At the start of October, three holidays -- Chuseok, National Foundation Day, and Hangeul Day -- lined up, creating a seven-day long weekend. The new president decided to declare Oct. 2 a holiday as well, dragging in an extra weekend and giving us 10 days off. Due to my work schedule, my holiday actually started one day early and ended two days early.
Chuseok is a big family holiday for Koreans, sort of like Christmas but the only gift-giving is to your ancestors. It is three days long because days 1 and 3 are commuting days so you can sit in traffic going to your hometown. For foreigners, there traditionally has been nothing to do, as the cities clear out and most businesses close. As is done every year, we had a UE meetup that ran for five, or arguably six, days.
The first weekend was spent at a music festival watching
Afro-French funk,
Hungarian folk-punk,
Korean doo-wop, and
Canadian hip-hop. Feel free to find something suitable to listen to.
1. I slipped away Saturday night for the Seoul Fireworks Festival, which is always a great chance for rooftoppers to try their luck.
2. By blowing up pictures later I was able to figure out the people on this roof were friends.
3. For the first official day of the meetup, Monday, I invited along Arlo Maverick and his band to an abandoned neighbourhood.
4. They're all from my hometown and it was the first time I'd seen an Edmontonian band in Korea.
5. I had the idea I needed to pose someone here, and it worked out well as a band photo.
6. Then we had an early supper.
7. And hit another roof. In this picture, you can see Namdaemun, the original south gate of the city.
8. And on the other side you can see Seoul Station and the recently remodeled Seoullo 7017, a former overpass.
9. A couple group photos.
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11. Day 2 was roofs in Dongdaemun, a fashion market area with lots of roofs.
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13. Coming down from the flying saucer.
14. Next we tried a completely new roof.
15. Slightly different view from Dongdaemun.
16. There was a weedy lawn up here.
17.
18. Going for that next level lookdown shot.
19. Here you can see Dongdaemun Market, the lit up buildings around what looks like a dead whale.
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21. Then the helipad lights came on and kind of made light difficult for us.
22. The city wall lights up.
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24. Time to go.