reached Haeundae at last ("uh, guys, we should probably start listening for them to call out Haeundae...") and then headed out to the beach where we (and by we I mean Dana, Corey and I, as Andrea and Alex were crippled) almost immediately jumped into the water.

I don't think I'll get sick of the beach -- any beach -- any time soon. Summer was made for swimming, in my opinion. Nothing else.

Except, have I mentioned that most Koreans don't know how to swim? Because there were buoys. And heavy police patrolling along the buoy line. They berated me for swimming farther than the buoys. Ridiculous. We know how to swim. I'm even an almost-lifeguard. Strong swimmer here. Possibly stronger than them. But no, they wouldn't have any of my rebelliousness, and so we were condemned to an afternoon of swimming in chest-high water. Oh well. We played frisbee. Occasionally had to fetch it past the buoy line (accidents, I swear). The police hated us even more.

Hours later we ended up tanning in the parasol area between two parasols.

Koreans come to the beach (any beach) to hide from the sun under large parasols or camping tents. I shit you not.

Koreans like to cuddle.

I like the sun in moderation. I'm the most tanned in the group (without much effort on my part, either) but I still know my skin's limits.

And now, for the plat principal, here is what we actually came to Busan in the first place for: the Sand Festival! Basically, a couple of Asian artists came over to showcase their prowesses in the sand sculpting department and let tourists oooh and aaah over said prowesses. The sculptures, by the way, were in fact gorgeous. I guess I come off in writing as a little sarcastic but I think that's just because Korea will have festivals for anything.

... I just realised I should be used to it, what with Montreal being a festival whore of a city.

Moving along. Without further ado, here are some of the sand sculptures!

Also, off to the side in a carefully delineated section, you could sculpt your own sand castle or what have you. Didn't do it as I was decidedly cooking under my towel.

A bit later we ended up at TGI Friday's near the beach for a late lunch. I think we're all in that phase where we all crave a taste of home. Frankly I never mind eating Korean but every time I suggest it everyone wants something Western. So, lately I've been eating more fast food than I ever did back home (in the same amount of time, that is). Anyway, so I had enchiladas. They were delicious. And expensive. But delicious.

And then! Evening. We hung out at a local friend's place and chilled out a bit with some drinks before getting ready for Blue Monkey (a bar in Kyeongsong, Busan). And then madness in the Blue Monkey. The following picture doesn't even express how mad. We danced. And we danced. And I didn't drink enough water. And we danced. And we danced some more. And when we got tired still we danced some more.

It was amazing.

We be bad girls~

Jerry my love.

That night I discovered my great undying love for Jerry, Karen's (that's the girl I'm pictured with above) body pillow. Makes sleeping on the floor so comfortable. The next morning they all called me a frog.

We (the girls) all chilled out for hours after waking up the next day. The boys were downstairs in another friend's apartment. Then at around noon we went to Quizno's for breakfast, or shall we say lunch. The boys left afterwards while us girls went shopping for some clothes. I got myself a nice comfy shirt and a sundress.

And... that's it folks!