We visited Hwacheon city in Gangwon province! Hwacheon city is mostly known among visitors thanks to the Ice Festival which is being held there every year ever since 2003! These days there is some controversy around it and some people say that it can be interpreted as animal cruelty, so I was hesitant to go at first, but we still decided to give it a shot.

We visited on January 19th this year and the first thing I have noticed – Hwacheon is much colder than Seoul. It really is. So please, dress warmly. The festival location is within a 10-minute walk from the bus terminal, so if you come by bus you can just simply walk there. There were much more people than we have expected. I realized that fishing in Korea is going to be much different from fishing at home.’

There are two separate fishing areas for Koreans and for foreigners. Korean area is much more crowded, so if you have a chance go to the foreigner one. I don’t like such separation, but getting a bigger chance of catching a fish is always good.

In the festival, Gyu caught 4 fish and I did not catch any! Yet I would say that it is more of a game, rather than actually fishing. There is a strategy. Gyu researched it first and I just came unprepared, so make sure to learn it before you go!

The next location was a pool full of ice-cold water, where you need to try to catch the fish with your bare hands. Gyu wanted to give it a chance, and let me tell you – this is freezing! They allow you to stay in a portable sauna after that to heat up though.

There are even more fun activities in the area, even the bobsleigh for winter Olympics fans, but we decided to skip it. Got some original Ethiopian coffee instead and ended our day this day. We hope you enjoy this vlog as much, as we enjoyed that day^^