Last weekend was spent in Boryeong, South Korea at the annual mud festival. After the spectacular time I had last year, I decided another trip was in order. I was not disappointed. The early morning bus ride (we're talking 5am) was enjoyable as always with 90+ people drinking and singing to excess and being entertaining to say the least.
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| Early morning singing. |
We hit the a small beach mud covered stretch of sand with sharp rocks and shells at the top that made a nice spot for us to put our shoes and towels, or so we thought. Remember these rocks, they will make an important appearance later in the story. We began the "Olympics" which is code for getting as muddy as possible whilst playing tug of war, competing in relay races and given drunken piggy back rides. After my team got third place (not too shabby out of six) we went to the ocean for a quick swim to wash the mud out. When I say quick, I literally mean maybe 15 minutes. 20 minutes tops. We came out of the ocean to the tide reaching the shore, covering the sharp rocks and sweeping all of our belongings away. Our only option was to step as gingerly as possible over those sharp little suckers as possible. Not as easy as it sounds. Imagine the ocean trying to topple you over while simultaneously impaling your feet upon shells and rocks that have the sole purpose to inflict at much as pain on your feet as humanly possible. With difficulty, we eventually made it out of the ocean exhausted, bloody and in desperate need for some bandaids and some rest. We opted for more alcohol and some of the most delicious meat i've ever tasted. Hey, salt water cleans wounds out just fine right?
When dinner was over, we all went our separate ways. Some of us enjoyed the fireworks. Some got even muddier (if that's truly possible). Some drank themselves into oblivion. I chose to see the fireworks, play a bit in the mud and take in the sights with Dan.
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| So much mud! [Picture by Chris Kuisle] |
After a less than restful evening (our room was shared by about 15 other people who came and went at all hours of the night) we spent all of Sunday morning in the ocean. There's nothing like waking up beachside and letting the waves wake you up. We swam all morning and eventually started the process of rounding up the 90+ people that went on the trip with us. Now, we knew this would be a challenge but not that it would include search parties, beach police office visits or paging friends on the beach intercom in order to wrangle the crew all together. Eventually (2 hours later I may add) we finally started the 5 hour journey back to the lovely city of Pohang with all of us accounted for.
After a weekend of fun in the mud and the sun it's safe to say that I was exhausted. My feet felt broken. The bruises I didn't know that I had gotten had their own bruises. Even with all of this, it was still one of the best weekends in the 18 months that I have been in Korea.
Next up on the list is a mini vacation this weekend to Jeju Island with the boyfriend. Look for a post next week chronicling one of the (supposed) most beautiful places in all of Korea.
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