Daejeon Music Festival

This weekend I was getting pretty antsy to leave Seoul and do something new and fun for the weekend. Friday afternoon Barry and I were researching things to do, we came across a couple of ideas but when we read a piece about "The 1st Daejeon music festival" (specifically catered toward expats), we knew that would be the plan for the weekend.

This is the information we read via an expat magazine: "The 1st Daejeon Rock Festival is coming up on Ocotber 16th, marking the first event of its kind for central Korea. Its unofficial moniker ‘Rocktoberfest’ took hold as a result of a unique combination of high-octane live music and the inclusion of more than 300 vendors from around the world selling international foods, wines and, perhaps most importantly… beer!"

"The show was conceived as part of the Korean government’s plan to give money to the Chungcheong region as a way of promoting central Korea. The aim of the organizers and the funding was to help attract foreigners and young Koreans to the area, if only for a single night. And if things go as well as they have in the initial promotional stages, Daejeon’s upcoming event could be October’s answer to nearby Boryeong’s ‘Mud Festival’ as rumors of ex-pats planning buses from all over the country are already taking root."

So, on Saturday afternoon Barry and I hopped on the bus to Daejeon, the bus ticket was 7,000 won and took around 1 hour and 45 minutes.



It took a little bit of time to actually find the venue, but once we did, it was completely worth it. We walked around a lot, deciding on what food type of food to eat. The choices included lots of Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Turkish, Indian and Mexican. We decided on Indian which we hadn't had since leaving the states, it was delicious! We sat down and started chatting with the many foreigners present at the concert.

We danced, we laughed, we drank and at 12:00am (the music was supposed to go on till 5am) there was an announcement that the police were called and had too many noise complaints that they had to shut down. We were surprised since It was a pretty big festival and many people were there. Guess we're not in America anymore...

Here are a couple pictures from the concert:







So, after the unexpected twist of events, Barry and I ran (literally) to the exit to get a taxi. We got one no problem and went back to the bus station. It was too late to get a bus, so we decided to take camp in a "love motel." Love motels are all over Korea, they are just basically motels, but I am pretty sure they are called love motels for unmarried couples that want time "away." Because in Korea if you're not married, you live with your parents.

Anyway, we found one straight off the bat and for 30,000 won, it was well worth the price. The best part of it was not only was there a computer in the room, but the computer hooked up to the huge flat screen TV. We stayed up most of the night watching lots of TV and fully appreciating watching English TV on something other than our laptops. Of course I snapped a picture of the room:



My mom comes on Friday for two weeks, I am so excited I can' wait! Our trip includes visiting my school for Show and Tell and the Halloween party, many visits to the Jinjibang (spa), frequenting vegetarian Buddhists restaurants in Seoul, temples and parks and a weekend in Busan!!!