Sunday: Mudfest

5am wake up call (and this after going out drinking in our jet-lagged state). This was because we had a 6:30 train to Boryeong for the mud festival! It was a 2.5 hour trip from Seoul, and we wanted to go early before it got super busy as it was the last day of the festival.

We're on our way...and tired.

The city was pretty nice, what we saw of it anyway. We stuck mostly to the beach. There was mud everywhere. Everywhere! Waterslides, relay races, and wrestling, all in the mud. There was coloured mud for body painting and mud cages where you stood there and they splashed mud at you. The cage was not particularly enjoyable according to Branko and my fiancee, particularly when they whip mud in your face. We went through the rides and stuff before the crowds got huge and then went down and hung out on the beach.

We got a little muddy

Slides and Games

There are no restrictions in Korea about public alcohol consumption, so we picked up some beer and soju from the convenience store and had it on the beach. This resulted in a long run game of "Have I never ever", which got more and more revealing for all as the drink went down.

We met up with a friend for a little bit, and also spoke to a group of five foreigner English teachers, one from Toronto (Scarborough to boot) and the others from South Africa, when they asked us to snap a photo of them. They each had a word painted on themselves with mud and were writing a "Wish You Were Here" message for a friend.

We swam a bit, hung out a lot. Branko had made drunken candid comment about a friend of ours which has gone down with us as an epic quote, but I really shouldn't put it down here. Adam lost his iron ring in one of the mud events, and the ocean claimed his ziplock bag of money and his drivers licence at some point, so that was not so much fun for him. He also, thinking he was in deeper water than he was, struck out his arm and essentially stubbed his forearm on the ocean floor. This twisted elbow has plagued him for days not.

The place really started clearing out by 6:30, and we went back up to the street for a supper of tasty pizza. The train back had all seats full, so we bought standing tickets and sat on the floor of the snack car, where we each took a nap, and on getting back to Seoul, our fun muddy Sunday was concluded.

Coloured mud and the muddy street aftermath