Yes, it was a corndog wrapped in tater tots

"Go up there and lean over the edge so I can take a picture"

We were going to the mask festival! In order to get there with plenty of tourist time, Sam and I decided to catch the 7am bus. This was early, but we thought it was do-able! Everyone else said “oh that’s so early, I’ll meet you there later” but we were set on that time!

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I met Sam at the bus terminal; we got on the bus and waited. All of a sudden the twins were on the bus – they had decided to wake up early too and get on the 7am bus. Melinde showed up right on time, and we all headed to Andong. Because we had all woken SO early, naps were in order. When we arrived to Andong, we got off the bus and went to the information booth. There had been balloons in the distance and we figured that’s where the festival was – we just needed to get over there. We were looking at a map, deciding the best course of action, when all of a sudden a man arrived in our midst. “Oh, here!” he says, pointing to the Folk Village on the map. “Is that where the Mask Festival is?” I ask, pointing to a picture of the mask festival. “Here, here” the man says, which I take as an affirmative. What he is pointing to is the time schedule for the bus, and what this time schedule says is that the bus doesn’t arrive until 10:40 – an hour and a half wait. “Take taxi?” the man says. “Oh good idea Mr. Stranger, we will!” we all chorus in unison. We head over to the waiting taxi line, and the taxi driver just happens to be the man who was so helpful. What a coincidence! All five of us pile in, and away we go. Thinking we are only going to the balloons in the distance, we are surprised by the direction the taxi driver is taking us. Hmm…..I guess we were wrong, that wasn’t the festival. We keep driving. All of a sudden we are out of the city and on a highway! The driver is watching tv. We are in another city. Now we’re out again, on curvy roads. The driver is on his cell phone now, then a quick 120kph blind curve, while on the cell phone, taking us to the middle of nowhere. This whole time, the meter is racking up the bill second by second, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000….. Finally we arrive somewhere. The driver drops us off, pointing to a booth and says “tickets”. Finally we have arrived at the festival! We pay the 26,000 cab fare – the most expensive cab fare I’ve yet to see in Korea - and head over to the ticket booth. We stand around, trying to figure out what is going on, until an English speaking guy from South Africa walks up. We ask him a few questions, and find out we are in the Hahoe Folk Village. The mask festival though, is in town, across from the bus terminal (where we had seen the balloons!) We were livid! That taxi driver and scammed us hardcore! But we made the best of the situation, walking around the village, checking out the sights and taking lots of pictures.

Sam was really fascinated by the dewy spider webs. 

Yeah, we're hanging out in a tree

Walking along the street 

We weren't really sure if we could go in here because we thought it was someone actual house, but Sam sneaked a shot of it. 

Sam and I in with the beautiful scenery

At one point we saw some wires strung across the river leading to a cliff on the far side. Though they didn’t look like the safest thing ever, we exclaimed “Oh a zipline! Let’s watch a zipper.” No zippers came. Finally, a clever member of our group looked through the program and realized these wires were for a firework show they have every once in a while. We were glad we didn’t wait forever for the zippers. By then we were finished walking around, so we headed to the bus stop to wait for the bus back into town (we were NOT going to take a taxi). We got on and had a very long ride back to Andong. When we got back, no taxi driver could dissuade us, we were headed to the festival!

Who else agrees this looks like a zip line?

Bye bye folk village!

Walking along we saw a group of foreigners ahead of us, and looking closely, we realized it was some of our friends who were supposed to meet! “We’re going to lunch, want to join us?” “Of course! We’re starving!” We followed the flock of people into a restaurant and had an enjoyable lunch of potato noodles and chicken. What made the lunch so enjoyable was being able to converse with all our friends who we hadn’t seen in a while. After lunch, we walked back to the festival, and this time we actually made it there!

The festival was awesome. Mostly, it was just a festival centered on masks. There were booths for mask souvenirs, booths for mask related crafts, booths that sold festival food, and booths that were advertisements for something or another. There were mask statues everywhere, a big stage in the center, mask shows on the sidelines, even a culinary food exhibit! The place was intense!

Our new super cool friend

Sandy jumped up on stage!

The group of performers

This is the man that makes pastries

Ninja Turtles!

The performer looking for a victim

The victim is enjoying herself. So are the bystanders.

The best statues are the ones eating fried chicken. Others include Shrek with a mask on.

Andong Festival Mask Thing

We are such an awesome group that people like to video us all the time

Making ink rubbings!

Giant mask 

Festival food includes corn dogs and corn dogs covered in tater-tots! Also, little shells (see whats in the pot?)

We LOVE Korean Batman!

Fence full of masks!

Make a Wish Fence

Sandy's amazing mask

Sam and I made masks too!

Just a big stone statue in the distance...that's all

I don't even know what to say about this thing

Sam things it looks like the Quidditch world cup. Let me repeat....SAM THINKS

The massive stage

After exploring fully what the festival had to offer, we headed back to our favorite place, the Hahoe Village, to see the firework show. I didn’t know what to expect. That’s a lie – I knew exactly what to expect - Fourth of July-esque fireworks. I was wrong. We walk up to the fireworks viewing area, and I see the zipline from earlier covered in fire! It was actually in use! I was so excited to be able to see this, mainly because I never expected to actually be able to see it! While this was going on, they would throw burning bundles off the far cliff – I don’t know why. Maybe it was another traditional firework display. After all this was done, I thought “Ok, things are over.” Sam, Colleen, and I started trying to look for Sandy and Geoff when all of a sudden more fireworks! These were the type I recognized. Though they were quite beautiful, there was no grand finale. I wasn’t sure when to stop watching,.

Throwing fire off the ciff

Ziplines covered in fire

 

The rest of the night was pretty simple – Sandy, Colleen, Sam, and I found a motel and crashed for the night. The next morning, though we all woke up early, we just sat around the room talking and gossiping - eating cookies and fruit, drinking beverages out of the minifridge. It was a nice, relaxing morning. I loved it.

Our Room

We headed to the festival, where we had another breakfast and then the Yeongcheoners left. Sam and I continued to explore the Festival in depth, before leaving on the next bus back to Pohang.