Hampyeong Butterfly Festival 함평 나비대축제

!steemitworldmap 35.055300 lat 126.521496 long Hampyeong Butterfly Festival d3scr

Getting There

Hampyeong itself is a 근 "goon" which means a county, which means smaller than a small town. Not, like when someone says, 'I come from a small town of a million people,' this county's (whole county not just the town) population is 45,232 according to Wikipedia. That is not very much bigger than my county back home, so it is small and getting there can be a pain. We had to take two buses from Naju that are the same number, both 500 (imagine if we were tourist how confusing would that be) but we got there. I jumped the gun on getting off the bus because I was writing about my temple stay and thought we needed to get off right now. The bus driver asked if I was sure and I assured him I was, little did we know, if we stayed on the bus it would have taken us closer. Whatever, it wasn't a big mistake.

So Hampyeong is known for the butterfly festival mostly, it is their biggest festival of the year. A lot of the signs around the area have this butterfly theme to them, as you can see below.

A sign for a park by the beach.

Lamppost, I have learned is the tell of what the place is known for, here they have butterflies. Oh, the bulb is in a strawberry shape, that must be what they are known for 😄

This railing

These bricks 😂

This lamppost is inside the park, so counts less but still.

Jeollanamdo is also known for its beef, not sure if Hampyeong has a particular kind of variety or what but there is this colossal bull (with a staircase to it I will get to at the end). Guess where it leads! lol

The Festival!!

We have made it inside!

I was actually pretty excited to come to this festival; I did not expect to see a rainbow gateway to it. I guess things here are all rainbows, butterflies, and buttercups. lol Just need a freaking unicorn to top things off 😂

These sprinklers were pretty cool, setting off at various times. I am sure they would be refreshing if I got hot enough.

Inside the first Greenhouse

I found some Foxtails while I was here. My friend was complaining about the number of invasive species, and I was messing with her the whole time about it. I am a great friend lol

By the Stream

So, we rested by a stream for a second before trying to find the greenhouse that actually has butterflies in it. We had been at the festival for about one and half hours at this point and had not seen any actual butterflies, yet. To cross the stream down below there are stones raised up. When we were down there a kid (like eight years old) slipped and got his foot wet. He didn't lose a shoe or anything, just got his foot wet. Man, that kid was so pissed about it. He didn't get pushed or anything he just slipped so he didn't have a reason to get mad at others.

Then, before we left, another kid was trying to throw a blade of grass against the wind. I can understand not knowing the first time, but he tried two more times. 😐 I know I sound like an ass, but some common sense should kick in by the second time. lol

Hanging Vegetables

I did not expect to see this kind of display leading to the butterfly greenhouse, there was also a food greenhouse, so I am putting these together here.

This is cucumber, mildly interesting lol

Cool how they support the heavier ones with the string like this.

Butterfly Greenhouse

These flowers looked so pretty, so I thought they were fake. I had to touch them to make sure they were in fact genuine.

This is the only time I think I will see thistle in a kind of botanical garden or garden in general. If you know what this is, you probably go hiking and know stepping on one barefoot is one of the worst feelings in the world.

Okay, so this plant looks like Nightshade from the Elder Scroll series, along with the foxtail and the paintbrushes ahead, I started to feel as though I should stuff my pockets full of them, mash them together, and make some poisons. lol

Leaving the Festival

We started to look for food at the festival but didn't want something greasy, so we settled on sandwiches, partly because it wasn't greasy and slightly because the women who saw me were excited to use their English. Then, we saw they had a multicultural section with food from, Germany, Argentina, Turkey, and America. Not authentic but they had lamb on a stick, and I couldn't resist. My friend who had been resisting the urge of soft serve the whole festival broke down when she saw the Turkish ice cream. I also had to get the ice cream because that lamb was surprisingly spicy!

They were also some Native Americans performing some dances on stage; I was blown away by that. If we had the time, I would have liked to ask them what part of America they come from, not very often do you get to see that kind of performance in Korea!

So, back to that bull at the front. Can you guess where the stairs led? If you guessed right up to its oysters, you are correct! lol, I think it is good luck or something to touch them, I have seen this kind of a gimmick at other places in America.

Here I am lifting this bull up by his jewels lol

Getting Home

Long story short, we missed the bus to get home by six minutes and next buses weren't for another hour. So, we got a taxi to the KTX station (bullet train) and got eight dollar tickets to Naju. Better than splitting a fifty dollar taxi fare to get to Naju. After that was the Avengers!!!

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Ride on!