Flow Festival

It was perfect timing for me. The Flow Festival was the day before my birthday, so my celebratory birthday weekend, and admitted I like to make quite a big deal out of it, but just because I think it's a great excuse for a party. I wasn't too sure at first just because we knew it would be a mission to get to, we didn't manage to get tickets before hand and we didn't really know exactly where it was. But something clicked in me and I made the decision to go for it.



Saturday afternoon Dawn, Lara, Trevis, Wendy and I set off for the mountains of Gangwon-do. Wendy was in the driving seat and is a perfect companion for such events, some of the reasons are because she doesn't drink, is an insomniac and loves to drives! Therefore not having any problems with returning at 5.30 a.m. or driving for six hours in total to get us there and back. Bless her, she's a trooper.

As we drove north through the mountains, the air got clearer, the tall ugly buildings became less and we got more excited with party anticipation. We drove directly to the festival without any problems or getting lost, and made it there by 5pm.

The festival was situated next to a river and based between the trees. It made a great backdrop for the bands and DJs.

It was a good mix of Korean bands and foreigners. I feel like I've seen it all now I've witnessed Korean ska! There was also rock, alternative country, jazz, house, drum and bass, breaks, reggae, indie. It was great to see people feeling free and going wild. I find this kind of environment perfect for this. I danced for nearly the whole 12 hours we were there and had the added bonus of bumping into Carla again, I girl I met out in Seoul a couple of months ago, on her first weekend in the country. A crazy, dancing Kiwi, who encouraged me to use the fire poys. It was my second attempt, and I was lucky I didn't set my clothes on fire, although, apparently, nobody else could notice!!! Hmmm.
I've since made a full recovery from the weekend, and my body has stopped aching from all the dancing, it's the only exercise I'm getting, and I'm ready to do it again, but I think I might have to wait another year in this country for a festival like that, but if not, let me know.

Park Life

The last two weeks have flown by. It's been good weather (although a storm has consumed us for the day!), there's been two national holidays, so two more days off work. I've been exploring parts of Seoul, mainly Hongdae and Ewha.

Ewha has a womans university, so it's a great place for clothes shopping, with mainly pedestrian streets and the odd quirky little cafe. Hongdae is good by day or night. It's the centre of the "underground" scene in Seoul, complete with many funky shops, record stores, a massive variety of restaurants Mexican, Thai, Italian, French. This is more amazing then it sounds, because the outside influences in Korea are few and far between. There's also lines of stalls, mostly selling the same stuff, but occasionally I got a glimpse of something from Thailand or India.



In the middle of all this is a park that students and drop outs hang out in. It's the first time I've seen a park being used like this over here. Normally they are strictly used by families with small children and competitive skaters who go round and round the designated skating area. So it's quite refreshing to see alcoholics and students with punked hair playing guitar, bumming around and experimenting with the boundaries of conformity in their society. As the sun sets here, more and more people gather to drink soju (25%), hangout, then head to a bar or club. What's especially exciting about this is, they're not booking clubs. They're clubs as I recognise them. With cool music, good vibes and great times. Which is where I'll be heading off tonight to see some English DJs in club called M2. Some of these DJs were playing at the Flow festival last weekend, and I hope to be seeing some of the same faces again.