Mime Festival!

Michael and I are really happy to live in Chuncheon. The city is beautiful for at least a few months of the year, and it has a lot of scenic/outdoorsy things to do. This weekend we went to the Chuncheon International Mime Festival. The weather was on its best behavior and the views of the misty mountaintops were so unbelievably gorgeous that pictures cannot do it justice.

Being the ignorant foreigner that I am (knowing next-to-no Korean and directionally challenged), I wasn't sure how to get to the festival. I actually spent quite a bit of time researching the festival, trying to figure out how to get there. My research was useless though. I found that it is usually held on Goseumdochi Island, also known as Wido and we just told our taxi driver to take us there. He was a friendly guy and he asked us right away if we were going to the "Pantomime Festival." We told him yes and he took us out to Wido. We got there and there was nothing to be seen. He stopped the cab and forced a young man to give him directions. Turns out the festival was moved to Gonjicheon. We drove back into town and paid the 20,000 won to the driver, who was very apologetic.

There was a bit of a hike to the festival grounds. It was very scenic and flowery. Admission to the festival was 10,000 won each and that included everything but food. We ate lunch before coming, so we didn't eat anything there. It was fun, to say the least. I don't think Michael enjoyed it as much as I did, but the atmosphere was very creative and whimsical.

There were installations everywhere, encouraging passers-by to add their creative input to teacups, chairs, statues, their faces, whatever... This little girl was adding her flair to the pink teacup that later would be full of decoration.

One of our favorite performances were the papier-mache dinosaurs. They roared and let kids pull on their tails and were overall amazing.

The views from Gonjicheon were amazing.

There were a few walking statues. People would poke them and try to get them moving and finally one would "snap" and the kids would giggle and run away. They were really popular so I only got a couple of pictures  from a distance.

Michael thought these guys were kinda creepy but I though they were cool.

After walking around for a while, we decided to get decked out in festival attire. We made hats out of overturned popcorn tubs and I made a set of butterfly wings for my back. A photographer insisted on taking a       picture of us and he took one with my camera as well.

This little boy was posing for his parents and I thought he looked pretty cute.

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2!