Green Blue Festival!

24.05.2013

I was divided on whether or not to actually go to this festival. It seemed really complicated to get there. First you had to go to Jeonju and then you had to find this random bar I've never been to, where one of only three shuttle buses would take you out to who knows where. Then, what if the shuttle bus is full when you get there, and you miss the last one because of that? Then what, HUH?! So, when I first found out about it, I was like PASS.

Then, I found out a bunch of people I knew in Iksan decided they would hire a taxi and go there since it was in between Iksan and Jeonju. So, I ended up buying a ticket at the last minute and going.

However, another thing I didn't like about it was that there were lots of shows, but they were only on Saturday night, so camping out didn't really make sense to me, since there was nothing to do the next day but go home. Then the first shuttle bus wouldn't leave until 1 p.m on Sunday and I didn't understand why it was leaving so late.

ALSO, I am averse to things where you are forced to be in a certain location and to wait for a bus/taxi or whatever before you can leave. If I want to leave, I want to leave, I don't want to convince other people to leave or wait for the boat to get back to the dock, or shuttle bus to take me home.

SO, what I did was look at exactly where this place was on the map. At first glance, it looked very easy to get there by bike. A couple of turns and I would be there in 20 km. I could even cruise alongside the gorgeous rivers and green green rice fields in this part of the country. Nice and flat and pure and everything. HOWEVER, in reality it was not that easy. What was supposed to take about an hour or an hour and a half, ended up taking more like three.

I was going around in circles, in an endless spiral of rice fields and run down villages, when I saw Kari in a little white car with a bumper sticker that says "Princess" on the back. I had never met her, but I was pretty sure it was her, judging by all the stuff in the car. When she stopped and asked for directions, I looked in the window and I recognized her from the Facebook group. A nice old man helped us get there, him in front in his van, Kari behind him, and me trying to keep up on my bike. Hahaha.

We were just in time for the Iksan band to go on stage, Mongtooth; the singer is Kari's husband. They were fun, I had never seen them before. I will definitely go again to another one of their shows.

The rest of the day was great, until about midnight, when the bands got crappier and crappier. I danced all day and there were only about 300 people there, so I became a little famous and strangers started hugging me and asking me to dance with them. But by then, I was too tired and just wanted to go home.

I started for home at around 1 a.m. and got there maybe at 4 a.m. or so. I tried to find the same roads that I got here at, but it was a gong show. Eventually I found a highway and followed it back to Iksan on the service roads beside it. In retrospect, it was kind of a bad idea, but at least I got to sleep in my own bed.

I found this bridge somehow