Fabulous Busan Fireworks Festival October 23, 2010

We decided that we'd had enough of Ulsan and made our way out to Busan once again.  This time with no guides whatsoever.  We'd been warned several times about the vast amount of people that were going to be there and told that since we were going on Saturday, two days after the festival actually started, it would be absolutely impossible to get a hotel room, which was going to be a little problematic because Lindie and I had to be back in Ulsan at about 8 the next morning to go to a bath house with some friends, so sleeping on the beach (in late October) was just not what we were really looking forward to.  But without a worry about hotels or guides or crowds we hopped on a bus and off we went.

The really fabulous thing was that we got there in the morning, but got delayed (thanks to me and my phone being out of credit) but we bought our tickets, watched our bus pulling away without us, and then were given our very own bus that took us all the way to Busan :-)

You know the cast of characters.  :-)

Lindie, Albert and I all shared the very back seat, and then we brought a new guy:

 

This is Chris, the newest Yes teacher in our building.  He had been in the country for about half an hour before we got him on a bus to another city.  Okay, like two days, but still.

To our great surprise we were taken right to Busan, no fuss no muss.  Excellent.  But we were starving, as usual, so we went to Burger King, as usual :-)

We decided not to feed Albert, so he had to fend for himself. 

This was a fountain just outside of this little mall that we explored looking for a charger for poor Lindie's phone.  Phones were bad luck this trip, let me tell you.

     After lunch and after exploring the mall we got into a cab and headed off to the bridge where the festival was going to be.  We were there last time with Elien, so we basically remembered something about it or something.  :-)  The traffic was intense, and the driver took us right over the bridge, which was crazy because half of the lanes were blocked up because they were setting up for the fireworks there and building these enormous structures for them, but it was also pretty awesome because we got to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff before they blocked off the bridge.  Since we really didn't know where we were going to go, but knew that we needed to try to find a hotel, we got off after the bridge and started walking.  Not sure who's idea that was, might have been mine, but we could have thought it through a little more.  There was a spongy walk way from the end of the bridge to the boardwalk on the beach, so we took that.
    Someone had painted all these random creatures and characters all along the board walk. It was actually pretty cute.  Anyway, so we got toward the beach, I called my recruiter who lived in Busan and she said there was absolutely, totally no way that we were going to find a hotel, then we asked some foreigners who said the same thing.  Not to be challenged, we set off and walked into the first motel we saw, we figured it was either walk in and try our luck or go to a PC room and see if we had any luck that way.  We walked into this little place right on the beach but down an ally a bit, walked up the stairs completely expecting to be told no, also with absolutely no planning-ahead about the fact that we were not going to be able to speak to her, managed to say something about one room, she laughed in our faces, started talking on and on and on and we finally escaped down the stairs.  When we walked out there was a woman there who, as far as we know, asked us if we had any luck, she told us to follow her back up the stairs, so curious as we are, we did.  She talked to the woman for a while, made some phone calls, randomly enough, and finally we settled on the honeymoon suite for a cool 30,000 Won a piece, which is about $25 a person.  Success. 

 Cute little room, actually, and by cute I mean kitsch city :-)  but it was big enough for all of us and it was a room that we actually found :-)  it had extra blankets, shampoo, conditioner, a fridge, hair spray, toothpaste, everything you could possibly need.  Of course, we left that stuff, but it was nice that it was there for us.  :-)

Bug spray, lotion, Q tips, hair gel, hair spray AND a hair dryer.  Nice.

We had a little window, and I thought this was a cute picture. 

Chairs, and a table, and a mini fridge and a huge TV.  What you can't see is the quite interesting mood-lighting chandelier on the ceiling. . . .

This was the view from our window.  This was the ally in front of us, there were little shops all along, and singing rooms as well.  Right outside the building, if you took a left, less than a block away is the beach.  We were so close.  And not just the beach but the actual spot where the fireworks were going to be.  Good work, team.  :-)

We were pretty exhausted because, as usual, none of us slept the night before, so we rested a little in the hotel and decided to venture out again in search of food.  No one can tell us what to do quite like our stomachs can.  :-)

Our first clue that it was going to be a crowded and crazy night.  More policemen than could fit in one picture.

