Hwacheon Ice Festival

So 8 of us foreigners and 100,000 other people in Korea, decided to go to the Ice Festival in Gangwon-do province in the north-east of S.Korea. We went with a group called 'Adventure Korea' that takes care of transportation, entrance, 1 night accommodation and food which was quite the deal. We decided to head up after work on friday since departure time from Seoul was an early 7:20 a.m. so it made for an interesting night on the town ...suppose I should say city of Seoul. There wasn't really a point in getting a hotel for only a couple of hours, so we used Korea's alternatives. Some of us went to a DVD room to watch some movies and catch some z's and a few went to a jjimjjilbang - public bath/sauna - to rest up and smell squeaky clean for the bus ride. haha. When we got to the festival the next afternoon, we all were paying for it though, cause we were sooooo tired. It was great festival though and was quite the experience.

Some highlights include:

-ice fishing along with thousands of Koreans worrying both about the capacity of holes in the ice, and people standing around on that ice. it was terrifying. haha.

-after realizing the amount of people fishing, seeing a big water truck filled with fish with a tube attached literally pumping fish into the water...only in korea

-there were beautiful ice/snow sculptures, ice skating, sol-mae 'board with blades on the bottom', ice football for the boys, ice fishing with your hands (comparable to the polar dip...with fishing involved as well - have a few crazy friends that tried it), ice go-carting/4-wheeling, and ice bob sledding - very fun!

After a fun filled ICE day, we were back on the bus, stuck in traffic for a good 2 hours before even MOVING from the parking lot. Finally we got to where we needed to be, and got all set up in our accomodations for the night. They were lovely actually and it was up kinda in the midst of a snowy mountain in these huge ondol style cabins where you sleep on the floor in a big room all together as a big happy family. I love sleepovers, so I was excited as you can imagine. We had a nice dinner and then a HUGE bonfire. Even had some roasted marshmellows and made snow angles. Winter bonfires are amazing :)!

The next morning, people who had the right footwear for a winter walk, went hiking for a few hours then we all played on the icy pond just outside of our cabins. We all tried this famous 'Solmae' they speak of and it was lots of fun! It was a great weekend.