Bucheon Revisited

At the weekend, I revisited Bucheon where I spent my first year in Korea and caught up with Claire and Jeong Sook. I took the KTX up to Seoul (Daejeon to Seoul Station in less than an hour). Unfortunately, I had to wait 2 hours for a train with an available seat, so next time I think I'll take the bus direct to Bucheon!I met Claire, Jeong Sook and little Haley in a new coffee shop near Hyundai, sadly my favourite chocolate cafe has closed and been replaced with a Pascuccis. Haley was a little shy at first, but soon started giggling and showing off!

Jeong Sook and Haley

Later, we went for jimddak at my favourite restaurant near GS Square (now a Lotte department store, things change so quickly in Korea!).

Claire enjoys the jimddak

In the evening, we met up with some of Claire's friends and took the bus into Hongdae to the Seoul Shindig, a 60s night being DJ'd by Claire's boyfriend Mikey. It was a fun night and I did lots of dancing. A whole night of 60s music is not really my cup of tea, but most people seemed to be really into it!

Seoul Fringe Festival

The Seoul Fringe Festival is currently taking part in Hongdae. Its organised along the lines of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in that any artist can take part in the event. The official English website can be found here.

Last weekend, Robyn and I had a wander around Hongdae to watch some street performances, but failed to find much of note, due to a lack of signposting along with the Korean disdain for street names and an English map which marked venues, but indicated no nearby landmarks, so they were nigh on impossible to find (or it could be that we are both useless at reading maps)! We couldn't find Honggik Park (one of the main venues for outdoor performances) at all...

We went back to Hongdae on Sunday to see a Fringe event showcasing five Korean rock bands - Selly, Rubi Star, Renata Suicide, Dusty Blue and Pennylane. You've got to love the descriptions in the festival programme -

Selly - their music "stirs peoples emotions and touches their hearts with implicative emotions".

Rubi Star - "expected to be the next star band for its infinite potential".

Renata Suicide - "addictive heterogenous rock" which is "gaining popularity among manias"?

Dusty Blue's write up is the most baffling - "green paper covered with dust is still green, any dust cannot change its color". Huh??

Pennylane - "unique music combining 80's style pop and emotional modern rock". Ok, that one is quite normal!

All the bands were really good and gave me a bit of faith in a music scene dominated by poppy girl groups and boy bands. Its just a shame that the gig wasn't better attended - at no point was there more than 50 people watching. Maybe it was the lack of a bar...I've never been to a gig where there was no bar (not even soft drinks). It was probably a good thing as the loos were the squatting variety!

Selly

Rubi Star

Renata Suicide

Dusty Blue

Pennylane

The Fringe Festival ends this Saturday (29th August).