Look at them all!

While we were looking around for food we saw these little guys singing and handing things to people.

I think that guy thought I was taking a picture of him. . .sorry, sir.  6th Busan International Fireworks Festival!  Yay!!

We ate dinner at a chicken chain that we have back home, we had time to kill another nothing really do get into, but still when he told us it was going to be an hour before our food came we panicked a little.  I think we thought we might starve to death.  :-)  It was CRAZY in there!  So many people!  But it had a glass front and we could keep an eye on the crowd growing outside.  The show didn't start until 8 and it was only at that time 5 and we didn't really want to sit on the ground for three hours.  By the time we got out it was pretty crowded and the closest seats to the beach were crammed with people.  This is like a gulf scenario, it's a HUGE shoreline, and already at 5:30 there were people crammed in tight all along the line.  And that was just the very, very beginning. . .

We finally found some seats, and it was already pretty crowded, but it you look all the way to those buildings in the distance, that shore line was packed too.  There were tons of people already.

The beginning of the waiting.  :-)

Still waiting.  Getting more crowded now. . .

See?  This was probably at 6:30, still an hour and a half before the show.

Lindie did her best. . .

. . .to keep boredom at bay.  For all of us.

Getting more crowded still.

And more. . .this was maybe an hour before the show. . .

See how close we are to the bridge?  We are so very good :-)

45 minutes or so until show time.  Remember, people are this thick for at least two miles, all the way to the other edge of this picture.

Aren't those buildings lovely?  Remember, people, you just can't see them in the picture.

I don't know if I've ever seen so many people.  This was on one side of us. . .

On the other side. . .

. . .and behind

Yay!!  Fireworks!!!

I'm going to post some videos just to give you an idea.  They do not do the show justice by any means, but just to give you some small inkling of what we saw.  They had a theme where they traveled around the world, starting with Europe, I think and finishing with Korea with South Africa and America (being quite lavishly showcased, I might add) in between.  It was all choreographed to music that represented that part of the world in some way.  Amazing.

The beginning. . .

Carmina Burana  :-

Winter by Vivaldi

Isn't that incredible???  And the cool thing was that they had lazer shows between the big firework shows so it made time for the smoke to clear out!  Brilliant :)

It's not the same as really seeing it, but it was a solid hour of amazing fireworks!!

After the fireworks show was over, a lot of the businesses were still locked up so that people couldn't swarm in just to use the restroom, so we headed back to the hotel for a moment and then it was off to a singing room :-)  or two. 

After a couple hours of singing our heads off we were (guess what??) hungry again.  So, Chris went off to the room and Lindie, Albert and I searched for street games and fast food.  It started to rain in the middle of our journey (on which we got lost) and we decided it was a good time for a picture.  :-)

Rough travelers, we are.

After finding food and street games, and winning a small Hello Kitty toy, it was time to head back to the room, and so we did.  We survived the night, managed to even find our way back to the bus terminal and it was time to go home.  We ended up not having to meet our friends quite so early, so we were actually able to sleep and then take off.  We were only a little worse for wear:

We made it.

And mainly in one piece.

 But then, things got very confusing and in black and white all of a sudden. . .

Lindie was at a complete loss, but she knew that something had to be done

She began devising a brilliant scheme. . .

It was fiendishly clever, I must say.

But could we really pull it off??

Lindie weighed her options carefully. . .

. . .while I let Albert in on the plan.

 There was a creature on the bus, a creature of such horror and malevolence that it had to be destroyed immediately, or at least forced through the window and out of the bus.  But for some reason no one else could see it, even though it was a daunting and inexorable threat to everything that everyone of us held dear!  With the skills of a deft mountain lion Lindie grabbed it around the beck and pulled it to the ground while Albert and I grabbed it's legs.  Lindie pushed the window open and the three of us managed to squish it outside.  Mankind would be safe, thanks to us, although they would never have any idea.

And although the creature bounced helpless on the pavement right past her window, Lindie seemed completely unaffected.  Success once again.

And that, my friends, is exactly how it all happened.  :-)