Alcohol and Rice Cake festival!

So this weekend I woke up bright and early at 6am on Saturday and left the apartment at 6:25 to head over to Gyeongju, to visit my friend Matt. His town was hosting its annual 술과 떡 (aka "sool gwa ddeok" aka "alcohol and rice cake") festival!!! We met up with other ETAs Jen, Emily, and Ashley and had ourselves a grand 'ol time wandering around in the blistering sun, getting free phone charms for being foreigners, tasting free samples of traditional Korean alcohol, and eating crappy patbingsu before eating a lot more food and feeling miserable for the rest of the night! We did climb to Matt's "decompressing" place and found a small bit of grass where we could lay down and look at all of the 3 stars that were visible from the city. It was actually quite nice! Then we had a slumber party in Matt's bedroom -- ooooh, 3 girls and one guy! Oh my!

Pounding the shit out of the rice to turn it into rice cake!! Woo!
The whole gang in front of a sweet fake pagoda that was covered in lights at night!

The next morning we woke up and had muffins for breakfast than caught a bus to Daegu, where we then wandered around for quite awhile looking for our bus out to the mountain. After stopping and asking about 3 different people for directions, we finally made it to the bus stop, then hopped on for the hour ride out to the mountain. It was a beautiful day, again -- the sun shining and the heat a'rising! Hiking in hot weather is so much more difficult than hiking in cool, crisp air. The heat and humidity had all of our heads pounding and cheeks flushed on the way up. Matt was a superstar and led the way up, while the 3 of us girls trailed behind panting! ^^ After many breather breaks, we made it the 2 km up to the temple on one of the peaks of Palgongsan (8 warriors mtn). This site is called "Gatbawi" and it is famous for the giant stone Buddha wearing a stone hat! I thought, "pffft, big deal", but when I got there I thought it was amazingly beautiful! And to top it off, Buddha's birthday celebration is coming up in a couple of weeks, so colorful paper lanterns have been springing up all over the country in anticipation of the celebration. AND, there were a ton of people up there praying to the statue. It was pretty neat to see, not to mention the view and the breeze from up top were amazing! Korea is starting to get its green back, and it makes me so happy! I remember stepping off the plane last July and the second thing I noticed was how green everything was and that it looked like a tropical rainforest! (The first thing I noticed was the humidity, yes, even at 6am when we arrived) We were pretty pooped when we got to the top, so after sitting on a rock for awhile and enjoying the view, we headed back down. Immediately my legs turned into spaghetti, as is normal for me on the way down a mountain. Hiking up is all about the cardio, while hiking down is all about the leg strength -- and my knees start to feel that tension. But, we made it down, made it back to the city, and wandered into a bibimbap restaurant. I caught the late bus back to Suncheon, which left at 7:30pm and I got home around 10:30pm and jumped right into bed (after Skyping with Ike of course, heehee). Another weekend well-spent in Korea! Oh, and we saw a forest fire on a mountain on the bus ride back into town. It is really dry here in Korea right now. They were using helicopters to drop water on the fire.

A temple on the way up the mountain.
Matt and I taking a breather.
Getting near the temple. Check out that view! One more burst of stairs, then we'll be at the temple! WOO!
Praying to the hat Buddha! Oh what's up, hat Buddha? I have a hat too!
Prayer candles.
Lanterns and blossoms!!

Check out all the pics here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2023202&id=62600128&l=6241024493

On a side note, it was raining cats and dogs here today! I know Korea needs the rain, so hopefully this helped with the drought a little.