Hampyeong Butterfly Festival 함평 나비대축제

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.

The Festival!!

We have made it inside!

Inside the first Greenhouse

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.

Butterfly Greenhouse

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.

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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