Sunday, August 19, 2012

포항국제불빛축제 [Pohang International Fireworks Festival]

From July 28, 2012 Saturday 

Went out with Ling, Katie, Peter, Andy, Michael, and Adrian to the annual Pohang International Fireworks Festival. We left around 8pm to HyeongSan River Sports Park because we heard the show would start at 8 45...right. I suppose running on "Korean" time, that's means the show will start at 9pm.

We first got on bus 105, and then got off at the stop before 사 거리 [4 way street] to transfer and get on another bus. Sadly, Andy realized that his wallet had gone missing...that had his IDs, credit cards, $$$, and even his key to his apt! He believes he left it on the bus. There was little that we could do at that point, so we continued on our way to the festival. 

The bus that we were waiting came, but it was PACKED. So it didn't even stop for us... so we had to get on another bus that goes to the area, albeit it takes a bit longer. I think it was bus 107? 

Then we got off, forgot the name of the stop, and followed the crowd to the park by the riverside.The fireworks were extravagant to say the least! Dare I say it, the festival's fireworks were better than Washington DC's 4th of July fireworks. They were having a contest between Poland, China, and Italy. South Korea also had a showcase also, although their's was not an entry in the competition.The prize wasn't very good though... I think like $500 for 2nd place? Not sure what was 1st place prize, but I doubt it was much more. Italy won and Poland came in 2nd. hahaha Ling got so much crap that night with all the China jokes being thrown. 

*BTW my phone died from taking so many videos of the fireworks :( it was low to begin with... so after this point is when I started taking a bunch of pictures with Ling's camera.


 finally trying a Korean Burger King! it's conveniently located in Jigok Community Center

 this is a 불고기 [bulgogi] burger for less than 3000won

 then got 팥빙수 with Katie

 I think this one is better than the 과일 팥빙수 they have

 I guess the convenience store inside Jigok is restocking

 sign found at the main entrance to POSTECH

 Andy climbing a tree...right next to a major street. NBD. He's just looking to see if our bus is coming.

 a 짐찔방 we passed on our way to the park. the picture of the guy is so weird. How is that attractive?

So many people. even more people over the staircase

 the lights are where POSCO is. the fireworks also seemed to come from that shore





 mini performances / where people can go up to sing songs

where the food / other stands are


our group

magic show

carnival style games

whole pig

white and red wine from Homeplus lol courtesy of Andy and Michael

 Andy in action

We were hungry after the fireworks, so we headed over to the food stalls, etc that were set up on one side of the park. After walking about a bit, we decided on sitting by the riverside and ordering some 해물파전 and got out our wine while we were at it. Problem was... we didn't have a cork opener -.- Thought the food shop would have it, but nope! So Andy tried to open it with his hands / doing crazy stuff with it. Then, one of the shop owners came over and put a nail in it and tried to pull the nail out with a pair of pliers. LOL





 


Oh, when we left... turns out we forgot to pay! Wow! So the lady tracked us down, and we immediately payed, feeling terrible. 
 
Then decided to try to go to walk to Bukbu beach, thinking that it would be a 30 minute walk. How wrong we were...an hour later, we still hadn't found it. So we went into a cafe instead and chilled there for a bit before heading out again in search of Bukbu.


a puppy at the festival! someone brought the puppy along for a walk ^^

 interesting statue

 
 oh! what is this we see? a table and chairs in the middle of the ocean! haha we must venture there to see what this is all about

 
 success!

 
my 팥빙수 @ cafe olens

 

 
 such a nice cozy room!

 

We ended up wandering onto factory grounds because we kept walking on that ledge that Ling is standing on. There was actually a roadblock that said to go another way, but ....damn that ledge -.- We just continued to walk on it in the direction of Bukbu beach. 

Alas! We could see Bukbu right there with all its glorious neon lights! It was right in front of our eyes.... but we were at a dead end, cut off by a river -.- fck. It was so scary to go through the deserted factory (we hadn't quite realized it until we were half way through) and now we had to go back?! It didn't help that some people were talking about horror movies and a random car came in as if it was looking for us...(there was a CCTV camera that we had passed). 

Anyway, we got to a point where a bunch of us were like - fuck it, let's go home. So everybody except Andy and Michael took a cab back to RC. Turns out, we were just 10 or 15 minutes away (walking) from Bukbu from where we had left them. Darn.

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