I was so excited about this Butterfly Festival that I woke up at 4am. Being a champion sleeper, I was convinced that I'd be out again in five minutes, so I lay in bed for a while. Two hours, to be exact. I just knew this butterfly thing was gonna be awesome. It's supposed to be one of Korea's finest festivals.
When I got up, I still wasn't sure if New Guy was still planning on hitting up the Hampyeong Butterfly Festival with me, but I waited as long as I could before calling him up to bug him to come with- 9am. California said he would meet us there after his haircut, but I really didn't think he was serious about that. Meeting up, that is. He was probably pretty serious about the haircut thing, but I know he's been looking for some alone time recently.
On my way out to catch the bus to USquare, I heard the recorded voice of one of those scooter stores. Not a store that sells scooters; it's a little shop attached to the back of the scooter. I usually ignore the booming voice over the microphone as it slowly drives past, but this time I heard something that actually made me stop and take the headphones out. "Hamsta! Hamsta!"
Hamsta? Wait a minute. I know that word... I looked over to see the cart filled with pets. There were parakeets, hamsters and even a dove. It amazes me that you can buy a hamster off the back of a scooter. What a great day.
I got to the bus station with plenty of time to catch a bus to Hampyeong, I think. The woman handed me our tickets and I was surprised to see that the whole thing was in Korean and there was only one number on it. I assumed 36 was the gate so I walked toward it and realized that all of the signs at Gate 36 are in Korean. The ticket didn't specify a time or seat number so we deduced it must be general admission. The people lining up at the door seemed to confirm this. Since everything was in Korean, I expected a day full of little surprises, but the most surprising part of the day was when I looked toward the light up board and understood this word:함평
And actually understood what it said! Hampyeong. So when that one lit up, I knew our bus had arrived. It's a good thing California wasn't there. He can read faster than I can and I might've never had that opportunity to prove myself. And it was general seating- which meant that New Guy sat next to me and talked the whole time. Bus time is when I work through that huge stack of postcards that I have addressed, but not messaged. After about 25 minutes, I realized I'd have to just put them away and converse. We talked about a lot of stuff, (zombies, zombie survival plans, Korean zombies, and work) but I was glad to see the butterfly mountain come into view.
We bought our return tickets just in case since the last bus was set to leave in 7 hours. I didn't know what kind of mad rush to expect when all of these people had to finish with the festival and head on back, but we wanted to be safe on this one. The bus station wasn't exactly swanky, so it would've sucked having to sit there for the night.
We walked outside and discovered that this town was all about the butterflies. There were butterfly pictures, sculptures, decorations, and paintings everywhere. They were on the buildings, the lamp posts, the bridges, the streets and on the manhole covers.
We walked towards all of the tents to check out the walk on the way to the festival. How did we find it? We just aimed for the giant butterfly mountain with the ferris wheel in the front.
All of the tents were filled with hats, food, butterfly paraphernalia, and cacti. I didn't have long to wonder about the cacti, though, cause as we rounded the corner we saw a tranny singing on stage to entertain the lunch crowd. He was pretty awesome. I wish we had been hungry just then, since he was entertaining, but we had a festival to conquer.
We made it over the first bridge and through the parking lot. The bridge was lined with flowers and butterfly stuff.
Then we came to the second bridge. This bridge put the other one to shame. Oh man. It was pretty sick.
This second bridge was lined with all manner of giant insects and ended in a beautiful ticket window. There weren't any lines and it was only $7.
For 7$ you can browse the grounds, see the animals, catch a duck, dodge a bee, watch the kids romp around in the water, take pictures, eye the snakes and fishes, listen to unedited versions of black eyed peas and other not so kid friendly artists, follow the butterflies, walk through the cactuses, cross the streams, watch the kids chase a bunny, see the hula hoop competition, fill out a survey, get a free book mark, sit and enjoy yourself, wear butterfly springs on your head, smell the flowers and save a baby chick.
New Guy caught a duck, too, but he's a little sore about it. He didn't realize it was a race until I had won. He took a ridiculously long time trying to grab that duck.
But that little kid next to me was a champ. He would just plunge his hands in and terrorize one chick or duckling after another. If only we all had his skill.
Well worth it, I'd say. Even though New Guy and I were confused for a couple twice in 10 minutes. Curse these matching tennis shoes. They call them Couple Shoes here. But at the end a woman came up to me to and asked if we could complete a survey. She offered me and my "boyfriend" a free gift at the end. "Oh, no, we're not... Is that a bookmark? Awesome! Can my boyfriend have one, too?"
So after 5 hours of chilling at the festival, we thought it might be fun to go explore the town. It took about 15 minutes. It's a small town. With a ton of octopus. So we headed back to the bus station and had the most excellent time ever. We arrived just as our bus did. Again, I saw the sign in the window and understood.
광주 means home. Gwangju, to be more exact.
New Guy didn't talk as much, but he did sit right next to me even though there were a ton of open seats.
I made it home at a decent hour and still had a full day. I love the Butterfly Festival. I'm doing it next year, too.
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