These were the fourth and fifth days of my 5-day trip to the area of Jirisan. I wandered around the river and a castle of Jinju in the midst of the lantern festival, and had a meal of spit-roasted pork.
After I parked at Mung Cle Guesthouse (뭉클 진주게스트하우스), I walked to the river. It was late afternoon and the sun was low in the sky. There were lots of lanterns of many shapes, sizes and themes floating on the river. There were also two footbridges floating on the water, I guess temporary additions for the festival. In order to use the bridges, you had to pay a fee. I (eventually) managed to get a reusable ticket via Kakao Talk which meant I got a festival wristband! However, I ended up only crossing twice!
The riverside paths were lined with stalls; food, fair ground games, market stalls, promotional, you name it. I was surprised at the scale frankly, as far as the eye could see, basically. On the north side of the river, I visited Table 9 for an ice coffee; the owner recommended it as I don’t usually drink iced coffee. It was good though. The cafe was also a bar. We chatted a little about his vintage looking Royal Enfield motorcycle parked outside.
It was dark when I left and the lanterns were now all lit. The whole atmosphere of the place had shifted and was looking very cool. I went into the castle and marvelled at all the lantern designs; animals, trees, little scenarios, and a full on Japanese attack of a lantern castle, valiantly defended by Korean soldiers! From the Jinjuseong Fortress walls, you could see far along the river and the lanterns really did seem to go as far as I could see. I wandered back to the riverside and into the crowds; this was a Thursday night, the last few nights of a two-week long festival and it was quite busy. I imagine the weekend would be rammed so I think this was probably a good time to be here. Back on the south side of the river, I headed to the area I’d spotted hog spit roasts and ordered myself a 30,000 won plate (the smallest one!) of roast pork and a very large bowl of dongdongju. I walked some more along the riverside past all the stalls and entertainment; there was a real party atmosphere (including traditional Korean music/techno hybrid performance, dangerous looking kid’s rides, and an ambulance taking someone away; wild!
I got back to my accommodation and called Romana before going to bed.
The next day, I drove to the bus station and checked in my SOCAR. Then visited an old railway station museum nearby. After that, a sandwich at Subway before my long ride back to Seoul. Jinju turned out to be fun, and I’d like to visit the lantern festival again with Romana. Also, like an idiot, I’d forgotten that a friend of mine lives in the city; after I’d posted some pics on Instagram, his wife messaged me saying I should call him up. I was on my way back to Seoul at that point, though…d’oh!
Places visited on this trip: